Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook

by Anthony Bourdain

Life is cruel, lonely, and filled with pain and random acts of violence. Everybody hates you and seeks to destroy you.

No one will hurt a fucking dog.

Life was clearly a cruel joke. A place with no guarantees, built on a foundation of false assumptions if not outright untruths.

But I do think the idea that basic cooking skills are a virtue, that the ability to feed yourself and a few others with proficiency should be taught to every young man and woman as a fundamental skill, should become as vital to growing up as learning to wipe one’s own ass, cross the street by oneself, or be trusted with money.

John F. Kennedy said something truly terrifying—guaranteed to make every parent’s blood run cold: “To have a child is to give fate a hostage.”