Executive chef, opening sous chef, closing sous chef, pastry chef, poissonnier, rotisseur, fish entremetier, meat entremetier. Like a great Russian novel, Michael Gibney’s new book, SOUS CHEF, opens with a diagram of its long list of main characters and how they’re all related. And after a decade of working in kitchens including 10 Downing, Tavern on the Green, Hudson Hotel, and Governor in DUMBO, the food world has definitely become a surrogate family for Gibney. In his new, and first, book, the sous-chef-turned-writer acts as a guide, leading us with his carefully skewered words through 24 hours in the high-heat landscape of the food service industry. Sous Chef is a second person account of what it’s really like behind the scenes in some of New York’s best restaurants. Between cigarette breaks and gulps of Pedialyte (the chef's hangover cure), Gibney juggles the arrival of unexpected food critics, three-hundred person a night covers, and a barrage of insults at the smallest mistakes, from classics like "idiot" to the more poetic "shoemaker" should you overcook your meat. Oh, and if you can't show up to work, the chef might have hired someone to replace you that very night.
For the past few years, Gibney has turned his attention from cooking to writing, graduating with an MFA in nonfiction and the pages of what would eventually become Sous Chef. The book’s delicious descriptions verge on poetic, and will definitely make your mouth water. Here’s an example: “The gambas come off when their spotted heads go coral red and a caramel-colored sear veils the opalescent white of the flesh.” Sous Chef hit shelves on March 25 and the book launch party, where Gibney was in conversation with journalist Charles Shafaieh, was yesterday at powerHouse Arena. I sat down with Mike, in the midst of a whirlwind week of book publicity, at the Bowery Hotel and chatted with him about cooking, writing, and writing about cooking.
Austen Rosenfeld: Why did you choose to write this book in the second person?
So what does a sous chef actually do?
The really short answer is that you're number two. It literally translates [as] “under chef.” What amount of responsibility you have in that position will vary depending on the structure of the place. It will range anywhere from literally running the entire kitchen, order[ing] the food, coming up with dishes for the menu, to just being the enforcer for whatever it is the chef envisions for the restaurant.
