The Making of a Chef: Mastering Heat at the Culinary Institute of America

The novel is a biographical account of Ruhlman, the author and narrator and his quest to learn how to become a chef through the Culinary Institute of America school of training. One of the top cooking schools in the country, the Culinary Institute of America, otherwise known as the CIA, has produced some of the world's greatest chefs and Ruhlman's account details the intense process that is required of anyone who wants to become a graduate of their school.