How to Eat a Small Country

At first I did not recognize the name, Amy Finley but after reading Mrs. Finley’s bio, I realized who she was. Amy was the winner of season three of The Next Food Network Star on the Food Network channel. This is funny as this is probably the last season that I watched of this show. Reading this book made me think of Julia Child. This might have been what she and her husband experienced if they had children but of course Julia Child also embraced France. Amy did embrace France and all the food it had to offer but maybe a little too much or I should say her husband did. For example there was the rouille soup incident at Le Rhul. As much as I did like reading about all the different experiences Amy had in France, I was only mildly interested.

For one thing, you could tell that Amy was knowledgeable about French cooking and foods but she was not very good about explaining them to the average person. I vaguely remember the judges criticizing Amy for this same thing while she was a competitor. She was good at her craft but could sometimes forget to “dummy” her explanations and recipes down for non gourmet cooks and stay at home moms. If you have a weak stomach than be warned as there are some parts that might gross you out. If you are a fan or were a fan of Amy and her show The Gourmet Next Door than you may enjoy this book.