Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly

published	May 22nd 2000 by Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
first published	2007
binding	Hardcover
isbn	158234082X (isbn13: 9781582340821)
ebook
pages	288
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 [close]
date added	05-09-07 edit book

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Patricia rated it:

(review of isbn 0060899220)

07/25/08

Read in June, 2008

Advanced warning: I tend to take on the vernacular of whomever I'm reading, so now might be a good time to mention that Anthony Bourdain has a very colorful ... er ... style.

So, I've finished reading Anthony Bourdain's book Kitchen Confidential, which is basically about all the craziness that goes on behind the scenes in the restaurant world. As I started reading the book, I thought I'd be of one of two minds by the end: either I'd never want to eat out again, or I'd want to chuck the teach...more Advanced warning: I tend to take on the vernacular of whomever I'm reading, so now might be a good time to mention that Anthony Bourdain has a very colorful ... er ... style.

So, I've finished reading Anthony Bourdain's book Kitchen Confidential, which is basically about all the craziness that goes on behind the scenes in the restaurant world. As I started reading the book, I thought I'd be of one of two minds by the end: either I'd never want to eat out again, or I'd want to chuck the teaching career and become a chef. Now that I've finished the book, I can honestly say that I really don't want to do either. I still will eat out although I'll never have fish on Monday -- not that that's too difficult since I don't order fish unless I'm actually at a place where I can smell the salt water. And I don't want to become a chef. I'm not at all suited for that craziness when the mad rush comes in.

However, what I would love to do is to figure out how to take Bourdain's Gonzo-style management and use it in teaching. The thing about Bourdain is that he just takes his balls out and lays them on the table and says "Yep, there they are. Look at them." He's just the best kind of badass because he has the talent to back up his swagger, but he also is plenty capable of fucking up. The thing that's so sexy about that, though, is that when he does screw something up, he owns it. Is it occasionally inappropriate to lay one's balls on the table and issue the directive to look at them? Yes. Absolutely. Does he fall apart when he realizes that he's done the wrong thing? No. He shrugs his shoulders and accepts the repercussions. This isn't to say that he doesn't care or that he is a complete asshole. There is plenty of evidence in the book that he does care and that he takes his fuck-ups to heart and tries to do better--to correct the dish so that it works the next time. I already kind of have this attitude in teaching -- I have tried some things that haven't worked, and I've tried to own it and accept the repercussions, but I think I'll try to acknowledge this attitude a bit more, and I would really like to figure out how to get my students to take this attitude towards their writing.

This really struck me this week as I was finishing Bourdain's book and a list-serv that I'm a member of was filled with temporary and adjunct instructors who are all upset about an article that appeared in the June issue of The Atlantic Monthly. A majority of the members of the list are upset because the author of the article, who teaches as a community college and at a lower-tier state school, basically points out that not everyone is capable of passing a college English course and that it is often the job of those who teach the entry level courses, i.e., the people who stand on the lower rungs of the academic ladder, to be the hatchet men of academe. I agree with the author of the article. In an ideal world, as teachers, we want to help anyone who wants to learn. But nationwide, and especially in my state, we don't live anywhere near ideal when it comes to education.

Anyway, I'll start to get my syllabi ready for the fall semester soon, and as I do, I will be trying to figure out how to take a different approach to teaching this semester. A Gonzo-style approach.
...less

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Jacob rated it:

(review of isbn 0060899220)

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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Valerie rated it:

(review of isbn 0060899220)

07/01/08

bookshelves: non-fiction

Read in July, 2008

I think that Kitchen Confidential would have packed more punch for me if I had read it when it was first published (in 2000). Much of what Bourdain was revealing about the restaurant industry became pretty well known in the years after he wrote this book - at least to people who had any interest in it - so I wasn't blown away by such revelations as:

Unless you're one of us already, you'll probably never cook like a professional.

Why, you might wonder? Because the home chef ma...more I think that Kitchen Confidential would have packed more punch for me if I had read it when it was first published (in 2000). Much of what Bourdain was revealing about the restaurant industry became pretty well known in the years after he wrote this book - at least to people who had any interest in it - so I wasn't blown away by such revelations as:

Unless you're one of us already, you'll probably never cook like a professional.

Why, you might wonder? Because the home chef may not have the right tools, like a decent chef's knife. Really? Because I think that's probably the first thing that a home chef would invest in. Bourdain goes on to list a bunch of other things that are needed to cook like the pros, like a non-stick sauté pan and plastic squeeze bottles. And - get this - here's a top secret ingredient that's keeping your home kitchen from approaching the culinary levels maintained at Bourdain's former restaurant, Les Halles. Are you ready for it? Come a little closer... it's shallots! An ingredient that Tony describes as an item that is hardly found in a home kitchen.

Apparently we've come a long way in the past eight years. The behind-the-scenes of the restaurant industry have been exposed to us by numerous tv shows, books, and our familiarity with celebrity chefs. So there's not that much that seemed shocking or surprising when I finally got around to reading KC.

But it's not really Tony's fault that I was late in getting to his book. I actually really liked his writing style. If you've ever seen No Reservations (his Travel Channel show), you can probably hear the dry wit of his slightly gravelly voice, and that's what I heard as I read. He did a great job of staying true to his voice, and it was easy to imagine him narrating the story to me. Parts told early on, when he talks about how he became interested in food were very personal, interesting and funny. Following his crazy career path was a wild ride. And he really doesn't hold back on the details - the good, the bad, and the very, very ugly are all revealed - so it's still like a backstage pass in some ways.

My copy of the book had been revised to include a preface by Bourdain that acknowledges some of what I've mentioned above (mainly about changes in the public's awareness of the cooking industry), as well as an afterward that fills us in on the fact that Bourdain is no longer cooking at Les Halles, but working for the Travel Channel filming No Reservations, as well as some minor corrections to the text.

Overall, a great read if a little dated....less

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Chilly rated it:

(review of isbn 0060899220)

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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Ruka rated it:

(review of isbn 0060899220)

08/12/08

Read in November, 2006

It's been a long time since a book made me laugh, literally and consistently, out loud. Not even books emblazoned with blurbs stating this fact from bribed reviewers made me sputter the way Bourdain's ranty exposé/memoir did, at least in the beginning. The funniest passage happens early in the book when Bourdain is laying out the dos and don'ts of restauranting(eating at and running one) and mentions one of his most hated groups:

"Vegetarians and their Hezbollah-like splinter-faction, the vegans, are a persistent irritant to any chef worth a damn. To me, life without veal stock, pork fat, sausage, organ meat, demi-glace, or even stinky cheese is a life not worth living. Vegetarians are the enemy of everything good and decent in human spirit, an affront to all I stand for, the pure enjoyment of food. The body, these waterheads imagine, is a temple that should not be polluted by animal protein. It’s healthier, they insist, though every vegetarian waiter I’ve worked with is brought down by any rumor of a cold." ...more It's been a long time since a book made me laugh, literally and consistently, out loud. Not even books emblazoned with blurbs stating this fact from bribed reviewers made me sputter the way Bourdain's ranty exposé/memoir did, at least in the beginning. The funniest passage happens early in the book when Bourdain is laying out the dos and don'ts of restauranting(eating at and running one) and mentions one of his most hated groups:

"Vegetarians and their Hezbollah-like splinter-faction, the vegans, are a persistent irritant to any chef worth a damn. To me, life without veal stock, pork fat, sausage, organ meat, demi-glace, or even stinky cheese is a life not worth living. Vegetarians are the enemy of everything good and decent in human spirit, an affront to all I stand for, the pure enjoyment of food. The body, these waterheads imagine, is a temple that should not be polluted by animal protein. It’s healthier, they insist, though every vegetarian waiter I’ve worked with is brought down by any rumor of a cold."

I'm a vegetarian, and I still think this fuck-the-world attitude is funny and refreshing.

While the first half or so of the book shows off the swaggering, ballsy, boy's club side of Bourdain's early career and the myriad of kitchens he's toured, it belies the concluding chapters. For all his machismo, Bourdain is a softie at heart, easily brought down by good food prepared simply and absolutely humbled by his associates and contemporaries that, in his words, cook better than he does. As he would chronicle in his subsequent book A Cook's Tour, his passion for every kind of edible substance, delectable or not, ordinary or exotic, grandiose or gross knows no bounds, which often translates into a certain fearlessness when approaching foods like offal, fugu, and sheep's testicles.

Plus, in a Louise Books-like coincidence, Bourdain is as gifted a writer as he is(presumably, as I haven't had the time or resources to visit his diner in New York) a chef. The highlights of Kitchen Confidential include the "day in a life" chapters, where he takes our hand and shows us step by step what it's like to "work the line" and churn out hundreds of plates a night. This eye for detail naturally translates into the travelogue pieces he prefers to write now.

However, if you have any aspirations of working in or running a restaurant, reading this book is probably fair warning. Being a line cook isn't about being an auteur or an innovator, it's about being a soldier and following orders; and being a chef is more like being a general. While this is a little disillusioning, it does little to dilute the draw of the industry, especially to us, the diners....less

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Jennifer Brown rated it:

(review of isbn 0060899220)

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:

(review of isbn 0060899220)

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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Justin rated it:

06/24/08

bookshelves: bios-and-memoirs

Read in June, 2008

My best friend is a chef and I’ve heard dozens of stories, from the profane to the bizarre, about what goes on in kitchens. I’ve also become increasingly interested in gourmet food, very well prepared food with fresh ingredients and amazing flavors. When I came across Kitchen Confidential, I looked forward to reading it.

And I was not disappointed. Anthony Bourdain’s writing is engaging, witty and extremely informative. Kitchen Confidential is often laugh out loud funn...more My best friend is a chef and I’ve heard dozens of stories, from the profane to the bizarre, about what goes on in kitchens. I’ve also become increasingly interested in gourmet food, very well prepared food with fresh ingredients and amazing flavors. When I came across Kitchen Confidential, I looked forward to reading it.

And I was not disappointed. Anthony Bourdain’s writing is engaging, witty and extremely informative. Kitchen Confidential is often laugh out loud funny. Not only does Bourdain confirm all the stories I’ve heard, he delivers the goods on the restaurant industry as a whole. I love when he’s talking about why he prefers to hire cooks from Third World countries over spoiled Culinary Institute grads because you can’t teach the Institute grads character. “When a job applicant starts telling me how Pacific Rim-job cuisine turns him on and inspires him, I see trouble coming. Send me another Mexican dishwasher anytime. I can teach him to cook. I can’t teach character. Show up at work on time six months in a row and we’ll talk about the red curry paste and lemon grass. Until then, I have four words for you: “Shut the fuck up.”

Reading the chapter “A Day In The Life” was particularly interesting because I got a sense of what a chef goes through, what a cook goes through on the line, how things work in a kitchen and how they relate to the rest of the restaurant.

Two observations from Bourdain changed the way I look at kitchens. First, I like that he talks about his “pirate crew.” Kitchen crews often are like a gang of cutthroat pirates, drinking and smoking and talking trash. Second, as sexist, racist, vile and disgusting as kitchen crews can be, it is often this behavior that gets them through their days as a successful team. Bourdain talks about how the kitchen crew is family and how they act the way they do because of their bonds. It’s clearly a dysfunctional family but family nonetheless.

Best of all, perhaps, are Bourdain’s hints on when to eat seafood at restaurants, what to watch out for as far as potential sanitation issues, foods to avoid in restaurants, etc. All good, useful information.

I read Kitchen Confidential in a couple days, it was so good. Anyone who likes food and has worked in a kitchen or knows someone who does will get a kick out of this book....less

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Ryan rated it:

08/03/08

bookshelves: currently-reading

Read in August, 2008

recommended to Ryan by: Jeremy Isch

This celebrity chef repeats himself a lot, uses too many rhetorical questions, and could stand to add some more transitions to his memoir. The first time he ever mentions his girlfriend, while lamenting to his boss that he never gets to see her anymore, I thought he was lying in order to drum up some sympathy time off. Turns out he did have a girlfriend, he just hadn't yet mentioned her to the readers.
Likewise, another chapter begins with a mention of his wife. But is it the girlfriend he hint...more This celebrity chef repeats himself a lot, uses too many rhetorical questions, and could stand to add some more transitions to his memoir. The first time he ever mentions his girlfriend, while lamenting to his boss that he never gets to see her anymore, I thought he was lying in order to drum up some sympathy time off. Turns out he did have a girlfriend, he just hadn't yet mentioned her to the readers.
Likewise, another chapter begins with a mention of his wife. But is it the girlfriend he hinted at before? A new woman in his life? Who knows? Obviously, she (or they) isn't (or aren't) important enough to warrant even a name until two thirds of the way through. As a fairly indiscriminate reader, I don't need much, but in a book that jumps around chronologically (including his early days of drugs and petty larceny to a "poor me" day in the life of a top chef), a few background details for context don't hurt.
Also, I don't believe half of Bourdain's stories about life in the "culinary underbelly." Maybe more than half. And I'm not the only one. The guy who recommended this book to me and a food and wine columnist I know each told me that they didn't believe a lot of Bourdain's stories either--particularly the one about a chef, ahem, "getting to know" a random bride in a restaurant parking lot. Yeah right.
Most of this book reads like a poser alpha-male fantasy. While I'm aware that commercial kitchens are high-stress, high-adrenaline areas, and that the folks who work in them tend to seek out extremes beyond food preparation and consumption (drugs, sex, rock-and-roll), Bourdain's tales of excess, even when told with a winking sort of faux self-deprecation, seem exaggerated at best and calculated image building at worst. If his own descriptions of himself and his character are to be trusted, I'm guessing it's the latter.
And the <a ref="http://www.booktypos.blogspot.... I found more here than any other book I've read in recent memory.
Despite all of this book's flaws, some of the stories are entertaining, though probably best read as fiction. If you're looking for a novel about the inner workings of a restaurant, Bill Buford's Heat is a far better choice....less

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Russ rated it:

(review of isbn 0060899220)

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:

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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:

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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:

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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:

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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:

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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:

(review of isbn 0060899220)

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:

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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:

(review of isbn 0060899220)

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