Norman Van Aken. (2013). No Experience Necessary: The Culinary Odyssey of Chef Norman Van Aken. Taylor Trade Publishing.

Norman Van Aken. 2013. No Experience Necessary: The Culinary Odyssey of Chef Norman Van Aken. Taylor Trade Publishing.

Norman Van Aken, No Experience Necessary: The Culinary Odyssey of Chef Norman Van Aken. Taylor Trade Publishing, 2013.

Norman Van Aken. No Experience Necessary: The Culinary Odyssey of Chef Norman Van Aken. Taylor Trade Publishing, 2013.

OverDrive Product Record

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1. • value: fusion
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   • bioText: Norman Van Aken is known as the founding father of New World Cuisine, a celebration of Latin, Caribbean, Asian, African, and American flavors. He is also known internationally for introducing the concept of "Fusion" to the culinary world. Van Aken is the only Floridian inducted into the prestigious James Beard "Who's Who in American Food and Beverage"; his restaurant, Norman's, was nominated as a finalist for the James Beard Foundation's "Best Restaurant in America." He has also been a James Beard Foundation semi-finalist for "Best Chef in America." Van Aken has published five cookbooks: Feast of Sunlight, The Exotic Fruit Book, Norman's New WorldCuisine, New World Kitchen, and My Key West Kitchen (with Justin Van Aken). He lives in Miami, Florida.
   • name: Norman Van Aken

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No Experience Necessary

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No Experience Necessary is Chef Norman Van Aken's joyride of a memoir. In it he spans twenty-plus years and nearly as many jobs—including the fateful job advertisement in the local paper for a short-order cook with "no experience necessary."
Long considered a culinary renegade and a pioneering chef, Van Aken is an American original who chopped and charred, sweated and seared his way to cooking stardom with no formal training, but with extra helpings of energy, creativity, and faith.
After landing on the deceptively breezy shores of Key West, Van Aken faced hurricanes, economic downturns, and mercurial moneymen during the decades when a restaurant could open and close faster than you can type haute cuisine. From a graveyard shift grunt at an all-night barbeque joint to a James Beard–award finalist for best restaurant in America, Van Aken put his trusting heart, poetic soul, natural talent, and ever-expanding experience into every venture—and helped transform the American culinary landscape along the way.
In the irreverent tradition of Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential,and populated by a rogues' gallery of colorful characters—including movie stars, legendary musicians, and culinary giants Julia Child, Emeril Lagasse, and Charlie Trotter—No Experience Necessary offers a uniquely personal, highly-entertaining under-the-tablecloth view of the high-stakes world of American cuisine told with wit, insight, and great affection by a natural storyteller.

reviews

1. • premium: False
   • source: Ken Hom, OBE, BBC-TV presenter, and author of 100 Easy Chinese Suppers and many other titles
   • content: Reading No Experience Necessary was an unexpected surprise. I had always known and admired Norman Van Aken as a chef, but was unaware of his skills as a riveting and wonderful writer. His passion for food is artfully woven with his remarkable career and rich experiences—seasoned with influences from around the world—without losing insight on his fascinating personal life. I, for one, cannot wait to see the widescreen version of this book!
2. • premium: False
   • source: Ricardo Pau-Llosa, poet and art critic
   • content: As this humorous and insightful memoir makes clear, Norman's has been the life of an artist. In his creations as in his rise to culinary stardom, he has made adventure an everyday part of his life. Rethinking a planet of sensations, Norman has made the world taste great.
3. • premium: False
   • source: Wolfgang Puck
   • content: Norman Van Aken was a true pioneer of the American food movement in the 1980s, when chefs began to combine regional inspirations with modern cooking techniques. He was the first to blend Florida and Caribbean flavors with a classically trained approach to fine cuisine, and the first meals I ever ate in his restaurant were revelations and are still memorable today. One of the best things about dining experiences with Norman is his warm, kind-hearted, good-humored personality. It comes through in this book, just as it does in his cooking to this day.
4. • premium: False
   • source: Dorothy Cann Hamilton, founder and CEO, The International Culinary Center
   • content: Reading Van Aken is like being a fly on the wall during the American food revolution of the last thirty years.
5. • premium: False
   • source: Thomas Keller, The French Laundry
   • content: Although best known for bringing New World Cuisine into the culinary spotlight, Norman Van Aken has also managed to write one of the most compelling and page-turning memoirs I've read. No Experience Necessary is pure Norman as I have come to know him as a friend—revealing, funny, and brutally honest. And just as a memorable dish leaves you wanting more, so too will the pages of this delicious book.
6. • premium: False
   • source: Suvir Saran, author of Masala Farm and Indian Home Cooking and owner of Sacred Monkey
   • content: Norman's writing gives readers all the magic ingredients necessary to make the journey of life delicious, comforting, and fun. Follow these pages to live Van Aken Style—with brilliance, generosity, and without a dull moment. I am a fan of Norman's: his food, and now, this engagingly readable book.
7. • premium: False
   • source: Colman Andrews, editorial director, TheDailyMeal.com
   • content: Nobody says 'rollicking' anymore, but that's the perfect word to describe Norman Van Aken's highly entertaining memoir-with-recipes—a sort of nonfiction picaresque novel as full of color and spice and wit as his celebrated cooking.
8. • premium: False
   • source: Michael Ruhlman, author of The Soul of a Chef, and many other books
   • content: Norman Van Aken is among the seminal American chefs who brought American cooking into its own, and No Experience Necessary is a classic chef memoir in the Kitchen Confidential, no-holds-barred style appropriate to a chef who came of age in the 1970s. I am truly grateful for this excellent, bawdy record of America's restaurant kitchens in the late twentieth century.
9. • premium: False
   • source: Hiroko Shimbo, award-winning cookbook author and consulting chef
   • content: Norman Van Aken, in this brilliant and witty biography, tells us to stick to our gut instinct—to do what we want to do, and to work hard and unceasingly to reach our goals. Norman, throughout the course of his challenging journey with the support of his wife, Janet, eventually grew and enriched himself enormously both professionally and personally. Everyone, not just those who are heading to a culinary career, will learn that life can be wonderful if you face it seriously and fearlessly and work, work, work on it!
10. • premium: False
    • source: Sara Moulton, host of Sara's Weeknight Meals
    • content: Everybody knows that Norman can cook, but who knew he was such a talented storyteller? No Experience Necessary is packed with so many unexpected twists and turns—and boasts so many vivid...
11. • premium: True
    • source:
    • content:

      November 11, 2013
      In this rambunctious memoir, celebrity chef Van Aken (My Key West Kitchen) charts his unlikely path from smalltown Midwestern free spirit to ‘Fusion’ cuisine trailblazer. After a shaky, name-dropping intro, Van Aken narrates his bohemian wanderings at the end of the flower-power era, wanderings that led him to the melodious environs of Key West. As Van Aken struggles through one miserable blue-collar job after another—landscaper, hot-tar roofer—he determines that cooking is his least horrible option. From there, his sweaty rise to the apogee of his profession is both unlikely and appealing. In diffuse but vivid prose, Van Aken’s narrative speeds through restaurants, anecdotes, and oddball characters. Each chapter ends with a flourish: a recipe from a particular stage of his career. The strongest and most honest writing, by far, involves his earlier years as he struggles to master his craft. The latter third of the book blurs into anecdotes of gluttonous feasting and his restaurant openings (and closings). For legal reasons, perhaps, Van Aken skims over the financial problems and personality clashes that would have deepened his narrative. Nevertheless, the book contains much of the freedom and generosity of the era that created him. Van Aken has crafted an unlikely tale of a hippie kid who helped raise Margaritaville to a culinary destination.

12. • premium: True
    • source:
    • content:

      October 15, 2013
      

      Cookbook author, award-winning chef, and restaurant owner Van Aken (Feast of Sunlight; The Exotic Fruit Book) details his journey from Diamond Lake, IL, to Key West, FL, and back again in this entertaining memoir. He guides the reader through his early years as a cook and, later, a chef, in what feels like a conversation around the hot line on a slow night, with a bit of gin in a mug. (Don't end up wearing the sauce, though.) Van Aken's relaxed tone will draw in readers, and colorful language abounds (one memorable chapter is titled "Shit Happens"). He hilariously describes an intriguing cast of characters, including a sprinkling of celebrity chefs in their early years and the unusual figures that populated a wild Key West and even a not-so-wild Illinois. Each chapter concludes with a recipe (e.g., "Flame on Shish Kabob," "Bicycle Sammy's Potato Salad"). VERDICT Those who love food, food culture, South Florida, and biographies will enjoy this romp through the 1970s and 1980s as Van Aken evolves from entry-level cook to a famous chef, with many stops in between.--Dawn Lowe-Wincentsen, Oregon Inst. of Technology, Portland

      Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

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No Experience Necessary is Chef Norman Van Aken's joyride of a memoir. In it he spans twenty-plus years and nearly as many jobs—including the fateful job advertisement in the local paper for a short-order cook with "no experience necessary."
Long considered a culinary renegade and a pioneering chef, Van Aken is an American original who chopped and charred, sweated and seared his way to cooking stardom with no formal training, but with extra helpings of energy, creativity, and faith.
After landing on the deceptively breezy shores of Key West, Van Aken faced hurricanes, economic downturns, and mercurial moneymen during the decades when a restaurant could open and close faster than you can type haute cuisine. From a graveyard shift grunt at an all-night barbeque joint to a James Beard–award finalist for best restaurant in America, Van Aken put his trusting heart, poetic soul, natural talent, and ever-expanding experience into every venture—and helped...

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