Kitchen Confidential Updated Ed: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly (P.S.)

published	2007 by Harper Perennial
binding	Paperback
isbn	0060899220 (isbn13: 9780060899226)
pages	352
description	Most diners believe that their sublime sliver of seared foie gras, topped with an ethereal buckwheat blini and a drizzle of piquant huckleberry sauce,...more [close] Most diners believe that their sublime sliver of seared foie gras, topped with an ethereal buckwheat blini and a drizzle of piquant huckleberry sauce, was created by a culinary artist of the highest order, a sensitive, highly refined executive chef. The truth is more brutal. More likely, writes Anthony Bourdain in Kitchen Confidential, that elegant three-star concoction is the collaborative effort of a team of "wacked-out moral degenerates, dope fiends, refugees, a thuggish assortment of drunks, sneak thieves, sluts, and psychopaths," in all likelihood pierced or tattooed and incapable of uttering a sentence without an expletive or a foreign phrase. Such is the muscular view of the culinary trenches from one who's been groveling in them, with obvious sadomasochistic pleasure, for more than 20 years. CIA-trained Bourdain, currently the executive chef of the celebrated Les Halles, wrote two culinary mysteries before his first (and infamous) New Yorker essay launched this frank confessional about the lusty and larcenous real lives of cooks and restaurateurs. He is obscenely eloquent, unapologetically opinionated, and a damn fine storyteller--a Jack Kerouac of the kitchen. Those without the stomach for this kind of joyride should note his opening caveat: "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." --Sumi Hahn
date added	01-10-07 edit book

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aracauna rated it:

04/07/08

bookshelves: nonfiction--biography-autobiography

Has a copy to sell/swap — Read in April, 2008

recommends it for: Foodies, counterculture cultists, sexdrugandrockandroll types

My first exposure to Anthony Bourdain, via his show No Reservations, left me with with the sense of a true asshole who sneered down his nose with aging punk-rock disdain at people and things he deemed beneath him, and, honestly, it seemed like most people and things were beneath him. For some reason, even though he crossed my Southern sensibilities and turned me off to him on that first exposure, I kept watching the show and realized that there is a lot more to him than that first impress...more My first exposure to Anthony Bourdain, via his show No Reservations, left me with with the sense of a true asshole who sneered down his nose with aging punk-rock disdain at people and things he deemed beneath him, and, honestly, it seemed like most people and things were beneath him. For some reason, even though he crossed my Southern sensibilities and turned me off to him on that first exposure, I kept watching the show and realized that there is a lot more to him than that first impression suggested. No Reservations is now my favorite show and when I saw a copy of Kitchen Confidential for sale in the book store, I snapped it up and began reading it that night. I unfortunately wasn't able to keep his voice in my head (his delivery is a large part of the draw of his show for me) but the series of stories from his past that he lays out are captivating even when heard inside my skull as coming from the disembodied larynx of my standard reading voice.

Personally, I didn't find the shocking bits all that shocking. I've been backstage at good restaurants. I've heard it all before. Honestly, I'm not really all that hung up on food safety. Instead it was the parts dealing with his own erratic career path that kept me interested. Instead of leaving this book with the impression that Bourdain was an even bigger jerk than my first impression left me with (as someone suggested would happen), I left the last page of the book with an even more positive view of the guy. Sure, Bourdain is still cynical, obscene, and wears that brusque New York attitude like a badge of honor, but what stands out in his book is his glowing admiration for people who earned his respect for their willingness to work or pushing him down the right path as a chef (his almost loving references to Bigfoot and Pino are prime examples), his seeming compulsion to take in less than desirable underlings, and his complete willingness to point out when and where he screwed up. In this more recent update, he even points out that he learned he was wrong about Emeril Lagasse (as a chef and person, not as a TV Celebrity) and frequently comments that he isn't a top-tier chef because of his own mistakes. He even goes so far as to point out that the only reason he is able to hang out with and talk to the Michelin-starred chefs he always admired from afar is because of his notoriety as author and TV host.

This isn't some self-aggrandizing piece literary self-pleasuring. This is a very human piece of literature that reveals its author to be a man who may have grown up a couple of decades too late, but isn't too vain to admit that when he did it was in a large part because of those who took a chance on him and supported him when he was at his worse....less

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Chilly rated it:

04/02/08

Read in March, 2008

I come at Bourdain more as a traveler than as a foodie, and someone who found the Travel channel show before the books. I've never seen a travel show host like that before, not The Greatest, but far better than most. I quickly formed an obsession and might currently be suffering burnout - too much, too fast. I'm more likely to judge him on how "punk rock" he is (or isn't), than what type of chef. I was first turned off when going into the mainstream bookstore to look for him in prin...more I come at Bourdain more as a traveler than as a foodie, and someone who found the Travel channel show before the books. I've never seen a travel show host like that before, not The Greatest, but far better than most. I quickly formed an obsession and might currently be suffering burnout - too much, too fast. I'm more likely to judge him on how "punk rock" he is (or isn't), than what type of chef. I was first turned off when going into the mainstream bookstore to look for him in print. Dude has a lot of books out right now... A cursory flip through some of his fiction had me thinking I'd be disappointed. Some of the other books looked like the work of an over-zealous PR agent juicing all they could out his ongoing 15 minutes. But KC is supposed to be the "one to read" and it doesn't disappoint.
I was more into his debaucherous tales of the past than the food snobbery bits. Having done time in kitchens myself (certainly as a "cook", but with perhaps fleeting glances at other's "chefdom") I was entertained with hyperbolic tales of getting slammed on the line, with criminal madness going on unseen by the patron eye. Yet another one who has "been there"...

But there are some strange inconsistencies: one chapter urging "those who want to cook like pros at home" to not under-estimate the importance of garnish, then claiming a lot of "Jackson Pollock" decoration to be unnecessary, and possible gay. His wanting to play both sides of the fence: having been SO down and out, then talking shit about high salary and name dropping a lot of stuff I'll never eat, and don't necessarily want to (I'll taste it, comped...), but I can chalk this unbalanced ego stuff up to "repentant crackhead's remorse". And as he says in the afterword, these are different times. But we know many kitchens, at various economic levels, are still kooky places. More than anything, it's clear that Bourdain possesses an ego that needed to soar beyond the building, no matter how fine an establishment that was...and I'm OK with that.
My real questions center around the mentioned but unexplored character of Nancy, his wife, with whom he has been "stealing horses with since high school". How exactly did she weather the worst of his debauchery era? Why would she stick around if it was really as bad as all that? Is she in fact some Sharon Osbourne character cracking the whip behind the scenes? And is this the woman with whom he has recently had the child that has inspired him to quit smoking? How is that possible at their age (early 50's)? But as you see, review reader, I may certainly be in danger of being too involved in this cult of personality... ...less

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Jennifer Brown rated it:

11/19/07

bookshelves: biography, humor, library-book, memoirs, non-fiction

Read in August, 2007

Anthony Bourdain is very much the punk rock rebel of celebrity chefs. The chef who isn't afraid to refer to Emeril as an Ewok, and poke fun of culinary-school trained cooks, when at the same time, he is a celebrity chef, and a culinary school graduate. He knows this, and it's not a problem for him.

Kitchen Confidential is part memoir, part how-to, and mostly about sex, drugs and rock-n-roll. It's basically a history of Anthony's obsession with food and drugs from his days as a young boy, until ...more Anthony Bourdain is very much the punk rock rebel of celebrity chefs. The chef who isn't afraid to refer to Emeril as an Ewok, and poke fun of culinary-school trained cooks, when at the same time, he is a celebrity chef, and a culinary school graduate. He knows this, and it's not a problem for him.

Kitchen Confidential is part memoir, part how-to, and mostly about sex, drugs and rock-n-roll. It's basically a history of Anthony's obsession with food and drugs from his days as a young boy, until he finally landed a steady job, and got off the heroin. This is not the book you should read if you don't want to know who is cooking your food. If you'd rather be ignorant about what exactly is being served at Sunday brunch, skip this book. You may never eat fish on a Monday again.

In his typical style, he speaks his mind, sometimes harshly about the food industry. His cynicism and sarky nature are evident on every page, sometimes, honestly, it gets annoying. That may be due in no small part to the fact that I was reading this book as the new season of No Reservations started, so I might have just been on Bourdain overload.

I wanted to enjoy this book more, but as much as it was full of great writing, excellent imagery, and unique insight into the world of restaurants, I just found myself more annoyed than excited by the book.

I guess part of it was the fact that Bourdain seems to think that working all hours, miscreant geniuses, machisimo, and locker room humor are the sole province of kitchens. I guess it's a blessing that he's never worked in technology--especially in break-fix arenas. It's another place where calling someone a "cocksucker" means you like them, where even if you're a woman, you need to have a dick, or talk like you do. I guess I just felt like he wasn't giving me any new information. Get a bunch of guys together in a high stress, service environment, and you have to be abrasive, just to survive the night.

Anyhow... It wasn't a bad read. I do know now I never plan to work in a kitchen (the book also made me realize just how many cooks/dishwashers etc. I have known over the years, maybe another reason this wasn't such a revelation for me).

Anyhow, I'm going back to fantasy fiction for a while....less

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Patrick rated it:

03/07/08

bookshelves: 2008

Read in March, 2008

Halfway through this book I remembered I don't have the slightest bit of interest in the culinary arts whatsoever. Luckily, I was listening to it on audiotape. Unluckily, cassette 4 broke and I had to read the rest with my eyes. I'm not sure why I picked this up, I guess because I heard Bourdain was the "punk rock chef," but besides listening to the Sex Pistols and Velvet Underground while he cooked, there's not a whole lot else going on of a punk rock nature. He was a drug addict,...more Halfway through this book I remembered I don't have the slightest bit of interest in the culinary arts whatsoever. Luckily, I was listening to it on audiotape. Unluckily, cassette 4 broke and I had to read the rest with my eyes. I'm not sure why I picked this up, I guess because I heard Bourdain was the "punk rock chef," but besides listening to the Sex Pistols and Velvet Underground while he cooked, there's not a whole lot else going on of a punk rock nature. He was a drug addict, but the book kind of skips right over that, which would have been interesting; I'd rather it had been more of a total autobiography than just a chronicle of his history of the restaurant biz, but once again, it's my fault because that's clearly what the book is labeled as. I wanted dirty stories from the seedy underbelly of the high-class dining world, but it didn't really get much wilder than a bunch of cooks making racist, sexist, homophobic jokes. Dude, that's not exclusive to the culinary world, that's pretty much behind the scenes at any workplace, or really any time you get a lot of misplaced testosterone in one room. You're not leading a "pirate crew," you're supervising people who are following recipes. I rented a dvd from his show "No Reservations" and was again surprised at myself for forgetting I don't really care about exotic foods, and that's a traveling show, which I'm also not into. So now I'm watching like 3 hours of a guy I don't like, eating shit I don't care about, in places I'm not interested in going to. It should be noted that I do like Rachel Ray's "Tasty Travels," but that's another story I don't want to get into. The only really funny anecdote I found was when he was in an interview for chef at a new steakhouse in New York, things were going smoothly until the owner asked him, "What do you know about me?" Bourdain thought it over, not sure what he should say, so he said the truth, "Nothing." So then the guy gives him a weird look, and the interview ends with Bourdain knowing he's not getting the job. He walks a few blocks down the street before he realizes the guy actually asked, "What do you know about MEAT."...less

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Russ rated it:

09/10/07

bookshelves: 2007, autobiography, nonfiction

Read in September, 2007

recommends it for: Foodies or anyone looking for a good read

Part autobiography, part manual on what and what not to do in the restaurant industry, "Kitchen Confidential" is definitely not for the faint-of-heart. Anthony Bourdain tells no-BS tales of insults, theft, yelling, screaming, sex, drug dealing, drug abusing, and, oh yes, cooking. I loved every minute of it.

Bourdain pulls no punches in describing the actual work that goes into running or working in a professional kitchen. Just reading it will make you feel overwhelmed. The "...more Part autobiography, part manual on what and what not to do in the restaurant industry, "Kitchen Confidential" is definitely not for the faint-of-heart. Anthony Bourdain tells no-BS tales of insults, theft, yelling, screaming, sex, drug dealing, drug abusing, and, oh yes, cooking. I loved every minute of it.

Bourdain pulls no punches in describing the actual work that goes into running or working in a professional kitchen. Just reading it will make you feel overwhelmed. The "A Day In The Life" chapter, especially, gives one a good idea about the ins and outs of restaurant life. His book is full of very real characters - loyal, hard-working Ecuadorian cooks, drug users, degenerates, perverts, and your garden-variety wacko. Those are the folks who, at least at the time of the writing of the book, cook your food when you go out to eat. I especially enjoyed the tales of Adam Real-Last-Name-Unknown, Anthony's former bread-baker, who gets a chapter all to himself.

After all the punishing, intense descriptions of the hell that is the professional kitchen, it was nice to have some brief interludes where Anthony talks about specific restaurant-related topics - what not to eat, what tools a good chef or cook needs, the setup of a restaurant kitchen.

That leads me into what I did not like about the book - it's mostly about life in kitchens. Interesting, yes, but a bit monotonous after a while. I eventually lost track of which previously-mentioned people worked in which restaurants in Tony's career. The stories tend to run together - same tales of criminal acts and high stress, just in different settings. It might have been nice for Bourdain to provide a handy time line of places and people at the start or end of the book. Also, I think some of the terms could have been better defined for a non-professional audience. I realize Bourdain was writing to an audience of cooks and chefs, but the updated edition could have included a brief glossary to help the non-foodies.

Even with its faults, "Kitchen Confidential" is an entertaining book. And it is all true, because Anthony set out to tell the truth and nothing but....less

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christa rated it:

02/21/08

Read in February, 2008

in your life, you belong to a little subset of people based upon your job, your college, or a shared hobby or experience. maybe you belong to more than one. occasionally, when you get together with the people from your niche, an outsider is thrown into the mix and everyone spends the whole night telling stories about the "good old days" and how reckless and badass and drunk everyone was. and for the outsider, sometimes its funny. then as things ramp up more, it gets less funny. pretty ...more in your life, you belong to a little subset of people based upon your job, your college, or a shared hobby or experience. maybe you belong to more than one. occasionally, when you get together with the people from your niche, an outsider is thrown into the mix and everyone spends the whole night telling stories about the "good old days" and how reckless and badass and drunk everyone was. and for the outsider, sometimes its funny. then as things ramp up more, it gets less funny. pretty soon you're yawning and you hate everyone in the entire world and would rather slit your own throat with shards from a wine bottle than hear another story about this guy who did this thing ...

that, in a nutshell, is kitchen confidential. when anthony bourdain writes in the introduction that he wrote this for other chefs and was surprised that it got so much outsider attention, i think that was genuine.

the first third of the book is a collection of funny and interesting stories about making his way through the cooking industry and the characters he met. then he starts repeating himself, then the chronology gets confusing, then he throws in a love letter to his mentor -- referring to him only as 'bigfoot' and spends paragraph after paragraph explaining that he's NOT GOING TO TELL YOU WHO BIGFOOT IS! then insists that anyone who is anyone KNOWS who bigfoot is. [i became so distracted by this 'who is bigfoot' thing that i could barely read the book ... not that i know anything about the new york restaurant scene. i just hate secrets.

having never seen any of his tv stuff, i didn't have anthony bourdain's voice-voice in my head. but the voice he writes with is this really annoying bravado, maybe better suited for mass market crime novels.

on the other hand, there is one completely fantastic chapter about eating his way through tokyo that is so colorful and paced so perfectly. you can almost see him -- an insatiable westerner gorging himself to the delight of the restaurant's staff. drunk on sake and eating and eating and eating. this chapter is where he puts away his voice, his drug years, his knives and you see that he can write. ...less

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John rated it:

09/01/07

bookshelves: favorites

Read in January, 2003

recommends it for: anyone going into the food service industry, and anyone who has ever worked in a restaurant

At this point, with his television show, and all the attention he generates in the press, Anthony Bourdain has achieved a kind of celebrity that few chefs have attained. His reputation has not been established so much by his cooking as by this irreverent and hilarious book. Like David Sedaris, Anthony Bourdain has a unique no-nonsense style, a clear and distinct writing style, and he has the ability to sum up important or interesting observations about the world in single pithy sentences. One of...more At this point, with his television show, and all the attention he generates in the press, Anthony Bourdain has achieved a kind of celebrity that few chefs have attained. His reputation has not been established so much by his cooking as by this irreverent and hilarious book. Like David Sedaris, Anthony Bourdain has a unique no-nonsense style, a clear and distinct writing style, and he has the ability to sum up important or interesting observations about the world in single pithy sentences. One of the great things about this book is that it is full of such moments, and I can say after having been raised by a chef, and having worked ten years in the food service industry, that most kitchens work exactly in the way that Bourdain describes them. It is really a laserclear portrayal of what it is like to work in the average restaurant kitchen – far better than the absurd world that one finds on Hell's Kitchen or other similar "reality" shows. Since I read the book I often think about the rite of passage that the formally blue attired chef had at his first job in Provincetown (One of my hometowns - I may have actually eaten at the restaurant when Anthony was there), the character of Adam, and the alleged secret of cooking pasta. And although I disagree with Bourdain on several points, in general I find his recommendations on how to cook food, what equipment to use, and how to work in a kitchen to be quite sound. A further feature of the book is that although he can be irreverently funny, he obviously treats food and cooking with a great deal of respect: from his time growing up in the south of France, to his observations of what makes Alain Ducasse and his pupils such great chefs. I would recommend this book to anyone going into the food service industry, to people who like Sedaris, and to people interested in the movie Ratatouille: Bourdain was consulted during that movie, and although the recipes in the movie show the obvious hand of Thomas Keller, some of the dialogue was right out of this book....less

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Mike rated it:

01/06/08

Read in August, 2007

recommended to Mike by: Doreen

I had absolutely no intention of reading this book. Doreen borrowed it from Adrienne who borrowed it from her sister. I figured "what do I care about how a chef became a chef?" Could there possibly be a more boring story than some guy’s adventures through culinary school? I thought not many things would be more boring. I was wrong.
In “Kitchen Confidential” Bourdain takes you on the journey from being a kid on a cruise eating his first oyster to being basically a ...more

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Erica rated it:

07/24/07

bookshelves: currently-reading

Read in June, 2007

recommends it for: Culinary Students, Foodies

I'll be honest, I've only made it through half of this book. Not that it's a bad book, in fact its a great book, I just haven't had alot of time to spend with it.

It gives such an honest portrayal of life in the Culinary industry. From his beginnings in a seaside restaurant, to life in a culinary institute, to working through, and not necessarily up, the ladder of the culinary lifestyle, Bourdain tell of his life, inside and outside of the kitchen.

Bourdain gives absolutely no sugar coati...more

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Martine rated it:

01/06/08

bookshelves: biography, blokey-books, journalism-in-book-form, memoirs, non-fiction, north-american

Read in January, 2008

recommends it for: foodies and lovers of gonzo journalism

Anthony Bourdain's memoirs of his life as a New York chef are something of a legend among foodies, and it's easy to see why. A spectacular story full of sex and drugs and rock 'n' roll, Kitchen Confidential has nothing to do with the likes of Delia Smith or Nigella Lawson; the best way to describe the book would be 'On the Road with food'. Bourdain may be vulgar and rather full of himself, but there's no doubt he's a gifted story-teller, and he's on to a good story here. The first ...more

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Wolfman rated it:

03/03/08

Read in November, 2007

If you've seen "No Reservations," Anthony Bourdain's show on the Travel Channel, you may have been intrigued and entertained by the globe-trotting sampling of exotic (and not-so-exotic) cuisines, and by Bourdain's rough-edged wit and constant cameraderie with fellow foodies. But unless you've read "Kitchen Confidential," Bourdain's part-memoir, part insider manifesto, part faux-chef's-manual, you might not be aware of his credentials as a professional food taster and pedigr...more

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Erin440 rated it:

03/17/08

bookshelves: currently-reading

Read in March, 2008

Only in the past several months have I actually become aware of Anthony Bourdain. I've watched many episodes of No Reservations and love seeing where he'll be next week. However, my interest doesn't lie so much in the food as it does just seeing the country he's visiting.

After watching last week's episode where he went back to Les Halles for a day to work a double shift, a friend told me that this episode was actually very similar to his book Kitchen Confidential. I looked up his info o...more

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Linda rated it:

01/29/08

Read in January, 2008

recommends it for: people interested in the restaurant business

In Kitchen Confidential, Anthony Bourdain certainly makes a few interesting insights about the world in which restaurant food is created. For example, don't order fish on Mondays; avoid Sunday bunch buffets; don't order your meat well done unless you want your $25 steak microwaved; don't order chicken unless you want to be disdained. I also appreciated Bourdain's love of food and his rather delightful descriptions of his foodie adventures (witness: his childhood food epiphanies in France ...more

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Carol rated it:

03/06/08

Read in March, 2008

recommended to Carol by: While writing a review of "Heat", other reviewers mentioned that
recommends it for: A MUST for anyone contemplating a carrer in food service and foodies in general

Ah, now THIS is what I had hoped I'd get from reading "Heat" and didn't. This should be mandatory reading for anyone fantasizing about changing careers and becoming a chef. Although starting a new career at this point in my life, especially one physically grueling, would be absurd, I have to admit I have sometimes thought a wistful "what if.." No more. Bourdain lets you know that unless you MUST cook and just can't help yourself, are totally committed to having no perso...more

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Joshua rated it:

02/01/08

bookshelves: autobiographies, favorites

Read in January, 2008

recommends it for: Anyone who enjoys food

God this book is fantastic. I usually don't gush, but I'm gushing now. This is one bloody amazing read. This is like eating a steak cooked perfectly right (which is rare). This is like taking that first sip of sake after a long day of work. This is like that piece of fish I had at Maurice in Paris (best fish I ever had). This is like that yellow tail sushi I had at Buddakan in Phili. This is transcendence for anyone who has ever worked at a restaurant. This is like a reminder when I worked at a ...more

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KK rated it:

05/03/08

bookshelves: biographical, real-life-current-events

Read in May, 2008

'm not sure what I expected from this book. I think a lot less swearing and a lot more anecdotes. It seems like the 70s and 80s were a big drunken orgy for him (although, to be fair, it was the same for a lot of people who grew up then). But I got the picture after the first chapter of: "we smoked weed, drank all night, screwed lots of women, acted like pigs, and ate, then went back to work and did it all again the next night. Personally, I think he tried too hard to sound eccentric/cool/o...more

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Joshua rated it:

02/11/08

Read in December, 2007

I actually didn't read this but plowed through the 8-disc audio version while driving around. Whatever, dudes. You're going to have to deal with this hard truth. But it was read by the author and unabridged so I think I still get credit, and I didn't have to waste precious videogame time parked in front of book. Win-win.

ANYWAY I've been all hot-to-trot about high-end cooking lately, which is weird because I hardly ever cook and I have the same taste I had as a three-year-old, but I guess I'm...more

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Joel rated it:

04/16/08

Read in April, 2008

recommended to Joel by: Jason
recommends it for: foodies and culinary artists.

Anthony Bourdain was unknown to me until very recently. I was at my father's house, channel surfing, when I came across a show featuring a chef traveling around the world eating as many exotic and unusual dishes as he could find. The show, of course, was No Reservations, featuring Anthony Bourdain.

I downloaded Kitchen Confidential from eMusic Audio Books and boarded my flight home. I have not enjoyed a flight that much in years.

Bourdain himself narrated his book and he speaks with the...more

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Amanda rated it:

02/25/08

Read in February, 2008

This is so much more than a book about food. Chef Bourdain reveals a coming of age story about a scrawny kid making his way through busy, sweaty, machismo-infused kitchens, while simultaneously getting as much experience in sex, drugs, and street life. Once the history reaches the present he switches gears and discusses his typical day in the life, some of his favorite foods, what he avoids in a restaurant, and a reflection on his current state of life.

This book is written I imagine in t...more

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David rated it:

08/13/07

Read in August, 2007

recommends it for: Anyone who has ever worked in a kitchen

A long time ago, in a seemingly past life I worked in a relatively upscale restaurant located at Point Breeze, NY. I started as a bus boy, worked my way up to kitchen expediter, waiter, and eventually bartender.

The best part of my job was working in that kitchen, surrounded on all sides by the varying grotesqueries of the industry. I was a college educated white collar person, working along side juvenile offenders, bums, and transients. While the situation might seem rather dichotomous, I ab...more

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