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By Michael Ruhlman

Michael Ruhlman got his food-writing career off to a flying start with his book , in which he recounts his experience as a student at New York's Culinary Institute of America (CIA). He writes about wannabe chefs: culinary students who were close to the bottom of the ladder in the strict hierarchy of the kitchen.

The book he wrote next, , is about people higher up the ladder. He covers chefs you might not have heard of and one - Thomas Keller - you almost certainly have. In one chapter, he watches as seven hopefuls undertake the rigorous 10-day exam to become certified master chefs (only one passes). For this, they have to show expertise in charcuterie, buffet platters, classic French dishes - with all the garnishes they entail - Asian food and making a complete meal out of a mystery box of ingredients. In another chapter, he focuses on Michael Symon, a young chef in Cleveland, Ohio. Ruhlman writes that what Symon, also a CIA graduate, is cooking at his popular Lola Bistro & Wine Bar runs counter to the rigid techniques the author learned at the institute. The chef, he writes, is sloppy, doesn't use classic French sauces and makes dishes that "you can do at home" (as one of his cooks describes it) - only, of course, they're much better.

When Ruhlman writes about Keller, though, it's a little too reverential, perhaps because, at the time, he was hoping to help Keller pen his (a job he eventually got). When visiting Keller's Napa Valley restaurant, in California, for the first time, Ruhlman recalls thinking: "Where am I? This is not the world I know … The food keeps coming and demands silent focus … I grow dizzy from the extravagance, from the angels swirling around the table, from the sights I have seen, from the incredible new sensations on my plate … Providence had intervened … This was it. I was here. I'd penetrated to the very core of the profession."

is about those at the top of the ladder: the so-called celebrity chefs. Two of them were, at the time the book was published, in 2006, up-and-coming, including Grant Achatz, now known for his innovative cuisine at Alinea, in Chicago. In one chapter, Ruhlman covers two restaurants at the food-focused 10 Columbus Circle, in New York's Time Warner Centre. One of them is Keller's Per Se, which is a week away from officially opening when an electrical fire forces it to close. Within a month of it eventually opening, food critic Frank Bruni is spotted there again and again. Three months later, the restaurant is awarded the newspaper's highest rating of four stars, meaning Keller has top-ranked restaurants at opposite ends of the United States.