Chef's Story: 27 Chefs Talk About What Got Them Into the Kitchen

By Dorothy Hamilton and Patrick Kuh. Harper Perennial; $16.95

This book is the companion to the PBS series of the same name, in which, a la Bravo's “Inside the Actor's Studio,” famous chefs sit for a lengthy interview in which they share insights about their career. The overall lesson: There are many routes to the top of the cooking profession. Suzanne Goin dined in the great restaurants of Europe as a teen, courtesy of her well-off parents; Tom Colicchio worked at Burger King; Patrick O'Connell never went to cooking school or worked at a famous restaurant. All three are stars now, big ones, and as this book demonstrates over and over again, anyone else could be, too. For the talented and hard-working this industry is wide open — something you can't say about many others.