Oh boy. Where to begin? I found this book - and by extension Anthony Bourdain - somewhat distasteful.

On the surface, it works. 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. All kitchens are chaotic and full of machismo, he says, and the only way to survive them is to fully commit to the culture. But later, he takes the reader to Scott Bryan’s kitchen, where “there are islands of reason and calm, where the pace is steady, where quality always takes precedence over the demands of volume, and where it's not always about dick dick dick.” I was flabbergasted: this passage seemed to negate almost everything that came before it. The restaurant industry is hard and requires a phenomenal amount of work from its chefs, but it apparently does not, as Bourdain tries to say for hundreds of pages, require them to be assholes.

Bourdain's writing is excellent in parts. I loved his descriptions of various restaurants over his long and interesting career, particularly the restaurant run by the mafia. The entire segment about Adam (no last name) who makes the magical bread made me laugh out loud. The sections where he’s relating stories about his coworkers and the New York restaurant scene are great; the personal sections, not so much. The structure of the book is choppy and doesn’t have a linear narrative, which makes it hard to follow the thread of his story. Bourdain seems almost too self-aware to write about himself. He’s too ready to call younger versions of himself an idiot. At first, it seems like he gets it - his younger self really was an idiot - but it slowly becomes apparent that he’s still just as arrogant as before. He’s just learned how to make it sound like he’s learned something.

For me, the most telling anecdote in the book, and the one that I’ll remember, is when Bourdain realizes that, statistically, only one in four heroin addicts gets clean. He’s in a car with three other junkies, and he immediately promises himself that he will be the one to get out alive, no matter what. And he does, and he goes on to write that story - but not the story of his recovery - in this book. And that’s all you need to know about Anthony Bourdain.

کتاب را عاطفه هاشمی به فارسی برگردانده و خوب هم این کار را کرده است. گورِ پدر هرچه اجازه نامچه که باید برای هر چیزی گرفت! متن هم یک جوری است که نمی شود در ایران اشغالی چاپش کرد. دوستان عزیز هم دم شان گرم رفته اند در استانبول چاپش کرده اند و بی خیالِ اخلاق گرایی احمقانه ی از قضا بسیار بی اخلاق، ما را با سرخوشی خواندنِ چنین روایتی رو در رو کرده اند پس سپاس نخست برای ایشان
دو دیگر آن رفیقِ عزیز که کتاب را از نشر مهری خریده بود گرچه دانوب آبی چاپش کرده است و من از او ستاندمش. یک رفیقی که خودش یک جورهایی یک جاهایی بی اندازه شبیه آنتونی بوردینِ سرآشپز است و هر جا که کار ما بلنگد بی گمان نخست می رویم پی او و این دومین سپاس برای او باشد
سه دیگر اینکه یادمان باشد هرجایی نرویم هر زباله ای را در هر دلقک خانه ای به نام رستوران بخوریم. اصلن یکی از ایرادهای اساسی این بی توجهی به خودمان است. این پیش پا افتادگی و بی ارجی که در خوراک خوردن و رخت پوشیدن و جا به جا شدن مان است سبب شده است که زندگی بی شکلی هم داشته باشیم به گمانم خیلی جاها. پس دستِ کم آوازه ی یک خوراک پزی نترساندمان و اگر راضی نبودیم از آنچه خورده ایم به ایشان بگوییم. یاد بگیریم که به وجود و جسم خودمان احترام بگذاریم. مثلن نایستیم مانند قحطی زده ها وسط خیابان های شهرهای بی در و پیکرمان برای خوردنِ آب زیپویی که به نام چای نذری به شکل فله ای در لیوان های پلاستیکیِ کثیف توی داربست های فلزی که برزنت کشیده اند روی شان سِرو می شوند. مثلن فحش ناموس ندهیم به هم برای اینکه دو تا خوراکِ مجهولِ را از پنجره ی یک ساختمانِ سیاه به در و دیوارش کشیده به زور از چنگ هم دربیاوریم که شامِ شب را مفت برگذار کرده باشیم. دست کم منظور به آنهایی است که پولِ شام شب شان را دارند. منظورم به آن نفری است که ناگهان درست در وسطِ خیابان ترمز کرد که آن مردکی که سینی چای را پیش آورده و آن جوانِ ابلهی را که شیرینی پخش می کرد پشت بندش، از مفت خوری اش ناامید نکند. مثلن منظورم به خودم است که اگر جایی بستنی پخش می کردند پشت کامیون یا کیک و آبمیوه پرت می کردند وسط توده ی بی شکلِ دهان بازمانده، شهید نشوم در این راه. خلاصه که احترام بگذارم به خودم و به شما و پیش هر متقلبی نروم خوراک بخورم. آن متقلبْ کسانی که وقتی می خواهند کاری راه بیاندازند و از همه جا می مانند یا کترینگ راه می اندازند یا کارواش یا می روند کافه رستوران باز می کنند. نگذاریم به ریش مان بخندند! پول دادن آخرین مرحله ی کار است برویم یک خاطره خوب با خوراک خوردن داشته باشیم. برویم بزنیم توی دهن آن کسی که می گوید همین مرغِ یخ زده ی یک سال مانده هم برای این مردم زیاد است؛ ناشکری می کنند! بروند خودشان را ببندند به نان و ماست مگر وظیفه ی ما است که شکم شان را پُر کنیم؟ وظیفه ی ما فقط خالی کردن جیب شان است! حالا بماند که ما هم پینوکیو وار همیشه سکه های مان را به راهنمایی این روباهانِ مکار و گربه نره ها چال کردیم که بلکه درختِ سکه برآید
افتادم به پرحرفی که چه بسا اثر متن باشد که می نشینی پای حرفِ انگار یک رفیق چند ساله و او می گوید و تو کیف می کنی، گاهی افسوس می خوری، گاه می خندی، گاه... هر گاه یک جور انگار، یک جور پر از همه ی مزه ها و بوها و خاطره بازی ها شاید. یادت می افتد که چه بسا بهترین غذاهایی که خوردی همان ساندویچ های دونگی، همان خوراک های سبک و ارزان، همان غذاهای دورِ همی بود با خانواده یا رفقا و با خودت می گویی ای دریغ کاش زندگی راهش را طور دیگری پیش برده بود که دست کم خیلی از رفقا حالا پیش ما بودند

پسینِ پنج شنبه - یازدهم اسپند چهارده هیچ یک
جنوبِ بیقرارِ طولانی
بعد از ناهارِ بی سر و تهِ رستورانِ چرکِ اداره

As if I could rate him any lower...loved every second of this.
Coming from a hospitality and events background and having to deal with chefs all the time this resonated hard

Mesmerizing and candid autobiography of the chef. I laughed a lot at some points. Special bonus for author reading it - it's much more personal and immersive that when some guy who didn't see a skillet in his life reads it. It takes a lot to become a chef - long hours, lot of disappointment and pressure. Read it, get familiar with kind of people who is cooking your food in any restaurants - Anthony had it all from cheap hole-in-the-wall to some most expensive ones. I specially like parts when he explains how the kitchen works and what to order and more important to NOT order on specific days of the week. Excellent life story from the guy who unfortunately left us.

5 always. What an incredible person. I hope wherever he is, he’s doing ok <3

R.I.P.

If you happen to find this book in audio, don't hesitate to listen. It's hilarious. Bourdain is a man of many talents, and one of them is picking up slangs in different languages quickly and adapting to accents. Like I said, hilarious.

Things I learned from this book:
-Never order fish on a Monday
-Stay away from "specials" of the day
-Avoid rush hours and weekends
-Restaurant kitchens are war zones
-All you'll ever need is a chef's knife--just one, a sharp one
-Every time you eat out is an adventure and a risk
-60% of people who go into the restaurant business end up failing
-The other 40% survive by sheer luck and good karma
-Don't open a restaurant
-Good food = fresh, high quality ingredients + basic cooking skills

That last one is his personal favorite saying. There's no room for pretentiousness in good food. Well, his exact words are "there's no room for pretentious assholes in my kitchen"--same difference. His back-to-basic take on food, at the time this book was written, was revolutionary. And it's coming from an experienced gourmet chef too. The public was just shocked and amazed because this was around the time the "celebrity chef" was born (and how we all cringed while facepalming). So by taking a stand against all that blatant advertising and product placements, Bourdain got the public's attention and he didn't disappoint.

If you have ever worked in a restaurant, there isn't anything in this book you don't already know. You might recognize a few of the characters due to having worked with or screamed at or wished you could have stabbed at one time or another during your time as part of the kitchen staff. You might even see yourself in the book somewhere. The point is the things in this book are an open secret. The term "restaurant secrets" is an oxymoron. Restaurant people talk a lot because that's what happens when you share such a high stress environment and tight confining space that's littered with sharp pointy blades. You talk and overshare to take the edge off. That's the impression I got from this book, that it's meant to be a snapshot of life in a restaurant kitchen.

What Bourdain did by writing a tell-all memoir about the life of a chef running a popular restaurant is nothing new. Lots of chefs before him have published similar books with similar contents detailing their childhoods, education, training, first jobs, first restaurants, rise to fame, etc etc, but none had the sense to tell it like it really is. How Bourdain writes is what sets him apart from the rest because he favors laying out the truth over romanticizing suffering. His writing style is subversive and inflammatory, of course, and offensive at times because it's meant to drag myths surrounding the restaurant business out into the open and flaying them. The most popular myths is one we're all familiar with, and that's the idea of opening a restaurant for personal enjoyment.

Many people still carry this romantic notion of running their own restaurant. Some day, they say. Because I just love to entertain, they also say. Besides, it'll be fun. Like throwing a party every single night. So romantic... until these people realize they have to do inventory, order food, prepare necessary items ahead of time, keep tight schedules in their heads, make sure food and supplies show up on time, make sure staff show up on time, make sure every table in the front is looked after, make sure vendors aren't ripping them off, make sure the cooks aren't trying to kill each other. Every single day. Not so much like a party now, is it? This is hard work. Romantics aren't cut out for such work. If you're gonna open a restaurant... don't. Just don't.

I think what really made this book a big seller were Bourdain's detailed firsthand revelations of all the failed restaurants he worked in and witnessed in the past. The thing they all have in common? Lost of control. Bourdain's CV is literally full of failed restaurants; some were once famous attractions, others never had a chance. He hadn't been able to save any one of them.

His writing, like his presence on his travel shows, is strangely erratically honest. It's the kind of honesty that you rarely see or hear anymore. It's the kind of honesty you get from people who've been to rock bottom and stayed a while. It's the kind of honesty you get from an addict, former addict in this case. The prose is bold yet within reason, vile yet heartfelt, punchy yet smooth, and oftentimes uncomfortable yet engaging, but it's also sincere like the kind of honesty you can trust. It makes you believe he's telling the absolute truth, that he wouldn't hold back to save face or spare feelings. That's just the kind of guy he is, the book seems to say.

There's an ugly truth at the end of every one of his stories that make them more than just tales worth reminiscing over a pint. There's pain, suffering, wisdom, blood, sweat, tears, hard liquor, cocaine, years of insomnia, crunchy aspirins, unemployment, the sights and sounds of reaching rock bottom in all of his stories. That's as close to the truth as a memoir can get.

This one short sampling is all you need to judge Bourdain for yourself

“So who the hell, exactly, are these guys, the boys and girls in the trenches? You might get the impression from the specifics of my less than stellar career that all line cooks are wacked-out moral degenerates, dope fiends, refugees, a thuggish assortment of drunks, sneak thieves, sluts and psychopaths. You wouldn't be too far off base. The business, as respected three-star chef Scott Bryan explains it, attracts 'fringe elements', people for whom something in their lives has gone terribly wrong. Maybe they didn't make it through high school, maybe they're running away from something-be it an ex-wife, a rotten family history, trouble with the law, a squalid Third World backwater with no opportunity for advancement. Or maybe, like me, they just like it here.”

I feel like this review needs to end on a positive note because this book wraps up with an unexpectedly positive yet realistic perspective that cooks and non-cooks can relate to, but I haven't a clue what more to say.

Cross-posted at http://covers2covers.wordpress.com/20...

3 stars

Gritty, grungy and foul mouthed. That was Anthony Bourdain. This book reads like pornography - not about sex - but about food.

I think overall the thing I took away from this book was regret. I heard it in Bourdain's voice, I heard it in his choice of words and he also stated that he had some regrets.

I listened to the audio of this book. That in itself was strange. This book came out in 2000, and Bourdain committed suicide by hanging himself in France in 2018. So to hear this book narrated by him gave me mixed feelings. Sorrow for the loss yet, I think, a better understanding of the man himself.

It took a minute to catch up to Bourdain. He chatters in this audio 900 miles an hour. I assume that that was his normal speech pattern. Once I caught on to that, I settled in to hear his story. I don't believe that Bourdain was ever really happy. He admits that he did not start his career for the best of reasons. He came from money, yet that seems to be what he always chased. Chased, to the point of not really caring about learning his craft. Instead money was his motivator - so he went from job to job looking for that next paycheck.

Bourdain worked in some very nice places, for some very good money, but he was never happier than when he was working in a grungy dump. He then felt that he was good enough - respected enough - liked enough - to call himself Chef.

I now see Bourdain as a vagabond, who floated about without any certain direction, using his craft as a means to continue his drug and alcohol habits, trying to find substance in his life, however not really finding it. He was given many chances, he opened many doors for himself, yet he was still unable to find what he was looking for. Such a talented man, lost to the himself, and the world.

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.”

It’s evident early on Anthony Bourdain lived the life on the edge and had a penchant for the underworld, the misfits and the miscreants. He depicts his early adventures in the kitchen, making life long friends with some of the seediest players, the kitchens he was most fond of were toxic masculine playgrounds, typical locker room behaviour, plenty of ass slapping, penis grabbing and hurled abuses and insults the order of the day. Very much a place to easily score drugs, get laid and get into all kinds of trouble, it’s also a place he discovers the kinship and loyalty of those same guys, most having his back and him returning the favour. I very much enjoyed hearing the warts and all scenes behind some of the kitchens of New York in the 80’s, the hits and the many misses of the restaurant world. Its a job that requires dedication and lots of stamina to keep up, the restaurant business is not for the faint hearted. It’s not hard to fathom his untimely death by suicide, he was always attracted to destructive forces and ultimately those dark forces sadly ended his life too early.

Interesting guy. Interesting life. Total train wreck, but he's honest about it, which somehow makes him very likable.

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.