Guilbault, a food industry executive and consultant, shares her experiences (and a few recipes) while providing tips on how to pursue a rewarding career in her field.
This debut guide begins by teeing up the huge career potential of the lucrative food industry: “You can make a ton of money. You can have the life of creativity and freedom you want. You can make an impact on the lives of others. You can travel the world. You can even change the world.” The author then offers advice on how to develop this fulfilling career, drawing from and detailing her own journey from high school dropout who got fired from the California Pizza Kitchen as a teenager to Le Cordon Bleu–trained chef and, later, food-operations executive for the Pret a Manger and Le Pain Quotidien restaurant chains and Google, among others. Now a consultant, the author organizes her book in two parts: “Getting Started in the World of Food” and “Taking Your Place at the Managers’ Table.” Tips range from building your “resilience muscle” to keep “toughing out the ‘crumby’ jobs and seeing the trail they’re building” to creating a “Personal Board of Directors”—confidants who will “give you the perspective you need to shine through the tough moments.” The author’s “Management Big Five” mantra is that it’s important to balance the needs of the business, your bosses, your customers, your team, and, “finally, the needs of yourself.” This book dishes out its career advice, which often has a tough-love tone, in a humorous, food metaphor–filled narrative that effectively draws on accounts of the author’s own challenges. She also includes some of her favorite thematically appropriate recipes, such as “Leadership Lecithin” Mayonnaise and “Most Definitely a Neurosis” Rosemary Dark Chocolate Cake, as well as links to videos of other industry professionals offering career insights. Although other career development books may contain similar advice, this book’s lively tone and from-the-trenches perspective make it a welcome addition to the genre.
An inspiring guide that conveys the passion and promise of the food business with pragmatic advice.Pub Date: Jan. 11, 2023
ISBN: 9781774582473
Page Count: 252
Publisher: Page Two Press
Review Posted Online: Nov. 22, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Categories: BUSINESS | ENTREPRENUERSHP | SELF-HELP
Did you like this book?
Everyone’s favorite avuncular socialist sends up a rousing call to remake the American way of doing business.
“In the twenty-first century we can end the vicious dog-eat-dog economy in which the vast majority struggle to survive,” writes Sanders, “while a handful of billionaires have more wealth than they could spend in a thousand lifetimes.” With that statement, the author updates an argument as old as Marx and Proudhon. In a nice play on words, he condemns “the uber-capitalist system under which we live,” showing how it benefits only the slimmest slice of the few while imposing undue burdens on everyone else. Along the way, Sanders notes that resentment over this inequality was powerful fuel for the disastrous Trump administration, since the Democratic Party thoughtlessly largely abandoned underprivileged voters in favor of “wealthy campaign contributors and the ‘beautiful people.’ ” The author looks squarely at Jeff Bezos, whose company “paid nothing in federal income taxes in 2017 and 2018.” Indeed, writes Sanders, “Bezos is the embodiment of the extreme corporate greed that shapes our times.” Aside from a few passages putting a face to avarice, Sanders lays forth a well-reasoned platform of programs to retool the American economy for greater equity, including investment in education and taking seriously a progressive (in all senses) corporate and personal taxation system to make the rich pay their fair share. In the end, he urges, “We must stop being afraid to call out capitalism and demand fundamental change to a corrupt and rigged system.” One wonders if this firebrand of a manifesto is the opening gambit in still another Sanders run for the presidency. If it is, well, the plutocrats might want to take cover for the duration.
Even if they're pie-in-the-sky exercises, Sanders’ pitched arguments bear consideration by nonbillionaires.Pub Date: Feb. 21, 2023
ISBN: 9780593238714
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 21, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2023
Did you like this book?
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
A psychologist and Nobel Prize winner summarizes and synthesizes the recent decades of research on intuition and systematic thinking.
The author of several scholarly texts, Kahneman (Emeritus Psychology and Public Affairs/Princeton Univ.) now offers general readers not just the findings of psychological research but also a better understanding of how research questions arise and how scholars systematically frame and answer them. He begins with the distinction between System 1 and System 2 mental operations, the former referring to quick, automatic thought, the latter to more effortful, overt thinking. We rely heavily, writes, on System 1, resorting to the higher-energy System 2 only when we need or want to. Kahneman continually refers to System 2 as “lazy”: We don’t want to think rigorously about something. The author then explores the nuances of our two-system minds, showing how they perform in various situations. Psychological experiments have repeatedly revealed that our intuitions are generally wrong, that our assessments are based on biases and that our System 1 hates doubt and despises ambiguity. Kahneman largely avoids jargon; when he does use some (“heuristics,” for example), he argues that such terms really ought to join our everyday vocabulary. He reviews many fundamental concepts in psychology and statistics (regression to the mean, the narrative fallacy, the optimistic bias), showing how they relate to his overall concerns about how we think and why we make the decisions that we do. Some of the later chapters (dealing with risk-taking and statistics and probabilities) are denser than others (some readers may resent such demands on System 2!), but the passages that deal with the economic and political implications of the research are gripping.
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our minds.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-374-27563-1
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Sept. 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2011
Categories: BUSINESS | LEADERSHIP, MANAGEMENT & COMMUNICATION | PSYCHOLOGY
Did you like this book?
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2023 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
