Sous Chef

24 Hours in the Kitchen

Michael Gibney

Sous Chef by Michael Gibney (Paperback ISBN 9781782112549) book cover

Available as Paperback

For one day only, service is in your hands…

‘A terrific nuts and bolts account of the real business of cooking as told from the trenches. No nonsense. This is what it takes’ ANTHONY BOURDAIN

‘One of the most informative, funny and transparent books about the restaurant biz ever written’ BRET EASTON ELLIS

Sous Chef takes you behind the swinging doors of a busy restaurant kitchen, putting you in chef’s shoes for an intense, high-octane twenty-four hours. Follow him from the moment he opens the kitchen in the morning, as he guides you through the meticulous preparation, the camaraderie in the hours leading up to service and the adrenalin-rush as the orders start coming in. Thrilling, addictive and bursting with mouth-watering detail, Sous Chef will leave you breathless and awestruck - walking into a restaurant will never be the same again.


“A terrific nuts and bolts account of the real business of cooking as told from the trenches. No nonsense. This is what it takes”
Anthony Bourdain

See more reviews

“One of the most informative, funny and transparent books about the restaurant biz ever written”
Bret Easton Ellis

“A good cook chooses ingredients carefully, just as a writer must select the right words. Michael Gibney is a word cook of the highest order and this book will leave you licking your fingers”
Gary Shteyngart
author Of Super Sad True Love Story

“Miraculous … Gibney has the soul of the poet and the stamina of a stevedore … Tender and profane”
new York Times Book Review

“Gibney’s writing is in Anthony Bourdain’s league: he puts across both the intense stress and the intense joy of cooking in a professional kitchen”
time, 15 Best Books Of 2014


Michael Gibney

Michael Gibney began working in restaurants at the age of sixteen and assumed his first Sous Chef position at twenty-two. He moved up to Executive Sous Chef while at Tavern on the Green in New York, where he managed an eighty-person staff. Over the course of his career, he has had the opportunity to work alongside cooks and chefs from Noma, Mugaritz, El Bulli, the Fat Duck, Alinea, Per Se, Daniel, Jean Georges, Eleven Madison Park, Le Bernardin, Bouley, Ducasse, Corton, wd~50 and Momofuku among others. Gibney holds a BFA in painting from Pratt Institute and an MFA in nonfiction writing from Columbia University. He lives in Brooklyn.