Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly by anthony bourdain

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 16,2025

What are man. What a character. What a life. I read the physical book in tandem with the audio, and it was the best experience, like having him back again. He was a true badass rock star in the culinary world. This book is outrageous, hilarious, and really informative. I'm a dummy for waiting so long to read it.

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SatsugaiDeAtsu

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 16,2025

How could I have never reviewed this book? I read this at a key turning point in my life, and was one of those books that changed everything for me. I was 22. I had gotten married and gone directly to graduate school right after graduating with a BA in music, with a full ride and graduate assistantship in the School of Folklore at Indiana University. It wasn't a good fit for me. By the time I enrolled in the fieldwork class, I knew I was probably on my way out, and got permission to do my fieldwork assignments in restaurant kitchens. The culinary-school trained cooks in the restaurant commanded me to read this book when I was still just observing and volunteering (I later worked there until I moved away), and it solidified my love for an industry that I was already excited by because of my experiences.

Anthony Bourdain may seem a bit extreme, but his tales of what really goes on in restaurants and among cooks is not that far off from my own experiences. Ask me to tell you about the time I slammed the head waiter's head in the fridge door, or ask for a kitchen-scar tour of my body. Once you are immersed in that world, it changes you. I loved it. I loved the rush, the thrill, the creativity, the challenge. I feel like Bourdain's memories are my memories. I may love him as a TV personality and a guest actor in my dreams, but this is where I love him the most.

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MeesaWBush

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 16,2025

This was my book club read for June, although it had been on my TBR for years! When this was written back in 2000, it was groundbreaking and shocking. It was the advent of celebrity chefs and everything that industry has brought to food and restaurants.

I have long been a Bourdain fan, we watched all of his shows and his enjoyment of food and travel has encouraged us more than once to get out of our comfort zones and to embrace new and unique experiences. I was devastated when I heard news of his suicide, I feel like the world is a bit less bright without him in it.

I liked this book but didn't love it. I loved that he reads the audiobook, because hearing his inflection and emphasis made me know when he was being serious and when he was being sarcastic. Some parts of this book are eye-opening and interesting, you definitely won't look at a restaurant or its food the same way again. Yet other parts of the book get really tedious, going through endless names of people and different restaurants kind of made me glaze over. I am not familiar with any of these people or places, so those parts didn't connect with me.

Overall this is a fascinating look at Bourdain's start and early days working as a chef in restaurants and his path and journey in life. There's some good advice here to aspiring chefs and "regular" people who just like to eat in restaurants.

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Shumi_Reviews

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 16,2025

Bookopoly 2022. – Poll Pick
Buddy Readathon s Anom – 5

Volim Bourdaina. Često sam gledala njegovu kulinarsku seriju No Reservations i bio mi je šok kad sam čula da si je oduzeo život. Ovo je prva njegova knjiga koju sam pročitala i dala mi je neke odgovore na pitanje zašto je to napravio.
U knjizi nam Bourdain daje svoj svojevrstan kulinarski životopis. U njoj opisuje svoj život kroz ljubav prema hrani i prema kuharskom poslu. Ali opisuje ga zaista iskreno, sirovo, sa svim usponima i padovima. Opisuje svoje ovisnosti, svoje pogreške i kako je učio na njima. Opisuje ljude s kojima i za koje je radio, šaroliku hrpu kuhara iz raznih zemalja, bolesnike, čudake, luđake... Nekad je prost, nekad okrutan, a nekad s ljubavlju i zanosom pripovijeda o ljudima kojima se divi, koje cijeni. Pripovijeda nam o radu u kuhinji velikog restorana, o problemima, o naporima s kojima su se u njoj suočavali, o žuljevima, opeklinama, ubodima i posjekotinama. Do u detalje saznajemo što je čiji posao i što je on kao šef kuhinje sve morao raditi. A napose nam priča o ljubavi prema svom poslu, o onome što ga ispunjava i zašto voli ludnicu kuhinje kad se u restoranu pojavi milijun gladnih gostiju.
Knjiga mi je bila odlična i nadam se da ću je u budućnosti bar još jednom pročitati. Otvorila mi je vrata jednog novog svijeta i cijelo vrijeme dok sam ju čitala, pitala sam se kako izgledaju kuhinje naših restorana i ljudi koji u njima rade.

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smilexbabex33

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 16,2025

Celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain made me decidedly not hungry after reading a book entirely about food. I don't know if that is a good or bad thing...maybe good? From hollandaise sauce and brunches to bargain sushi to fish on Mondays to well-done steaks, my stomach has been sufficiently warned away from the dark secrets of the "culinary underbelly." Ignorance is bliss, but I'd rather just avoid the nasties when I know better.

Reminding me of why I did and didn't like Liar's Poker, Anthony Bourdain does the first-person muckraking of restaurant crews that Michael Lewis did for Wall Street bond traders. Basically, chefs are on a disturbing spectrum of rude, bawdy, racist, misogynistic, drug-fueled, aggressive, and frankly, disgusting. Blegh! Far from being a sophisticated art-form, Bourdain makes you feel like the culinary arts are often anything but. Of course, this is a generalization of Bourdain's many personal anecdotes, but Kitchen Confidential lends itself credibility from a laundry list of his varied and numerous experiences, be it a casual seafood joint in Provincetown or the Culinary Institute of America or an upscale French restaurant in New York. From dishwasher to executive chef, there's no doubt that Bourdain has an insider's scoop.

This book is not for the faint-hearted. Talking about food-related things can be notoriously emetic; Upton Sinclair is famous for a reason, after all. Yet when Bourdain talks about how cooks lop off fingers on accident (or intentionally...) or how he stabbed a colleague's knuckles with a kitchen fork, I ended up letting out a pained laugh. It was mainly a coping mechanism, the stomach-turning moments tolerated more easily because Bourdain has a bold voice that spills out a fiery passion for food. When it comes to shocking the reader, there are no holds barred. Whether for a laugh or a gasp, Bourdain has mastered the ability to drag either one out of you with culinary precision.

The book is heavy on the jargon—I still don't know if I ever properly kept track of the string of fancy, obscure foods or techniques (I will only ever spell bouillabaisse right this one time) that he mentions. With scarcity in the realm of relatable experience regarding the upper echelons of professional chefdom, reading Kitchen Confidential felt original and shocking. Though I lost some interest in the wild stories after they began to feel redundant midway through, I can still appreciate Bourdain's acerbic wit and dark humor. I’ve taken away only piecemeal messages from the book, but I feel plenty filled up to last me a number of meals, thank you very much.

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LoLyeah

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 16,2025

First time I heard of Anthony Bourdain was on some TV show. He seemed like a cool guy, but I didn’t think of him as a chef. He seemed to be nothing but a TV presenter who travels around the world. I didn’t think that he really mattered much in the culinary world. Most of the chefs that we see on TV either cook or get other people judged on ability to cook and/or perform in the kitchens.
Anthony Bourdain wasn’t doing anything of that. He was simply enjoying food…in some unique way.
Not long ago I stumbled upon his book called “Kitchen Confidential”. He succeeded in noteworthy profiling of American chefs/cooks and provided accordingly an awe-inspiring study of behaviour as well as dispositions, which are to be discerned in many American professional kitchens, “ insensitive to gender preference, and the gorgeous mosaic of an ethnically diverse workforce.” The culinary world appears to be the unruly kingdom of extreme personality types. Without stereotyping, Bourdain draws a fine line between objective observation and personal experience, which is emotional for the most part. This, probably, makes him the best writer among the chefs as well as the best cook among the writers.
Another important aspect of this book is Bourdain’s view of food and its connection with certain “habits” in American restaurants. He writes about brunch as “an open invitation to the cost-conscious chef, a dumping ground for the odd bits left over from Friday and Saturday nights or for the scraps generated in the normal course of business.” Although brutally honest, his attitude is a pure expression of passion for cooking and affinity for superb cuisine. Term “Failing Restaurant Syndrome” suggests an extensive explanation on what is to be avoided when starting up a restaurant, which obstacles should be predicted and what kind of attitude is required in order for someone to survive in the restaurant world called “a hole that statistically, at least, will almost surely prove dry.”
What really impresses me most is Bourdain’s talent to illustrate someone’s traits with such meticulousness wrapped in compassion and recognition. In his book “Kitchen Confidential” he showed an impressively deep understanding of human nature. He would write for example …he… “who could keep it together, show up on time, keep his mouth shut, and do the right thing – even if he woke up every morning naked and covered with puke on a cold bathroom floor.” Or: “ My love for chaos, conspiracy and the dark side of human nature colours the behaviour of my charges, most of whom are already living near the fringes of acceptable conduct.”
This is an amusing, smart book about loyalty and treachery, friends and enemies, pride and shame, endurance and cessation.
Anthony BourdainAnthony Bourdainn n

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sassssssf

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 16,2025

3.5 stars. I absolutely loved all of Anthony's travel shows. He was a complex and fascinating person - extremely direct, flawed, passionate, unconventional and very funny. He also had a very engaging way with words. Although I liked this (except for the chapter on how to cook like a chef - I don't cook at all), I would have loved to hear more about his travels. I did enjoy learning more about his chosen profession and now have real respect for anyone in this line of work.

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UkiyoNyan

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 16,2025

“I’m asked a lot what the best thing about cooking for a living is. And it’s this: to be a part of a subculture. To be part of a historical continuum, a secret society with its own language and customs. To enjoy the instant gratification of making something good with one’s hands – using all one’s senses. It can be, at times, the purest and most unselfish way of giving pleasure (though oral sex has to be a close second).”

What a true delight it was to read my first Anthony Bourdain book! It was humorous, crude, exhilarating, mouth-watering, and highly informative. Oh, and I should mention, Bourdain may be a master at wielding a knife, but his skills with a pen aren’t too shabby either. I spent the past several days in his kitchens and dreaming about food and travel. (Well, I’m pretty much always fantasizing about these things, but let’s just say it became a bit of an incurable obsession of late!)

One thing is certain, I’m definitely on the right side of the kitchen – in the dining room! There’s no way I could cope working in this sort of an environment. The hours, the pace, the chaos, the pressure! But I admire anyone that can do it – and like Bourdain, I can see his point that “line cooks are the heroes.” I’m a firm believer now.

He takes us on a journey from his first realization that food was something more than just nourishment (when as an elementary student he tasted vichyssoise on the Queen Mary) through the various restaurants he inhabited for countless hours, to the heart of Asia where he learned that New York City was not the be-all and end-all of cuisine. The descriptions of certain food ‘encounters’ were probably some of my favorite morsels in the book. Bourdain’s experience with his first oyster was so vivid and tactile, sensual really, that I could well imagine it like it was my own. Such pleasure! It made me think of a certain scene from When Harry Met Sally. You know which one I mean.

“It tasted of seawater… of brine and flesh… and somehow… of the future… I had had an adventure, tasted forbidden fruit and everything that followed in my life – the food, the long and often stupid and self-destructive chase for the next thing, whether it was drugs or sex or some other new sensation – would all stem from this moment.”

I’ve never watched Anthony Bourdain’s shows. I didn’t really know much about him even five years ago – except that he was apparently some sort of deity in the food world. I’ve learned a bit more about him from reviews right on this site and became more and more interested in him, determined to glean more about his life. This book fit the bill perfectly.

If you’re not offended by honesty (and drugs and profanity and some ass-grabbing), and you’re not squeamish about what might go on before the wait staff brings those exquisite dishes to the table, then you may very well want to consider picking this up. The Afterword in my edition informs us that some things have changed in the restaurant world (namely the use of drugs and alcohol while on the job, the sexual antics during food service) since the writing of this book twenty years ago. I’m not going to lie – whether this is factual or not, I’m happy to erase some of those images from my mind when sitting down to enjoy a great meal! Nevertheless, I was greatly entertained and feel a lot more informed thanks to this.

It was a bit of serendipity to find out that Road Runner, the Bourdain documentary, was just released the other day! I’m pleased to say that the quaint little, locally owned theater nearby did not suffer a pandemic collapse. Its doors are once again open, and I plan to make a trip there very soon to watch this. I might even grab dinner before. But not at one of those chain establishments. Tony wouldn’t approve.

“Good food and good eating are about risk.”

“People confuse me. Food doesn’t.”

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