Spanning four decades, Sharkman of Cortez takes the reader through the adventures and perils of Captain Bill, a man determined to make his living from the sea. His tale begins in 1967 when he runs away from the frigid North to a picnic table on the white sandy beach of Siesta Key, Florida. Through the lazy 1960s hippie haze, he gets his first job on a crab boat and begins what he believes will be a life of fulfilling all his dreams. He encounters colorful local characters along the way, while carving out a living and pioneering some of the most innovative ways to capture, view, document, photograph, and sell sharks, dead or alive.

Sharkman of Cortez

Literature & Fiction

Mangani, Marisa

Goldschmitt, Bill

Action & Adventure

Snow in Sarasota Pub

Review\n"Mangani's stories will elicit a range of emotions from sympathy to laughter, and her love for food is infectious, as her descriptions bring it to life, from the frozen lima beans of her youth to wonders like chilled melon soup with pink peppercorn crème fraiche." 
— Editor's Pick Review from Booklife by Publisher's Weekly\n"Mise en Place offers a unique, insider's perspective on working in a male-dominated restaurant business as a female chef... Mangani has a clear handle on storytelling and fills her memoir with detailed and authentic descriptions of the many individuals who influence her personal and professional life. An excellent read for aspiring entrepreneurs trying to pave their own path." 
— The BookLife Prize\nAmazon Best Seller in Biographies & Memoirs of Chefs 
Amazon Best Seller in Dining Travel Reference 
Amazon Best Seller in Professional Cooking\nDisadvantages be damned, I would be a chef someday, and if I had to run into the side of a house to do it, so be it. 
Mise en Place is the rollicking memoir of Marisa Mangani, a talented chef who takes readers on her journey through the mostly men’s club of restaurant kitchens as she travels from Hawaii to Oregon, New Orleans, Canada, Australia, and Florida. 
Along the way she shares raw revelations: abuse at the hands of her stepfather, stories of love and loss, the pain of stuttering, a great passion for cuisine, and the heady sensations associated with food and motherhood. 
Not just a gifted chef, Mangani is a very accomplished writer who brings us into her world with brio and humor. She holds nothing back, as she describes her struggles for acceptance in her field and her stumbles and hard-won successes along the way. 
Mise en Place will appeal to all who love food and restaurants, but it’s also a vivid travelogue of the places the author has lived. Mangani has a beautifully hedonistic take on food, wine, and life—and her intense descriptions bring readers front and center into her world as she tries to carve out a living. 
Her details of the inner workings of restaurant kitchens are quite enlightening. If readers don’t already know how hard the hospitality business can be on anyone who works in it, not just chefs, but owners, managers, servers, and dishwashers, they will once they’ve walked in Mangani’s shoes. 
Mise en Place is a bold, new memoir that readers will find hard to put down.\n“Mangani charts a deep dive through the roots of our modern American food obsession with a highly personal tale of memory, character, flavor, and place.” 
—Ian McNulty, Food Writer, The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate\n“A foodie from the minute she first spat out her grandmother’s lima beans, Marisa Mangani was destined to become a chef—even if she didn’t know such a thing existed. Swirling with tastes and scents, her memoir chronicles an unconventional life, a life beginning in near-poverty and forged in a succession of kitchens and restaurants. The kitchen became Mangani’s sandbox, the place where she discovered her calling and confidence. ‘Good food always gave me hope for better times,’ she writes. Like a good hollandaise sauce, Mise en Place: Memoir of a Girl Chef satisfies the palate.” 
—Pam Schmid, Nonfiction Editor, Sleet Magazine 
“Mise en Place: Memoir of a Girl Chef is a bitingly honest view of a life lived in oyster bars, fish camps, and restaurant kitchens. Flavorful, rich, and evocative, Marisa Mangani’s memoir offers readers not just tales of food and cooking, but a provocative examination of the choices we make and the pasts that might have been.” 
—Dinty W. Moore, Author of To Hell with It 
“Readers of Gabrielle Hamilton and David Chang will devour this memoir about Marisa Mangani's journey to become a chef. What began as a way to make a living became a passion for Marisa. Mise en Place takes us through kitchens from Maui to New Orleans to Oregon, and back again, with endless colorful characters and exciting adventures along the way. If you h

Mise en Place: Memoir of a Girl Chef

Biographies & Memoirs

Community & Culture

River Grove Books

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Books by Mangani, Marisa