
Cooking as Fast as I Can
A Chef’s Story of Family, Food, and Forgiveness
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 $14.61
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Cassandra Campbell
-
By:
-
Cat Cora
About this listen
Before she became a celebrated chef, Cathy Cora was just a girl from Jackson, Mississippi, where days were slow and every meal was made from scratch. Her passion for the kitchen started in her home, where she spent her days internalizing the dishes that would form the cornerstone of her cooking philosophy, incorporating her Greek heritage and Southern upbringing - from crispy fried chicken and honey-drenched biscuits to spanakopita. But outside the kitchen, Cat's life was volatile.
In Cooking as Fast as I Can, Cat Cora reveals, for the first time, coming-of-age experiences from early childhood sexual abuse to the realities of life as a lesbian in the Deep South. She shares how she found her passion in the kitchen and went on to attend the prestigious Culinary Institute of America and apprentice under Michelin-star chefs in France. After her big break as a cohost on the Food Network's Melting Pot, Cat broke barriers by becoming the first-ever female Iron Chef.
©2015 Catherine Cora (P)2015 TantorListeners also enjoyed...
-
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
-
Humble Pie
- By: Gordon Ramsay
- Narrated by: Gordon Ramsay
- Length: 3 hrs and 1 min
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is Gordon Ramsay’s autobiography – the first time he has told the full story of how he became the world’s most famous and infamous chef: his difficult childhood, his brother’s heroin addiction and his failed first career as a footballer: all of these things have made him the celebrated culinary talent and media powerhouse that he is today.
-
-
Do wish it was unabridged though. . .
- By Tiffini on 04-16-10
By: Gordon Ramsay
-
Out of Line
- A Life of Playing with Fire
- By: Barbara Lynch
- Narrated by: Christina Delaine
- Length: 9 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
Hardheaded, arrogant, profane.
- By Minneapolis listener on 10-26-22
By: Barbara Lynch
-
Talking to My Angels
- By: Melissa Etheridge
- Narrated by: Melissa Etheridge
- Length: 6 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Over the past twenty years, Melissa Etheridge has been blessed with success, love, joy, contentment, freedom, and release. She became a mother again, recorded eleven albums, toured the world, performed at the Grammy Awards, won an Oscar, discovered her one true love, and underwent a profound spiritual awakening. She also experienced illness, incomparable loss, heartache, guilt, shame, and devastating grief. Yet through it all, Melissa found the strength and courage to carry on. Talking to My Angels is a profoundly honest look into her inner life as a woman, an artist, a mother, and a survivor.
-
-
just in time
- By horsecrazy on 09-15-23
-
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
-
Medium Raw
- A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook
- By: Anthony Bourdain
- Narrated by: Anthony Bourdain
- Length: 8 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the 10 years since his classic Kitchen Confidential first alerted us to the idiosyncrasies and lurking perils of eating out, much has changed for the subculture of chefs and cooks, for the restaurant business and for Anthony Bourdain. Medium Raw explores those changes, tracking Bourdain's strange and unexpected voyage from journeyman cook to globe-traveling professional eater and drinker, and even to fatherhood. Bourdain takes no prisoners as he dissects what he's seen.
-
-
Surprisingly tender.
- By Sparkly on 10-09-12
By: Anthony Bourdain
-
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
-
Humble Pie
- By: Gordon Ramsay
- Narrated by: Gordon Ramsay
- Length: 3 hrs and 1 min
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is Gordon Ramsay’s autobiography – the first time he has told the full story of how he became the world’s most famous and infamous chef: his difficult childhood, his brother’s heroin addiction and his failed first career as a footballer: all of these things have made him the celebrated culinary talent and media powerhouse that he is today.
-
-
Do wish it was unabridged though. . .
- By Tiffini on 04-16-10
By: Gordon Ramsay
-
Out of Line
- A Life of Playing with Fire
- By: Barbara Lynch
- Narrated by: Christina Delaine
- Length: 9 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
Hardheaded, arrogant, profane.
- By Minneapolis listener on 10-26-22
By: Barbara Lynch
-
Talking to My Angels
- By: Melissa Etheridge
- Narrated by: Melissa Etheridge
- Length: 6 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Over the past twenty years, Melissa Etheridge has been blessed with success, love, joy, contentment, freedom, and release. She became a mother again, recorded eleven albums, toured the world, performed at the Grammy Awards, won an Oscar, discovered her one true love, and underwent a profound spiritual awakening. She also experienced illness, incomparable loss, heartache, guilt, shame, and devastating grief. Yet through it all, Melissa found the strength and courage to carry on. Talking to My Angels is a profoundly honest look into her inner life as a woman, an artist, a mother, and a survivor.
-
-
just in time
- By horsecrazy on 09-15-23
-
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
-
Medium Raw
- A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook
- By: Anthony Bourdain
- Narrated by: Anthony Bourdain
- Length: 8 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the 10 years since his classic Kitchen Confidential first alerted us to the idiosyncrasies and lurking perils of eating out, much has changed for the subculture of chefs and cooks, for the restaurant business and for Anthony Bourdain. Medium Raw explores those changes, tracking Bourdain's strange and unexpected voyage from journeyman cook to globe-traveling professional eater and drinker, and even to fatherhood. Bourdain takes no prisoners as he dissects what he's seen.
-
-
Surprisingly tender.
- By Sparkly on 10-09-12
By: Anthony Bourdain
-
Rebel Chef
- In Search of What Matters
- By: Dominique Crenn, Emma Brockes
- Narrated by: Hope Newhouse
- Length: 5 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Dominique Crenn was awarded three Michelin Stars in 2018 for her influential San Francisco restaurant Atelier Crenn, she became the first female chef in the United States to receive this highly coveted honor. Filled with stories from the years Crenn spent working in the male-centric world of professional kitchens, tracking her career from struggling cook to being named the World’s Best Female Chef, starring on Netflix's Chef's Table, and running one of the world’s most acclaimed restaurants, Rebel Chef is disarmingly honest and revealing.
-
-
A Marriage of two Countries
- By Reed Kaelin on 07-19-20
By: Dominique Crenn, and others
-
Enough Already
- Learning to Love the Way I Am Today
- By: Valerie Bertinelli
- Narrated by: Valerie Bertinelli
- Length: 6 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Behind the curtain of her happy on-screen persona, Valerie Bertinelli’s life has been no easy ride, especially when it comes to her own self-image and self-worth. She waged a war against herself for years, learning to equate her value to her appearance as a child star on One Day at a Time and punishing herself in order to fit into the unachievable Hollywood mold. She struggled to make her marriage to Eddie Van Halen—the true love of her life—work, despite all the rifts the rock-star lifestyle created between them.
-
-
Added politics opinion not relevant to story. Wish I could get credit for. Did not chose this for a political opinion.
- By jaci o on 01-18-22
-
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
-
Quietly Hostile
- Essays
- By: Samantha Irby
- Narrated by: Samantha Irby
- Length: 9 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Samantha Irby’s career has taken her to new heights. She dodges calls from Hollywood and flop sweats on the red carpet at premieres (well, one premiere). But nothing is ever as it seems online, where she can crop out all the ugly parts. Irby got a lot of weird emails about Carrie Bradshaw, and not only is there diarrhea to avoid, but now—anaphylactic shock. She is turned away from restaurants for being inappropriately dressed and looks for the best ways to cope, i.e., reveling in the offerings of QVC and adopting a deranged pandemic dog.
-
-
Extremely disappointed
- By Diana in Michigan on 07-20-23
By: Samantha Irby
-
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
-
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
-
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
-
Love, Loss, and What We Ate
- A Memoir
- By: Padma Lakshmi
- Narrated by: Padma Lakshmi
- Length: 12 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A vivid memoir of food and family, survival and triumph, Love, Loss, and What We Ate traces the arc of Padma Lakshmi's unlikely path from an immigrant childhood to a complicated life in front of the camera - a tantalizing blend of Ruth Reichl's Tender at the Bone and Nora Ephron's Heartburn.
-
-
Touching, Deep, Surprising, and Inspiring
- By Aishwaryame on 08-18-16
By: Padma Lakshmi
-
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
-
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
-
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
-
Comedy Comedy Comedy Drama
- A Memoir
- By: Bob Odenkirk
- Narrated by: Bob Odenkirk, Steve Rudnick, Leo Benvenuti
- Length: 7 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Bob Odenkirk’s career is inexplicable. And yet he will try like hell to explicate it for you. Charting a “Homeric” decades-long “odyssey” from his origins in the seedy comedy clubs of Chicago to a dramatic career full of award nominations - with a side trip into the action-man world that is baffling to all who know him - it’s almost like there are many Bob Odenkirks! But there is just one and one is plenty. Featuring humorous tangents, wild characters, and Bob’s trademark unflinching drive, Comedy Comedy Comedy Drama is a classic tale told by a determined idiot.
-
-
Not great
- By D. Moore on 04-12-22
By: Bob Odenkirk
Critic reviews
What listeners say about Cooking as Fast as I Can
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amazon Customer
- 08-02-22
Always admired her; but now…
Overall theme appeared to be a spoiled, bad behaving chef (imagine that) who blames everything & everyone on her problems. Whine whine whine (& lots more WINE)
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Linda
- 04-25-16
I really, really, really wanted to like this book
I'm not sure if it was the writing or the narrator who distracted me. I found some of the story interesting, especially her early life, her parents and her personal demons. I would have like more food insights, instead of just lists of food on her menus of places that she worked or created. The editing was also an issue. How many times does one have to read how many days a year she was traveling. It would have been nice if her editor pushed her to give more insight into the personalities of the Iron Chefs she worked with for all those years....not I won 56 to 48, etc. I just kept thinking, here is another list...I worked here, I created this, I was trying to create my brand, and blah, blah, blah.
Chef bios are one of my favorite genres. This book just didn't do it for me.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Lou’s Wish List
- 08-16-21
The book was great…we need a sequel!
Cat Cora has an incredible journey. She put it all out there for the reader. Sincere and self-aware. I hope she writes a follow up for everything in more recent years.
The narrator was great but I do wish Cat was the narrator.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Bridget Clayborne
- 06-29-17
Chef Cat Cora
The book was surprisingly raunchy regarding some of her sexual encounters; Then absolutely Ah-Mazing with regards to her culinary career. She's an awesome, talented Chef!!! I was born in The Delta, like her, but in Mound Bayou Ms. I'm glad I choose it, my favorite part is when she spoke of her parents, siblings, and adoptive parents.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Nikki
- 04-10-24
Great listen for a chef
I love chef memoirs, being one myself. Love reading about the battles between kitchen life (esp being female) and personal life. Chef Cat is real, honest and entertaining in this book!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!