give a girl a knife: a memoir  <b>a beautifully written food memoir chronicling one woman’s journey from her rural midwestern hometown to the intoxicating world of new york city fine dining—and back again—in search of her culinary roots</b><br /> <br /> before amy thielen frantically plated rings of truffled potatoes in some of new york city’s finest kitchens—for chefs david bouley, daniel boulud, and jean-georges vongerichten—she grew up in a northern minnesota town home to the nation’s largest french fry factory, the headwaters of the fast food nation, with a mother whose generous cooking dripped with tenderness, drama, and an overabundance of butter.<br /> inspired by her grandmother’s tales of cooking in the family farmhouse, thielen moves north with her artist husband to a rustic, off-the-grid cabin deep in the woods. there, standing at the stove three times a day, she finds the seed of a growing food obsession that leads her to the sensory madhouse of new york’s top haute cuisine brigades. but, like a magnet, the foods of her youth draw her back home, where she comes face to face with her past and a curious truth: that beneath every foie gras sauce lies a rural foundation of potatoes and onions.<br /> amy thielen’s coming-of-age story pulses with energy, a cook’s eye for intimate detail, and a dose of dry midwestern humor. <i>give a girl a knife</i> offers a fresh, vivid view into new york’s high-end restaurants before returning thielen to her roots, where she realizes that the marrow running through her bones is not demi-glace but gravy—thick with nostalgia and hard to resist.