This is the story of the unorthodox way in which Gabrielle Hamilton became a celebrity chef.

The book tells Hamilton’s story of how she spent her idyllic childhood on a wild farm in rural Pennsylvania with an artist father and a French mother and then, how in her early teens, her parents divorced, ending this view of a perfect life.

She moved to New York City at 16, living off loose change and eating ketchup packets from McDonald’s; worked 20-hour days at a  catering company; traveled, often half-starved, through Europe; and cooked for allergy-riddled children at a summer camp.  This hectic lifestyle culminates with the opening of her restaurant “Prune” in the East Village in NYC.

By: PetroMarine Energy Services LTD.