Ruhlman tries to define the chef's role in our ''sprawling, food-neurotic country'' by profiling trendsetters from Masayoshi Takayama to Rachael Ray.
Kitchen Hero
Ruhlman has a terminal case of chef worship, but he reserves his most obsequious praise for Thomas Keller, the ''artist-monk'' of California's French Laundry.
The Skinny
A fun page-turner on what happens in restaurants, but Ruhlman's breathless accounts of minor kitchen mishaps — spilled
vinaigrette, broken egg yolks — border on self-parody.
