The Nasty Bits: Collected Varietal Cuts, Usable Trim, Scraps, and Bones

by Anthony Bourdain

As an example, Gras describes the effect of one dance club mix from DJ Tiesto called "Open Your Eyes" on his cooking: "It had a beautiful and powerful melody that made me think of combining cocoa and tomato. I put these flavors onto the main ingredient, swordfish. I felt it needed these powerful, powerful combinations and yet needed to be

and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell was a revelation to me when I first turned its pages and encountered Orwell's descriptions of his life as a plongeur (dishwasher) and prep cook at the pseudonymous Hotel "X" in 1920s Paris, and

Nicolas Freeling's The Kitchen takes place in the late 1940s Grand Hotels in France.

Emile Zola's gargantuan masterwork, The Belly of Paris, a work of fiction set in the then spanking new central market of nineteenth-century Paris, Les Halles.

David Blum's painfully hilarious Flash in the Pan, a savage and painstakingly documented account of the life and death of an American restaurant.

The function of all four of these old friends, tattered and broken-spined as they may be, is ultimately to make me feel better about myself and the way things are going.

And we should understand not just how much has changed, but how much has stayed the same: the character of the business we have chosen as a lifestyle—the way people who do what we do have endured, have learned, have risen and learned to love this thing of ours.

In this way, it can be said that deep inside every good cook, be they French, Italian, or American, beats the heart of a Chinese.

Surely my good friend Gordon would not eject me from his wonderful restaurant at Hospital Road if I showed up shoeless in Hawaiian shirt and cut-off jeans, would he? Not when I explain that my outfit has been strategically designed to enjoy his artistry to the fullest degree possible.

Who can deny the desirability of experiencing pure flavor, texture, and culinary technique free from the constraints and intrusions of restrictive modern garb?

🙌🏻

It doesn't—as you've probably guessed—take a lot for us to laugh, not afterwe've been softened up by countless "hang-yourself-in-the-shower-stall" hotel rooms.