California soul : an American epic of cooking and survival /
Material type: TextPublisher: New York : Random House, [2022]Copyright date: ©2022Edition: First editionDescription: x, 306 pages : illustrations ; 22 cmContent type:- text
- still image
- unmediated
- volume
- 9780593243824
- 059324382X
- Corbin, Keith, 1980-
- Cooks -- California -- Biography
- African American cooks -- California -- Los Angeles -- Biography
- African Americans -- California -- Los Angeles -- Biography
- Street life -- California -- Los Angeles -- Anecdotes
- Cuisiniers -- Californie -- Biographies
- African American cooks
- African Americans
- Cooks
- Street life
- California
- California -- Los Angeles
- 641.5092 B 23/eng/20220124
- TX649.C665 A3 2022
Item type | Current library | Home library | Collection | Call number | Copy number | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item holds | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Standard Loan | Hayden Library Adult Biography | Hayden Library | Book | CORBIN-CORBIN (Browse shelf(Opens below)) | 1 | Available | 50610023302941 | |||
Standard Loan | Liberty Lake Library Adult Biography | Liberty Lake Library | Book | BIO CORBIN COR (Browse shelf(Opens below)) | Available | 31421000708140 |
Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
JAMES BEARD AWARD NOMINEE . A sharply crafted and unflinchingly honest memoir about gangs, drugs, cooking, and living life on the line-both on the streets and in the kitchen-from one of the most exciting stars in the food world today
"Beautiful. Moving. Inspiring. Get it."-Chris Storer, Emmy Award-winning creator of The Bear
A SALON BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
Chef Keith Corbin has been cooking his entire life. Born on the home turf of the notorious Grape Street Crips in 1980s Watts, Los Angeles, he got his start cooking crack at age thirteen, becoming so skilled that he was flown across the country to cook for drug operations in other cities. After his criminal enterprises caught up with him, though, Corbin spent years in California's most notorious maximum security prisons-witnessing the resourcefulness of other inmates who made kimchi out of leftover vegetables and tamales from ground-up Fritos. He developed his own culinary palate and ingenuity, creating "spreads" out of the unbearable commissary ingredients and experimenting during his shifts in the prison kitchen.
After his release, Corbin got a job managing the kitchen at LocoL, an ambitious fast food restaurant spearheaded by celebrity chefs Roy Choi and Daniel Patterson, designed to bring inexpensive, quality food and good jobs into underserved neighborhoods. But when Corbin was suddenly thrust into the spotlight, he struggled to live up to or accept the simplified "gangbanger redemption" portrayal of him in the media. As he battles private demons while achieving public success, Corbin traces the origins of his vision for "California soul food" and takes readers inside the worlds of gang hierarchy, drug dealing, prison politics, gentrification, and culinary achievement to tell the story of how he became head chef of Alta Adams, one of America's best restaurants.
"Before becoming executive chef and part owner of the California soul food restaurant Alta Adams in West LA, Keith Corbin had spent a quarter of his life in prison. Renowned as the best cook of crack cocaine in Los Angeles, Corbin more or less raised himself on the streets of Watts, learning to cook crack when he was only thirteen. He knew he was doing it right if it had the consistency of the roux his granny made for her gumbo. It was a violent business-one that eventually landed Corbin in prison, where his skills at the stove gained him a reputation for making good food out of the normally unbearable prison diet. When after his release he takes a job as a line cook in a famous chef's new restaurant, Corbin is ready to lay low and leave gang life behind. Little did he know, his skill at the stove coupled with his determination to escape a life in the streets would eventually catapult him into the kitchens of some of the most acclaimed restaurants around the country, cooking food by day, crack by night just to get by. But success would change that, and in California Soul, Corbin shares the remarkable story of his culinary initiation. From swapping oxtail recipes with Jay-Z to packing heat at brunch and becoming a press-friendly human-interest piece for well-meaning gentrifiers, Corbin's story challenges the stereotype of rags-to-riches success and shows that as a Black man in America, there is no magic door to mainstream respectability. And even if there was, Corbin's not so sure he'd want to walk through it. Told in an unforgettable voice from a rising culinary star unlike any before, California Soul is the astonishing true story of Corbin's journey from the streets and back again, and a testament to the lifechanging power of making the most with what you're given"--
Excerpt provided by Syndetics
Reviews provided by Syndetics
Library Journal Review
South Central L.A.-raised Corbin narrates his remarkable memoir about culinary success with brutal honesty and a flair for storytelling. Corbin grew up in Watts, where his grandmother cooked for the neighborhood in a kitchen full of soul-food staples; this upbringing spawned a lifelong love of food. From a young age, Corbin was surrounded by gang culture and drugs, beginning to cook crack as a teenager, and eventually ending up in prison. While incarcerated, Corbin worked in the kitchen, honing his craft and later landing a job at Locol, the innovative restaurant founded by Roy Choi and Daniel Patterson, meant to offer good food at low prices in food deserts. Corbin's husky and emotive narration of the audiobook showcases his vulnerability, especially when discussing his struggles with addiction. Corbin's tone and delivery are self-aware. He's careful not to lean on a conventional redemption arc but instead fesses up to moments of self-sabotage with a healthy serving of curse words. Peppered with rebukes of mass incarceration and institutionalized racism, the memoir's genuine emotion resonates. VERDICT Corbin's gritty and forthright book is perfect for fans of chef memoirs like Notes from a Young Black Chef and Kitchen Confidential.--Lizzie NolanPublishers Weekly Review
In this exhilarating saga of drugs, crime, and culinary passion, Corbin traces his remarkable rise from a life behind bars to a successful career as a chef. Born, quite literally, into the "drug game" ("my uncle used to carry me around and sell drugs out of my diaper"), Corbin's cooking began with making crack in his teens, a skill that eventually grew into an enterprise with Corbin and his partner shipping drugs around the country. It wasn't until Corbin landed in prison at age 23 that his culinary path began. Working in the prison kitchen, Corbin found an escape while also honing his craft: "I tried to tweak... until I got the best fucking spread you'd ever tried." After six years in prison, Corbin was released in 2010, and got a job as a line cook at a high-end fast-food joint in his L.A. neighborhood. Though he went on to become the chef and face of Alta Adams, a fine-dining restaurant in the city, Corbin reveals his path to success as an ex-felon was far from easy, and it's his brutally candid depiction of "what it's like to grow up Black in America under some of the worst circumstances" that makes this story of perseverance hit hard. Readers shouldn't miss this. (Aug.)Kirkus Book Review
How a Watts gang member escaped doom and ascended to the helm of a nationally acclaimed restaurant. "The book you're about to read," writes Corbin in the prologue, "isn't a gangland morality tale or a prisoner-makes-good drama or a chef memoir that paints my life as a 'uniquely American' success story." However, it offers all of those elements and more. The author also presents a loving history of the Watts neighborhood; a tribute to a beloved grandmother who fed a whole community; a mouthwatering account of the evolution of Corbin's style of soul-food cooking, now featured at Alta in West Adams, Los Angeles; and a candid story about long-term drug dependency. Among the many interesting points made by this modern version of a Horatio Alger story is that for Black youth in America's poor communities, the story is not necessarily rags to riches. If you're in the drug game in your early teens (Corbin started cooking crack at 13), access to piles of cash is never a problem. Ultimately, it's not about money; it's about social mobility. Too often, many doors lead to prison, which is where Corbin spent most of his 20s. Some of the most intriguing parts of the book are the details on the operation, genealogy, and grammar of gangs. For example, Crips will spell the word back as bacc: "No Crip sets use the letters c and k together," writes Corbin, because that formulation, in that context, means "Crip killer." There are two primary heroes of this story, capably preserved and shaped by James Beard Award--winning journalist Alexander: Corbin himself and his mentor, the restaurateur Daniel Patterson, whose commitment to actually doing something for Corbin--and many others coming out of incarceration and looking for direction--is rare indeed. A personable account of hard-won success, heartening in some ways, sobering in others, and served with tasty sides. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.Author notes provided by Syndetics
Keith Corbin is the James Beard Award-nominated executive chef and co-owner of Alta Adams in Los Angeles, named one of the best restaurants in the country by Esquire, Thrillist, and the Los Angeles Times. A native of Watts, Corbin was formerly director of operations for the LocoL restaurant group and worked for Daniel Patterson at his Michelin-starred fine dining restaurant Coi in San Francisco.There are no comments on this title.