Bourdain Says Chefs Love Gabrielle Hamilton's Memoir

Gabrielle Hamilton, the head chef of Prune in the East Village, says her favorite dish at her restaurant is something she eats on a daily basis.

“I probably eat a dozen radishes with butter and kosher salt every day of my life,” Hamilton said. “I probably have a can of boneless, skinless sardines every day too.”

Hamilton released her new memoir, "Blood, Bones & Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef,” and spoke about it with Anthony Bourdain Tuesday night at the Barnes & Noble in Union Square.

Bourdain, who hosts “Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations” on the Travel Channel, said the book is popular not only with Hamilton’s fans, but among their fellow chefs as well.

“They’ve all read it, and I’m talking about chefs that read one or two books every five years,” Bourdain told Hamilton. “They all read the book and they all love it.”

Hamilton sold the rights to this book five years ago and said that, even though it was just released on Tuesday, she only started working on it about a year ago.

“It took a long time,” Hamilton said. “It’s like asking how long it took you to finish college if you went to night school part-time. I have a full time job as the chef of a restaurant and the owner. At the time I sold the book I had a baby and another one coming out. Everything I wanted in the whole world happened all at once, so it took a little while.”

The memoir has prompted her family and friends to ask when it will be coming to the big screen, but Hamilton has another goal she wants to achieve first.

“I just want to move to a bigger apartment,” Hamilton said. “I live in a one-bedroom East Village apartment with my two sons and every time I take a shower, I’m stepping on Legos. … If this book is successful, that would be great. That’s success for me.”

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