Kitchen Confidential

Product Information

Saying that, though, Bourdain admits in Kitchen Confidential that not all chef contemporaries of his were as wild and aggressive as his team. Even though he does not share a lot from his early childhood and primary family life, except for the notion they traveled frequently, his early life has a veil of melancholy, the veil that grows into the depression of adult age.

The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. Having, before this year, spent so much time at home ill and on the internet, I used to overestimate the impact Very Online social justice culture had in the real world in general, and am now seeing the difference, between internet and reality, especially in middle-aged centre-left people. What makes Bourdain so special is clearly evident amongst the pages here, even from a book he wrote long ago. 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. I spent most of my waking hours drinking, smoking pot, scheming, and doing my best to amuse, outrage, impress and penetrate anyone silly enough to find me entertaining.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. I would have loved to have eaten something dished up by Bourdain, it is astonishing what he knows about food and its preparation and I very much enjoyed these aspects of his book. Even if you're not an aspiring chef or a foodie or even a home cook, you may enjoy this simply for the pleasure of hearing his words, which are so vivid you probably can imagine him reading them to you. Bourdain wanted everyone to know what there is behind the curtain, who teams up to put together the beautifully plated and delicious things you eat at fancy restaurants. It can be, at times, the purest and most unselfish way of giving pleasure (though oral sex has to be a close second).

Viscerally, instinctively, spiritually-even in some small, precursive way, sexually-and there was no turning back. Bourdain promises to take you behind the scenes of the restaurant industry, which he certainly does - it's just that he only takes you to very specific restaurant environments that he has worked in and has directly helped shape, a revelation that he only gets to almost three-quarters of the way through the book. Kitchen Confidential is a definite recommendation for Bourdain fans and for those interested in the restaurant business. Bourdain has a knack for pacing and never stays in place terribly long, literally or figuratively; one thing that Kitchen Confidential does to perfection, two decades after its publication, is to keep you entertained. That for people in the industry there is so much truth here and for people outside there is a fascinating glimpse into the lives of people we interact with on a daily basis, but that, if we are honest, rarely think about Kitchen Confidential is their story, or at least a version of it.THE CLASSIC BESTSELLER: 'The greatest book about food ever written''A compelling book with its intriguing mix of clever writing and kitchen patois . Head and tail of spine very slightly crumpled, pages lightly browned, front free endpaper very lightly creased with an impression the size of a thumb otherwise a clean and sound copy of a very scarce item in wrapper with slight shelf-wear to edges. Bourdain has cited George Orwell's Down and Out in Paris and London (1933), with its behind-the-scenes examination of the restaurant business in 1920s Paris, as an important influence on the book's themes and tone. Less meat and a lot more veggies is definitely the way to go, but people who preach about veganism and try to make other people feel like bad human beings for not hopping onto their high-horse really, really need to pipe the fuck down.

I became acquainted with Anthony Bourdain - brash, profane, yet witty - through his food porn shows on the Travel Channel.I thought I simply had a misfortune of working in crappy places, but, apparently, all cooks are exactly like that! The environment of the professional kitchen is intense, unpleasant, and oftentimes ruthless, which Bourdain demonstrates, again and again, through the narrative of memoir.

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. New York Chef Tony Bourdain gives away secrets of the trade in his wickedly funny, inspiring memoir/expose. Almost two decades ago, the New Yorker published a now infamous article, "Don't Eat before You Read This," by then little-known chef Anthony Bourdain. Bourdain is the author of the New York Times bestselling Kitchen Confidential and Medium Raw; A Cook’s Tour; the collection The Nasty Bits; the novels Bone in the Throat and Gone Bamboo; the biography Typhoid Mary: An Urban Historical; two graphic novels, Get Jiro!

I'm amused by people who think he was arrogant: I mean, half French, half New Yorker is not a blueprint for humility, but I also found him to have worked his ass off and to have earned his success. But also, Bourdain was an incredibly charismatic, passionate, intelligent, well-read, eloquent, funny and honest human being, a sensualist that had plenty of life inside himself and who truly appreciated the pleasures of life. Our team is made up of book lovers who are dedicated to sourcing and providing the best books for kids. I enjoyed greatly the first 150 pages of the book, but the last 150 pages I was struggling and dragging through, so be prepared for uneven writing. It was a bit of serendipity to find out that Road Runner, the Bourdain documentary, was just released the other day!