Salt, Sweat & Steam: The Fiery Education of an Accidental Chef - Hardcover

Washington, Brigid

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1250333377 ISBN 13: 9781250333377

Publisher: St Martin's Press, 2026

Synopsis

Inside the nation's most elite cooking school and what it's really like to have a life in the food world Hours in chef’s whites in a classroom that doubles as the best-stocked kitchen you’ll ever see: 50-quart KitchenAid mixers, balloon whisks in every diameter, CIA-issued knives, bains marie. Also: gruelling hours and a giant tuition tab so that—if you’re lucky enough—you can land an entry-level job that features gruelling hours, low wages, and a giant uniform-and-equipment tab. Washington, a Trinidadian who came to the U.S. for college, decided to apply to the Culinary Institute of America after a break-up. As editor of CIA’s La Papillote: The Voice of the Student Chef, she got to see how the sausage was made (literally). In one day, she would go from studying the five mother sauces in Skills 1 to interviewing Thomas Keller for a front-page feature. Sucked into the brigade system, she believed the gospel that pressure was a privilege. As one of the few students of colour, she stayed sane by reminding herself that where she came from had different—and better—values. Salt, Sweat & Steam takes readers behind the scenes of the nation’s most elite culinary school, through perfectionistic finals and brutal unpaid internships, into days that go from continuously whisking Sauce Bernaise for 300 to being so dead-tired that dinner is a bag of Cheez-Its from the vending machine. It’s The Devil Wears Prada for the “yes, chef” era.

About this title

About the Author

BRIGID WASHINGTON is a food writer whose work delves into the rich complexities of Caribbean food and culture as it intersects with life in the United States. She is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America and the author of two cookbooks. Her writing has appeared in Bon Appetit, Epicurious, Food & Wine, Real Simple, The New York Times, and many others. She is Vice Chair of Now Serving, a food insecurity non-profit. She lives in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Edition details

• Publisher: St Martin's Press
• Publication date: 2026
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1250333377
• ISBN 13: 9781250333377
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 304