Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly

I bought this book for a school essay we had to write about it. I'm not usually into books but this book was really entertaining and had me hooked. It is funny and relatable!

I like the book, especially being in the culinary business. His language is colorful just like his TV programs. A definite read if you enjoyed his shows or enjoy the food industry in general. Wish he we're still with us, an amazing person, chef, traveler. He will be missed for generations.

Tony Bourdain is a smart, witty, funny, and deeply twisted individual, and is also a first-rate writer whose non-fiction is as entertaining and expressive as any novel I have ever read. I first became aware of Tony through his cable television show "No Reservations" (which is the only television show that I go out of my way to see each week.) I immediately bought this book after seeing the episode on Icelandic cuisine, as I thought he was intelligent yet not another insufferable food snob. He is a man who wants to try everything and has absolutely no fear or prejudices about food and excels at telling it like it is.This book recounts his life and career rising to the top of the pack in the culinary world. It is a deeply personal and unvarnished look at the world of big-league professional food, and is full of insights on both food and the restaurant business. When I was younger I worked as a line cook in a relatively nice restaurant. Although my experience was somewhat less frenetic and more sanitary than the scene in New York, I can certainly attest that the cast of characters (and their flaws) revealed in this book is right on the money.One thing I like about Bourdain and this book is that he tells the truth even when it's ugly. He explains why, for instance, not to order meat well done or why not to even think about ordering fish on Monday. (He's right on both accounts.) He doesn't dodge his own past when others would fail to mention diversionary activities such as a heroin addiction, and even though he comes across as cantankerous, he is a guy you can take at his word.Some of this book is pure gold, not just for cooks and would be chefs, but for everyone. His writing ("Rules to Live By," page 64, and "A Commencement Address," page 293 in particular) is excellent and applies to any profession. He also shares many inside secrets of Les Halles (and other restaurants he has worked at), of winning "mise-en-place" (or just "meez;" people who really want to cook professionally should take this to heart), and technical opinions (why and how to use an offset serrated knife.)This book is coarse and not for the faint of heart, but if you really want to know about cooking or cooks, it is the best (and funniest) single volume ever written. I highly recommend this book

The author warns, "There will be horror stories.Heavy drinking, drugs, screwing in the dry-goods area, unappetizing industry-wide practices. Talking about why you probably shouldn't order fish on a Monday, why those who favor well-done get the scrapings from the bottom of the barrel, and why seafood frittata is not a wise brunch selection.... But I'm simply not going to deceive anybody about the life as I've seen it."Anthony Bourdain has lead quite a life, and retells some of his adventures in frank, vivid detail. This book is full of fact, gossip and inside views of a sub-culture most of us will never experience, yet sit just on the outskirts of, on the other side of those swinging kitchen doors. It touches us, but we cannot touch back. This is a rare treat.From defiantly slurping down his first raw oyster as a child, through CIA education, to working in New York's hot spots, cooking for celebrities, Anthony Bourdain candidly exposes some of the seedier elements of the restaurant business. He speaks of sex in the storage rooms, backseat negotiations over bread delivery with shady businessmen (presumably mafia), ego-induced insanity and down-and-out genius.He gives us some food for thought, lets us in on the odd sense of humor shared in most of the kitchens he has worked in, and occasionally shocks us with things we may not have wanted to know, but we read on, swallowing every juicy tidbit hungrily. It reminds one of watching a car wreck victim be loaded onto a stretcher, we try not to, but we continue to stare transfixed, wincing all the while.He describes most restaurant staff as "wacked-out moral degenerates, dope fiends, refugees, a thuggish assortment of drunks, sneak thieves, ... , and psychopaths," with a cast like that, how can any story fail to entertain?At one restaurant the crew spent slow hours coming up with practical jokes to play on the unsuspecting front room staff and management, such as molding life-like severed fingers from various food products and leaving them around in freezers and on cutting boards.It is not all lurid amusement, however. He does manage to sneak in some wonderful recipes, along with very good advice (what knives are really worth owning, for example) for casual cooks, would-be professional chefs and potential restaurant owners.If you don't have a weak stomach, enjoy cooking, eating, laughing and/or general debauchery, this book is bound to have you hooked from page one.Also, if you enjoy listening rather than (or as well as) reading, look for the audio book, read by the author. His delivery adds something rich and spicy to the already wonderfully satisfying feast of words. It had me looking forward to my commute, just so I could hear how Chef Bourdain would garnish the next course with his own inflection and undeniably charming "gruff New Yorker" attitude.

What a great price on this classic. Appropriate price as it had an ink signature as well as a remainder dot on the bottom page edges. But bright and crisp and ready to read!

Me filho adorou

Liked the comments that were added after the fact. Good read. Sometimes we are better off not knowing everything.

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Anthony Bourdain's "Kitchen Confidential" is a wild ride behind the scenes of the restaurant world. He dishes the dirt on everything, and it's both shocking and hilarious. You'll never look at your dinner the same way again.