This was a good read, although I need a reread to give a full review. Bought recently a new copy for myself, with new sidenotes and the afterthoughts to be read, which gives another reread reason. :)

No one needs me to tell them anything about this book, I feel like I'm the last person in the universe to read it. Bourdain is a really good writer and he makes it very hard to criticize him, anything you're going to say he's already said. And yet.

I started out enjoying this a lot but after a while it lost some momentum. More than that, I just started to get tired of the shtick. You know, the macho tough kitchen guy shtick. Bourdain insists that this is how it is and also insists, in the way only a straight white cis man can, that it is not an atmosphere that is targeting women or queer people. No, this is a place where everyone gets attacked, everyone is called out, everyone is insulted. He doesn't seem to get that there's a real difference between being a straight guy in that environment where the language revolves around straight male-ness and when you're not the person being centered in those conversations. Sure a straight guy is going to laugh at another straight guy by using some gay slurs and he'll use the exact same gay slurs against a gay guy, but do you really think those two people are going to hear those slurs the same way? It's shockingly oblivious. To Bourdain's credit, in one chapter he takes down every argument he's made by showing another chef's kitchen where there isn't this hostile atmosphere, but after showing that it doesn't have to be this way he doesn't have a moment of insight or self-reflection, considering the way his whole industry is pushing people out.

I enjoyed this book by Mr. Bourdain. I like his attitude.

This is an entirely different world from what I live in. I've never worked in the food service industry, is it still like this nowadays? A world where you can never be sued for sexual harassment and foul language? I have a boring office job and this is so foreign to me.

Because this is so far removed from my own experiences of the world - heck, I've never even been to New York and seldom eat at fancy restaurants - I liked it. It was fun. And eye opening.

AB you are sorely missed!

It’s about time I got around to listening to his book which has been sitting in my audible library… for years!

R.I.P.

“Good food is very often, even most often, simple food.”
― Anthony Bourdain, Kitchen Confidential



There is a certain thrill to being the first person to reach the top of a mountain, the first to eat at a soon-to-be famous restaurant, the first to discover an author, a band, a new food or experience. Well friend, the thrill of a late discovery (even when you are 15 years late to the party) is still pretty damn sweet. I might have seen Bourdain's books as I wandered through a bookstore. I might have seen him on CNN, the Travel Channel or the Food Network while searching for another show on another station. I didn't hardly notice him. He was like that girl you know in class but have never given much real attention to (only later to discover she is witty, wicked, and everything you want in a lover and fear in a daughter).

Over Christmas, while visiting and bonding my foodie brother in Arkansas, he introduces me to Parts Unknown on CNN. I am hooked. I love Bourdain. I'm addicted to the show. It mixes things that mix well: my love for travel, my love for food, my love for a damn good story with interesting characters. So, I figure, I might need to actually read his book. Yeah this one. The one that put him on the map. The one that turned him from an executive chef with personality to THE chef with personality.

The book is a quick read. It dances. It seems to operate with a certain mechanical, hyper-caffeinated efficiency. Whatever money it made Bourdain, he probably deserved even more. Right now, I've muted my desire to put it on the bookshelf next to my other just reads. I want my wife to read it first. Oh, I've got a friend who would love it too. My initial reaction to finishing this book is the same I get when I discover a fantastic new restaurant (Republica Empanada in Mesa, AZ) -- I want to take friends and family to it. I become not just a disciple, but a crazy-eyed evangelist.

Anthony Bourdain. Wow. He is a mixed, crazy bag of crazy. I keep referring to him as in the present but of course he is gone. There are many quotes he says about suicidal behavior of other cooks. It is very eery.

I didn't click with the book the first time around so I tried again and it clicked....

At the time of his starting out in the culinary field cooking crews were a bunch of misfits, drug addicts/dealers, criminals, thugs etc. The rejects of society. His book is raw. He talks about his heroine, crack, coke, alcohol addiction. I like his respect for his Latin kitchen crew.

My dream, once upon a time, was to be a Chef of an Italian or French restaurant so I love cooking, cookbooks and stories about the kitchen. This was an amusing read but I can see why anyone else would NOT like it or him. He is too much and very cocky. He is disgusting in his behavior but this is the world of cooks and crooks and long hours of blood and sweat; all for the love of food and its flavors. I was amused and terrified. Recommend for the foodie or the cook in you.

2017: My first audiobook ever! I enjoyed the heck out of it. This was a reread and I was quickly reminded why I loved it so much when I read it 7 years ago. Listening to Bourdain narrate was a treat!


2010: If you're an Anthony Bourdain fan then definitely read this book! It's interesting, funny, crazy, crude ... and very well-written. AND ... it was actually published before he started doing his show "No Reservations" on Travel Channel (a fabulous show if you've never seen it). Bourdain writes the same way that he speaks and this book takes on a very real and entertaining tone. LOVED it.

It’s impressive to have such a distinctive voice, that one can read your book in your particular New York inflection the entire time!

“Food, it appeared, could be important. It could be an event. It had secrets.”
•••
“Food had power. It could inspire, astonish, shock, excite, delight and impress. It had power to please me…and others. This was valuable information.”
•••
“All cooks are sentimental fools. And in the end, maybe it is all about the food.”

I remember the first time I’d ever heard about Anthony Bourdain. I was staying the night at my Grandma Alice’s, she had this drafty old house up in Ruch, Oregon that had this massive natural pond with water lilies and tall oak trees that surrounded the property. She made me her classic homemade meatballs with various Mediterranean dishes and chamomile tea; sounds odd but it was a coveted meal in my teens. It was the weekend of the Oscars circa 2013, we had an ongoing tradition of watching them every year up until she passed. It was fairly early in the evening and she had asked if I wanted to watch anything? I told her I’m not too picky (which was so far from the truth. I just hated disappointing people). She threw on the Travel Channel-which I despised at the time, I considered it an old person channel. But then, there he was, driving a car down a California desert road with his grayish-silver hair and wiry frame. We watched reruns for hours of Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations, boy was I hooked after that.

This book is loud with Bourdain’s personality, his matter-of-fact way in which he holds himself, while maintaining there was more to be learned from others. It’s honest, it’s brutal and it’s perverted. I personally couldn’t get enough of it, it’s something you don’t see often anymore, and may never see again if I’m being frank. I mean, who else could really get away with the crudeness in this book? The jokes wouldn’t land if you didn’t already have some semblance of who Anthony Bourdain was. I try not to idolize many people, since humans are flawed even the ones we say, “No, they would never do XYZ!” often end up doing XYZ. So I’ll say this much, not many people exist today that could hold a candle to the spite fueled intensity and passion mixed with utter brevity that Anthony Bourdain possessed.

“I’ll be right here. Until they drag me off the line. I’m not going anywhere. I hope. It’s been an adventure. We took some casualties over the years. Things got broken. Things got lost. But I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.”
•••
“And I had my first oyster. Now, this was a truly significant event. I remember it like I remember losing my virginity-and in many ways, more fondly.”
•••
“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 the human spirit, an affront to all I stand for, the pure enjoyment of food.”

I listened to the audio book of "Kitchen Confidential" for book club.
Not being familiar with Anthony Bourdain, I found him to be crass, brutally honest and, at times, witty.
I have alot of respect for someone who works their ass off, in such a difficult industry, to achieve their goals. This is exactly what he did.
I found this book to be an interesting insider look at a hectic restaurant kitchen and I am appreciative of his cautionary advice.

If Anthony Bourdain's stated goal in writing this book had been to convince the world that he is a vile, low-life, (hard-working!) scum bag, he couldn't have been more effective than what he actually came up with. Unlike Ruth Reichl's writing, Bourdain did not make me want to go eat something delicious, or even imagine what eating that delicious food might be like. Instead, he made me afraid of New York, anyone who has ever worked in a kitchen, and restaurants in general. Not afraid in the sense that I might unknowingly eat something disgusting (although he did seem to delight in sharing cost-saving secrets of the restaurant industry that make you, the diner, their chump), but just repulsed in general of the kind of person who apparently inhabits that world.
I honestly don't know why I continued reading this book. In fact, someone saw me reading it and asked if it was any good, and I went to lengths to warn that person AWAY from reading it (mostly because I worried what they would think of me if they cracked it open and discovered the filth I was allowing myself to wallow in.) So, anyway, unless you love Bourdain and also love having your stomach turned for you, I do not recommend you read this book.

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.