Out of Line

A Life of Playing with Fire

By: Barbara Lynch

Narrated by: Christina Delaine

Celebrated chef Barbara Lynch credits the defiant spirit of her upbringing in tough, poor "Southie", a neighborhood ruled by the notorious Whitey Bulger gang, with helping her bluff her way into her first professional cooking jobs; develop a distinct culinary style through instinct and sheer moxie; then dare to found an empire of restaurants ranging from a casual but elegant "clam shack" to Boston's epitome of modern haute cuisine.

One of seven children born to an overworked single mother, Lynch was raised in a housing project. She earned a daredevil reputation for boosting vehicles (even a city bus), petty theft, drinking and doing drugs, and narrowly escaping arrest - haunted all the while by a painful buried trauma.

Out of Line describes Lynch's remarkable process of self-invention, including her encounters with colorful characters of the food world, and vividly evokes the magic of creation in the kitchen. It is also a love letter to South Boston and its vanishing culture, governed by Irish Catholic mothers and its own code of honor. Through her story, Lynch explores how the past - both what we strive to escape from and what we remain true to - can strengthen and expand who we are.

Download the accompanying reference guide.©2017 Barbara Lynch (P)2017 Tantor

Critic reviews

"If you have an appetite for culinary adventure, you'll devour the feisty and fun memoir by James Beard award-winning chef and philanthropist Barbara Lynch." (Elle)

"Christina Delaine narrates this audiobook with effervescent joy. Her enthusiasm for the cooking, dining, and restaurant experiences of chef Barbara Lynch makes her narration especially satisfying." (AudioFile)

Loved The Book, Performance Okay

This was a fascinating story of growing up in the projects to opening a restaurant empire. Wish it was ready by the other to get that Southie accent, or at least someone who has worked in the industry. The narrator kind of ruined it for me: a lot of the culinary terms were mispronounced like the T in robot coupe and the T in filet were both provinces as just 2 examples and any word outside of English was way OVERLY annunciated in accents.

Not the best but not the worst

For Chef biographies this one is middle of the road. Some parts were enjoyable and some just dragged and seemed aimless. Lynch spends more time talking about random interpersonal drama than her career what is what some are signing on for I suppose. While Lynch is a phenomenal chef personally I find her story telling style not really my flavor although I will still suggest this book for people who like "reality" style storytelling.

fantastic

food meets passion meets entertainment meets emotion, not a dull moment. highly recommend to any variety of reader, foodie or not

Fantastic loved this book

Hey. I’m from Boston so maybe that could be why I loved this book so effin much but it was great. I also spent many years waitressing in the Boston restaurants during this time so all of it rings true. You rock Barbara Lynch!

Hardheaded, arrogant, profane.

I was not impressed by Lynch’s childhood juvenile delinquency, for which she never suffered, and I’m not impressed by her as an adult.

She is hard, mean and acquisitive and I wouldn’t want to know her in real life. Her ambition is more important than anything else. I have read more than 10 chef memoirs in the past few months, and this is probably the worst. Read Eric Rippert or Amy Thielen.