
Give a Girl a Knife
A Memoir
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $18.00
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Amy Thielen
-
By:
-
Amy Thielen
About this listen
A beautifully written food memoir chronicling one woman's journey from her rural Midwestern hometown to the intoxicating world of New York City fine dining - and back again - in search of her culinary roots.
Before Amy Thielen frantically plated rings of truffled potatoes in some of New York City's finest kitchens - for chefs David Bouley, Daniel Boulud, and Jean-Georges Vongerichten - she grew up in a Northern Minnesota town home to the nation's largest French fry factory, the headwaters of the fast food nation, with a mother whose generous cooking dripped with tenderness, drama, and an overabundance of butter.
Inspired by her grandmother's tales of cooking in the family farmhouse, Thielen moves north with her artist husband to a rustic, off-the-grid cabin deep in the woods. There, standing at the stove three times a day, she finds the seed of a growing food obsession that leads her to the sensory madhouse of New York's top haute cuisine brigades. But, like a magnet, the foods of her youth draw her back home, where she comes face to face with her past and a curious truth: that beneath every foie gras sauce lies a rural foundation of potatoes and onions.
Amy Thielen's coming-of-age story pulses with energy, a cook's eye for intimate detail, and a dose of dry Midwestern humor. Give a Girl a Knife offers a fresh, vivid view into New York's high-end restaurants before returning Thielen to her roots, where she realizes that the marrow running through her bones is not demi-glace but gravy - thick with nostalgia and hard to resist.
©2017 Amy Thielen (P)2017 Random House AudioListeners also enjoyed...
-
Blood, Bones & Butter
- The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef
- By: Gabrielle Hamilton
- Narrated by: Gabrielle Hamilton
- Length: 10 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Before Gabrielle Hamilton opened her acclaimed New York restaurant Prune, she spent 20 fierce, hard-living years trying to find purpose and meaning in her life. Above all she sought family, particularly the thrill and the magnificence of the one from her childhood that, in her adult years, eluded her. Hamilton’s ease and comfort in a kitchen were instilled in her at an early age when her parents hosted grand parties, often for more than 100 friends and neighbors. The smells of spit-roasted lamb, apple wood smoke, and rosemary garlic marinade became necessary to her.
-
-
A Little Prickly--But Yummy
- By Mel on 03-11-12
-
Eat a Peach
- A Memoir
- By: David Chang, Gabe Ulla
- Narrated by: David Chang
- Length: 9 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the chef behind Momofuku and star of Netflix’s Ugly Delicious—an intimate account of the making of a chef, the story of the modern restaurant world that he helped shape, and how he discovered that success can be much harder to understand than failure. Full of grace, candor, grit, and humor, Eat a Peach chronicles David Chang’s switchback path. Along the way, Chang gives us a penetrating look at restaurant life, in which he balances his deep love for the kitchen with unflinching honesty about the industry’s history of brutishness and its uncertain future.
-
-
So many threads coming into a wonderful tapstery.
- By Suzie on 09-12-20
By: David Chang, and others
-
In the Weeds
- Around the World and Behind the Scenes with Anthony Bourdain
- By: Tom Vitale
- Narrated by: Tom Vitale
- Length: 8 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the nearly two years since Anthony Bourdain's death, no one else has come close to filling the void he left. His passion for and genuine curiosity about the people and cultures he visited made the world feel smaller and more connected. Despite his affable, confident, and trademark snarky TV persona, the real Tony was intensely private, deeply conflicted about his fame, and an enigma even to those close to him. Tony’s devoted crew knew him best, and no one else had a front-row seat for as long as his director and producer, Tom Vitale.
-
-
Even more than I expected
- By DA1234 on 11-25-21
By: Tom Vitale
-
Sous Chef
- 24 Hours on the Line
- By: Michael Gibney
- Narrated by: Fred Berman
- Length: 5 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this urgent and unique book, chef Michael Gibney uses 24 hours to animate the intricate camaraderie and culinary choreography in an upscale New York restaurant kitchen. Here listeners will find all the details, in rapid-fire succession, of what it takes to deliver an exceptional plate of food - the journey to excellence by way of exhaustion. Told in second-person narrative, Sous Chef is an immersive, adrenaline-fueled run that offers a fly-on-the-wall perspective on the food service industry, allowing listeners to briefly inhabit the hidden world behind the kitchen doors, in real time.
-
-
Only as good as your last plate.
- By Norma Miles on 02-21-19
By: Michael Gibney
-
Yes, Chef
- A Memoir
- By: Marcus Samuelsson
- Narrated by: Marcus Samuelsson
- Length: 11 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It begins with a simple ritual: Every Saturday afternoon, a boy who loves to cook walks to his grandmother’s house and helps her prepare a roast chicken for dinner. The grandmother is Swedish, a retired domestic. The boy is Ethiopian and adopted, and he will grow up to become the world-renowned chef Marcus Samuelsson. This book is his love letter to food and family in all its manifestations.
-
-
A fun and inspiring civics lesson
- By loix on 06-27-12
-
Taste
- My Life Through Food
- By: Stanley Tucci
- Narrated by: Stanley Tucci
- Length: 6 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Stanley Tucci grew up in an Italian American family that spent every night around the kitchen table. He shared the magic of those meals with us in The Tucci Cookbook and The Tucci Table, and now he takes us beyond the savory recipes and into the compelling stories behind them. Taste is a reflection on the intersection of food and life, filled with anecdotes about his growing up in Westchester, New York.
-
-
Should include a pdf of recipes
- By Jen Griffin on 10-23-21
By: Stanley Tucci
-
Blood, Bones & Butter
- The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef
- By: Gabrielle Hamilton
- Narrated by: Gabrielle Hamilton
- Length: 10 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Before Gabrielle Hamilton opened her acclaimed New York restaurant Prune, she spent 20 fierce, hard-living years trying to find purpose and meaning in her life. Above all she sought family, particularly the thrill and the magnificence of the one from her childhood that, in her adult years, eluded her. Hamilton’s ease and comfort in a kitchen were instilled in her at an early age when her parents hosted grand parties, often for more than 100 friends and neighbors. The smells of spit-roasted lamb, apple wood smoke, and rosemary garlic marinade became necessary to her.
-
-
A Little Prickly--But Yummy
- By Mel on 03-11-12
-
Eat a Peach
- A Memoir
- By: David Chang, Gabe Ulla
- Narrated by: David Chang
- Length: 9 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the chef behind Momofuku and star of Netflix’s Ugly Delicious—an intimate account of the making of a chef, the story of the modern restaurant world that he helped shape, and how he discovered that success can be much harder to understand than failure. Full of grace, candor, grit, and humor, Eat a Peach chronicles David Chang’s switchback path. Along the way, Chang gives us a penetrating look at restaurant life, in which he balances his deep love for the kitchen with unflinching honesty about the industry’s history of brutishness and its uncertain future.
-
-
So many threads coming into a wonderful tapstery.
- By Suzie on 09-12-20
By: David Chang, and others
-
In the Weeds
- Around the World and Behind the Scenes with Anthony Bourdain
- By: Tom Vitale
- Narrated by: Tom Vitale
- Length: 8 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the nearly two years since Anthony Bourdain's death, no one else has come close to filling the void he left. His passion for and genuine curiosity about the people and cultures he visited made the world feel smaller and more connected. Despite his affable, confident, and trademark snarky TV persona, the real Tony was intensely private, deeply conflicted about his fame, and an enigma even to those close to him. Tony’s devoted crew knew him best, and no one else had a front-row seat for as long as his director and producer, Tom Vitale.
-
-
Even more than I expected
- By DA1234 on 11-25-21
By: Tom Vitale
-
Sous Chef
- 24 Hours on the Line
- By: Michael Gibney
- Narrated by: Fred Berman
- Length: 5 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this urgent and unique book, chef Michael Gibney uses 24 hours to animate the intricate camaraderie and culinary choreography in an upscale New York restaurant kitchen. Here listeners will find all the details, in rapid-fire succession, of what it takes to deliver an exceptional plate of food - the journey to excellence by way of exhaustion. Told in second-person narrative, Sous Chef is an immersive, adrenaline-fueled run that offers a fly-on-the-wall perspective on the food service industry, allowing listeners to briefly inhabit the hidden world behind the kitchen doors, in real time.
-
-
Only as good as your last plate.
- By Norma Miles on 02-21-19
By: Michael Gibney
-
Yes, Chef
- A Memoir
- By: Marcus Samuelsson
- Narrated by: Marcus Samuelsson
- Length: 11 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It begins with a simple ritual: Every Saturday afternoon, a boy who loves to cook walks to his grandmother’s house and helps her prepare a roast chicken for dinner. The grandmother is Swedish, a retired domestic. The boy is Ethiopian and adopted, and he will grow up to become the world-renowned chef Marcus Samuelsson. This book is his love letter to food and family in all its manifestations.
-
-
A fun and inspiring civics lesson
- By loix on 06-27-12
-
Taste
- My Life Through Food
- By: Stanley Tucci
- Narrated by: Stanley Tucci
- Length: 6 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Stanley Tucci grew up in an Italian American family that spent every night around the kitchen table. He shared the magic of those meals with us in The Tucci Cookbook and The Tucci Table, and now he takes us beyond the savory recipes and into the compelling stories behind them. Taste is a reflection on the intersection of food and life, filled with anecdotes about his growing up in Westchester, New York.
-
-
Should include a pdf of recipes
- By Jen Griffin on 10-23-21
By: Stanley Tucci
-
Finding Freedom
- A Cook's Story; Remaking a Life from Scratch
- By: Erin French
- Narrated by: Erin French
- Length: 9 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Long before The Lost Kitchen became a world dining destination with every seating filled the day the reservation book opens each spring, Erin French was a girl roaming barefoot on a 25-acre farm, a teenager falling in love with food while working the line at her dad’s diner and a young woman finding her calling as a professional chef at her tiny restaurant tucked into a 19th century mill.
-
-
Ramblings of a narcissist
- By Ellen Satterthwaite-Phillips on 06-21-21
By: Erin French
-
Your Table Is Ready
- Tales of a New York City Maître D'
- By: Michael Cecchi-Azzolina
- Narrated by: Michael Cecchi-Azzolina
- Length: 9 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the glamorous to the entitled, from royalty to the financially ruined, everyone who wanted to be seen—or just to gawk—at the hottest restaurants in New York City came to places Michael Cecchi-Azzolina helped run. His phone number was passed around among those who wanted to curry favor, during the decades when restaurants replaced clubs and theater as, well, theater in the most visible, vibrant city in the world. Besides dropping us back into a vanished time, Your Table Is Ready takes us places we’d never be able to get into on our own.
-
-
Accurately crass and heart felt
- By Amazon Customer on 01-10-23
-
Lessons in Chemistry
- A Novel
- By: Bonnie Garmus
- Narrated by: Miranda Raison, Bonnie Garmus, Pandora Sykes
- Length: 11 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Chemist Elizabeth Zott is not your average woman. In fact, Elizabeth Zott would be the first to point out that there is no such thing as an average woman. But it’s the early 1960s and her all-male team at Hastings Research Institute takes a very unscientific view of equality. Except for one: Calvin Evans; the lonely, brilliant, Nobel–prize nominated grudge-holder who falls in love with—of all things—her mind. True chemistry results.
-
-
Making my 3 adult daughters read this
- By Teresa H. on 04-07-22
By: Bonnie Garmus
-
32 Yolks
- From My Mother's Table to Working the Line
- By: Eric Ripert, Veronica Chambers
- Narrated by: Peter Ganim
- Length: 7 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In an industry where celebrity chefs are known as much for their salty talk and quick tempers as their food, Eric Ripert stands out. The winner of four James Beard Awards, co-owner and chef of a world-renowned restaurant, and recipient of countless Michelin stars, Ripert embodies elegance and culinary perfection. But before the accolades, before he even knew how to make a proper hollandaise sauce, Eric Ripert was a lonely young boy in the south of France whose life was falling apart.
-
-
Every aspiring cook needs to read this
- By PatrickV on 07-01-16
By: Eric Ripert, and others
-
Delicious!
- A Novel
- By: Ruth Reichl
- Narrated by: Julia Whelan
- Length: 12 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In her best-selling memoirs, Ruth Reichl has long illuminated the theme of how food defines us, and never more so than in her dazzling fiction debut about sisters, family ties, and a young woman who must finally let go of guilt and grief to embrace her own true gifts.
-
-
I really enjoyed this book. Really well read.
- By Diane Cates on 04-17-18
By: Ruth Reichl
-
JGV
- A Life in 12 Recipes
- By: Jean-Georges Vongerichten, Michael Ruhlman
- Narrated by: Eric Yves Garcia
- Length: 7 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From his first apprenticeship in France to his Michelin-starred restaurant empire, Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s cuisine is inspired by the freshest ingredients, the simplest techniques, and the drive to make the ordinary perfect. It all started at home. JGV is an invitation into the kitchen with a master chef. With humor and heart, Jean-Georges looks back on success and failure, sharing stories of cooking with legendary chefs Paul Bocuse and Louis Outhier, traveling in search of new and revelatory flavors, and building menus of his own.
-
-
Informative and fun!
- By David Stuk on 11-24-22
By: Jean-Georges Vongerichten, and others
-
Dirt
- Adventures in Lyon as a Chef in Training, Father, and Sleuth Looking for the Secret of French Cooking
- By: Bill Buford
- Narrated by: Bill Buford
- Length: 16 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What does it take to master French cooking? This is the question that drives Bill Buford to abandon his perfectly happy life in New York City and pack up and (with a wife and three-year-old twin sons in tow) move to Lyon, the so-called gastronomic capital of France.
-
-
Non non non!
- By Amazon Customer on 07-19-20
By: Bill Buford
-
Kitchen Confidential
- Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly
- By: Anthony Bourdain
- Narrated by: Anthony Bourdain
- Length: 8 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Last summer, The New Yorker published chef Anthony Bourdain's shocking, "Don't Eat Before Reading This." Now, the author uses the same "take-no-prisoners" attitude in his deliciously funny and shockingly delectable audiobook, sure to delight gourmands and philistines alike.
-
-
Kitchen Confidential
- By Holly on 02-20-03
By: Anthony Bourdain
-
Raw Dog
- The Naked Truth About Hot Dogs
- By: Jamie Loftus
- Narrated by: Jamie Loftus
- Length: 9 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hot dogs. Poor people created them. Rich people found a way to charge fifteen dollars for them. They’re high culture, they’re low culture, they’re sports food, they’re kids' food, they’re hangover food, and they’re deeply American, despite having no basis whatsoever in America's Indigenous traditions. You can love them, you can hate them, but you can’t avoid the great American hot dog. Raw Dog is part investigation into the cultural and culinary significance of hot dogs and part travelogue documenting a cross-country road trip researching them as they’re served today.
-
-
Not really about hot dogs
- By Amazon Customer on 06-25-23
By: Jamie Loftus
-
Life, on the Line
- A Chef's Story of Chasing Greatness, Facing Death, and Redefining the Way We Eat
- By: Grant Achatz, Nick Kokonas
- Narrated by: Johnny Heller
- Length: 12 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 2007 chef Grant Achatz seemingly had it made. He had been named one of the best new chefs in America by Food & Wine in 2002, received the James Beard Foundation Rising Star Chef of the Year Award in 2003, and in 2005 he and Nick Kokonas opened the conceptually radical restaurant Alinea, which was named Best Restaurant in America by Gourmet magazine. Then, Achatz was diagnosed with stage IV squamous cell carcinoma - tongue cancer.
-
-
A Tasteless World?
- By Exec. Chef 'Special K' on 03-18-14
By: Grant Achatz, and others
-
Garlic and Sapphires
- The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise
- By: Ruth Reichl
- Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne
- Length: 10 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Garlic and Sapphires is Ruth Reichl's riotous account of the many disguises she employs to dine anonymously. There is her stint as Molly Hollis, a frumpy blond with manicured nails and an off-beige Armani suit that Ruth takes on when reviewing Le Cirque. The result: her famous double review of the restaurant: First she ate there as Molly; and then as she was coddled and pampered on her visit there as Ruth, New York Times food critic.
-
-
Read engagingly by Bernadette Dunne
- By Nicole on 11-16-05
By: Ruth Reichl
-
My Side of the Mountain
- By: Jean Craighead George
- Narrated by: Michael Crouch
- Length: 4 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sam Gribley is terribly unhappy living in New York City with his family, so he runs away to the Catskill Mountains to live in the woods - all by himself. With only a penknife, a ball of cord, 40 dollars, and some flint and steel, he intends to survive on his own. Sam learns about courage, danger, and independence during his year in the wilderness, a year that changes his life forever.
-
-
Amazing
- By Student on 02-19-18
Critic reviews
What listeners say about Give a Girl a Knife
Highly rated for:
Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Gary J. Glomski
- 02-24-22
good book
very easy read with lots of good tricks on cooking. gr8 story highly recommended for your enjoyment 😉
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Lorna
- 06-26-18
Easy to listen to.
This book was suggested by a friend. It is not at all my usual style or genre, however it was pleasant enough and I had an easy time listening. Unlike some other books, I didn't devour it voraciously, but instead pecked away at it whenever the mood struck.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Janice Olson
- 09-06-17
Give A GirlA Knife: A Memoir
I absolutely loved this book. Growing up in Minnesota, I could relate to so many of the experiences Amy Thielen wrote about. This book brought me back to my childhood memories around the dinner table. If I could choose a friend, I would pick Amy Thielen! She is so likable, and down to earth. A true Minnesotan! She has led an interesting life by following her dreams.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Eric
- 01-02-18
Brings me back to my Midwest roots
I really enjoy Amy Thielen’s cook book and cooking show so I was very excited to see that she had written a memoir about her journey to cooking via Minnesota and New York. I specifically loved the descriptions of New York, its sights sounds...and smells. She vividly depicts the kitchen and cooking scene in New York as well as her adventures in rural Minnesota. I was born in Minneapolis and spent summers in rural Minnesota so the mention of sauerkraut and ring bologna bring back a flood of memories. My favorite parts are the descriptions of cooking in New York. I wish the entire book was spent on this narrative but like her real life, Ms. Thielen’s book is divided between New York and Minnesota. While I enjoyed the Minnesota narrative — meeting her husband, fixing up their rural cabin and eventually settling in Park Rapids, MN — I longed for more ‘dirt’ on the trials and tribulations of the restaurant scene. Still, the narration is superb and the story very good.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- cindy
- 09-20-21
Ambivalent
This was ok but nothing that left an impression on me. I vacillated between rooting for Amy and being put off by her. More Meh than Yeah.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Minneapolis listener
- 09-23-22
Remarkable
I have read several chef memoirs lately, and this one is my favorite. Thielen is deeply interested in food — how it grows, how it’s treated immediately and how it is handled after that.
It is all meaningful to her, and the gorgeous way she writes about it makes that very clear.
If you enjoy her memoir about her NYC/Upper Minnesota life, please be sure to sample her two seasons from the Food Network on Prime and her gorgeous James Beard award winning cookbook. Amy is a great writer, a hard worker and the real thing.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Kerry
- 01-16-20
A Beautifully Written, Heartfelt Memoir
Loved every word. What an interesting life! A great take on food, family, the choices we make, and where they take us.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Etoile NEOhio
- 06-03-22
Very enjoyable
She has led an interesting life. Now that I have listened to the book, I wish I could see her TV show, but not enough to pay for it on Amazon Prime.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jeanne Markell
- 07-18-22
I love this so much I listen to it and then read it
As a Minnesotan to grow up in a small town and did not return I really appreciated Amy’s love and nostalgia about her childhood
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amazon Customer
- 08-06-23
Fun 1st Half. Boring second half.
The 1st half of the book is fun as you follow Amy in restaurants out of cooking school. However, the 2nd half of the book is mind numbingly boring. She talks about the most mundane details of her life. She also inexplicably jumps from the most interesting part of her life (cooking in NYC) to when she was a child and continues on to after she returns to MN. It's like someone told her that the rest of her book was boring so she should put the most interesting part 1st. However there is no explanation for the jump. It feels disjointed and made me hope for more of the type of the story I heard in the beginning. But that never happened. Had the book started with the beginning of her life, I wouldn't have read it. I had a really difficult time finishing it.
I wanted to read a book about a professional chef and thought it would be fun that she goes back to MN after being a chef in NYC. Well, the 2nd half of the book has almost no professional chef stories in it. I thought she would go back to MN to start a restaurant, but she instead decides to stop working in restaurants altogether and tells you the story of mundane daily life and being broke again. It's just her standing in grocery stores, gardening, talking to small town folks about any old thing, and choosing not to do the thing that made her interesting.
I don't understand how this book has such good reviews. It's like reading a boring person's diaries--any trivial detail is included. Also the arc of the story is pretty disappointing. She starts off adrift in life and broke but enjoying living off the land. She then makes it somewhat in NYC as a chef, and then returns to where she started. I'm glad she is happy and enjoys her life but that doesn't mean it makes an interesting story.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!