Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly

An entertaining adventure in the Demi world of professional kitchens.
Anthony Bourdain recently made headlines because he hung himself despite appearing to have it all. It seems to me that he had become what he made fun of — a man at the end of his run who was now cashing in on his success because he could no longer run with the big dogs in NYC’s high end kitchens.It’s a fascinating, entertaining book – he mocks the life of a kitchen crew and restaurant owner but his love for the life oozes through. He details his own vices, shortcuts and laziness in an attempt to explain why he never achieved the greatness he aspired to. Yet he also is quite proud of his ability to roll with the punches, endure abuse and remain empathetic to his crew and their concerns. He has a huge ego but there’s always room for his crew.Every interview I’ve seen brings up “why you shouldn’t order fish on Mondays” as the defining section of the book. It is one of two sections where he offers practical and invaluable insight into cooking and eating. The rest of the book is either: look how I screwed up but survived and prospered, look at what I have to put up with, or look at what I could have become. He has an opinion on everything and everyone; most of them aren’t flattering.Fast moving copy, funny yet real stories, and an authentic take on life in the restaurant world make this worth reading.

Bourdain first and bedt
A great summer read

Delicious, entertaining and brutally informative. Mange!!!
The author warns, “There will be horror stories.Heavy drinking, drugs, screwing in the dry-goods area, unappetizing industry-wide practices. Talking about why you probably shouldn’t order fish on a Monday, why those who favor well-done get the scrapings from the bottom of the barrel, and why seafood frittata is not a wise brunch selection…. But I’m simply not going to deceive anybody about the life as I’ve seen it.”Anthony Bourdain has lead quite a life, and retells some of his adventures in frank, vivid detail. This book is full of fact, gossip and inside views of a sub-culture most of us will never experience, yet sit just on the outskirts of, on the other side of those swinging kitchen doors. It touches us, but we cannot touch back. This is a rare treat.From defiantly slurping down his first raw oyster as a child, through CIA education, to working in New York’s hot spots, cooking for celebrities, Anthony Bourdain candidly exposes some of the seedier elements of the restaurant business. He speaks of sex in the storage rooms, backseat negotiations over bread delivery with shady businessmen (presumably mafia), ego-induced insanity and down-and-out genius.He gives us some food for thought, lets us in on the odd sense of humor shared in most of the kitchens he has worked in, and occasionally shocks us with things we may not have wanted to know, but we read on, swallowing every juicy tidbit hungrily. It reminds one of watching a car wreck victim be loaded onto a stretcher, we try not to, but we continue to stare transfixed, wincing all the while.He describes most restaurant staff as “wacked-out moral degenerates, dope fiends, refugees, a thuggish assortment of drunks, sneak thieves, … , and psychopaths,” with a cast like that, how can any story fail to entertain?At one restaurant the crew spent slow hours coming up with practical jokes to play on the unsuspecting front room staff and management, such as molding life-like severed fingers from various food products and leaving them around in freezers and on cutting boards.It is not all lurid amusement, however. He does manage to sneak in some wonderful recipes, along with very good advice (what knives are really worth owning, for example) for casual cooks, would-be professional chefs and potential restaurant owners.If you don’t have a weak stomach, enjoy cooking, eating, laughing and/or general debauchery, this book is bound to have you hooked from page one.Also, if you enjoy listening rather than (or as well as) reading, look for the audio book, read by the author. His delivery adds something rich and spicy to the already wonderfully satisfying feast of words. It had me looking forward to my commute, just so I could hear how Chef Bourdain would garnish the next course with his own inflection and undeniably charming “gruff New Yorker” attitude.

Great read, especially if you know something about kitchens.

I wanted to keep this book for a later holiday read but that’s not going to happen ! I can’t put it down.