Chef Fritz and His City:
My Education in the Master’s Kitchen

Picture
Samuel Young


Paperback:
Perfect bound, 215 pages, 5-1/2" x 8-1/2" 
ISBN 978-1-480037-37-1
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Ebook:
Amazon $4.99
ISBN 978-1-938288-39-5
Barnes & Noble $4.99
ISBN 978-1-938288-38-8

About the Book

It was the first visit to Philadelphia's Deux Cheminées restaurant for Samuel Young and his wife, Risa, and after the meal, Chef Fritz Blank came grumbling by to join them for a few minutes. Despite his rant, though, his eyes were merry, and he left the table with a joke about the tears of the city’s chefs.

After that engaging introduction, it was hard not to say oui when the mail brought an announcement that a class with Blank would be introducing students to the preparation of three simple French meals, followed by a sumptuous lunch at Deux Cheminées.

That was the start of a personal and culinary odyssey over the years that took Young through kitchens and cooking schools, dining rooms and classrooms, and—most important—into a rich and abiding friendship with the great chef himself. Now Young's new book takes us all along the path that brought such a full menu of varied experiences, fascinating people, and immersion into the entertaining, warmly human story of the highly creative and talented Fritz Blank.

Preview


The chef, all billowy in white, navigated his dining room like a ship under sail, greeting the few customers. When he arrived at our table, he docked himself in the extra chair and let out a great sigh.

“One snowflake falls, everyone stays home. No customers. No delivery trucks.”

Months after my article on Philadelphia had appeared in Travel Holiday, the city was recovering from a winter cold snap that had put the region into a kind of cryogenic suspension. When the cold abated, my wife and I resolved to raise our spirits by venturing out to Deux Cheminées, a restaurant well regarded in our region but one we had never tried. It was just the ticket: remarkable food and wine served in the not-too-formal surroundings of the former Princeton Club. The waiters wore their tuxedos without pomposity, and fires blazed cheerfully in several fireplaces. We did not want our meal to end, but when it did, we were consoled by the unexpected arrival of the chef.

Visiting tables is a custom the Troisgros family introduced in the 1950s at their restaurant near Lyon. Visiting tables to grumble, as Chef Fritz Blank seemed in the mood to do that evening, might be peculiar to Philadelphia, a place where grousing is endemic.

“You’re in a cruel line of work, Chef,” I said, wanting to commiserate.

Blank leaned forward. His ruddy skin and the short English toque he wore low on his brow gave him a fierce aspect, but his blue eyes were merry.

“Don’t get me started,” he said, forgetting that he had been ranting about this and that for several minutes. “Do you know the saying about Philadelphia’s four rivers?”

We did not.

“Well, there’s the Delaware, right?”

“Yes.”

“And the Schuylkill?”

“Yes.”

“And the Wissahickon?”

The Wissahickon was really a creek, not a river, but we didn’t quibble.

“And the fourth. . . .” Blank raised a corner of his apron and pretended to wipe a tear from his cheek. “The fourth river,” he said with quavering voice, “is the tears of the chefs!”

We laughed. Blank raised himself out of the chair, waved jauntily, and moved on.

About the Author

Samuel Young has been a writer, editor, publisher, photographer, and photography editor, principally for magazines. His work has appeared in Holiday, Travel Holiday, Town & Country and Connoisseur, among other publications, on subjects ranging from food and travel to art, architecture, music, and the paranormal. The latter interest resulted in Psychic Children, a seminal book in the field, first published in 1977. A Harvard graduate, Young lived in New York, Umbria, Austin, and Philadelphia before moving to Albuquerque, where he resides with his wife, artist and designer Risa Benson. He remains an avid cook, thanks in large measure to the tutelage of Chef Fritz Blank. In recent years, he and Benson have taken up Argentine tango, a pursuit Young finds nearly as complex, inexhaustible, and rewarding as the world of gastronomy.

Praise for
Chef Fritz and His City

Sam Young's marvelously readable Chef Fritz and His City has all the ingredients of a foodie classic: a finely drawn portrait of an innovative, somewhat-quirky chef; a knowledgeable overview of the gastronomic environment; an engagingly involved narrator; and scenes of food and its preparation so real they induce hunger pangs. Five stars!
—John Berendt,
Author of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
__________

It is easier to state what the book isn't  rather than what it is. It is not a cookbook. It s not a biography. It is not an adventure. It is not an historical tome. It is a combination of all of those things melded into a fascinating story.  It IS a delightful, easy to read, and an extremely warm look into a compelling relationship between two people. Yes I did learn some cooking tricks — "crack an egg on the counter, not on the side of a pan." I was tantalized with the descriptions of food. I learned a great deal about the origins of many recipes many of which go back many centuries. 
    But most importantly the book is a joy to read. Sam Young's background as a travel writer takes the reader on a great journey.  
    Highly recommended!
—Charles Mixtner
__________

Sam Young has written an affectionately accurate portrait of one of my dearest friends, Chef Fritz Blank. The massive cookbook collection, Fritz’s love of all things Philadelphian, and, of course, the now-much-missed Deux Cheminées are all recounted with humor and grace.
--Nick Malgieri,
Author of BREAD and How to Bake!
__________

This book is an extended love letter to a larger-than-life chef, Fritz Blank. It is also a story of Sam Young’s education in the science and art of cooking. It is a wonderful combination of biography, local history, gastronomy, and personal awakening. I loved it.
--Gary Beauchamp,
Director, Monell Chemical Senses Center