A deliciously funny, delectably shocking banquet of wild-but-true tales of life in the culinary trade from Chef Anthony Bourdain, laying out his more than a quarter-century of drugs, sex, and haute cuisine—now with all-new, never-before-published material.
Most diners believe that their sublime sliver of seared foie gras, topped with an ethereal buckwheat blini and a drizzle of piquant huckleberry sauce, was created by a culinary artist of the highest order, a sensitive, highly refined executive chef. The truth is more brutal. More likely, writes Anthony Bourdain in Kitchen Confidential, that elegant three-star concoction is the collaborative effort of a team of “wacked-out moral degenerates, dope fiends, refugees, a thuggish assortment of drunks, sneak thieves, sluts, and psychopaths,” in all likelihood pierced or tattooed and incapable of uttering a sentence without an expletive or a foreign phrase. Such is the muscular view of the culinary trenches from one who’s been groveling in them, with obvious sadomasochistic pleasure, for more than 20 years. CIA-trained Bourdain, currently the executive chef of the celebrated Les Halles, wrote two culinary mysteries before his first (and infamous) New Yorker essay launched this frank confessional about the lusty and larcenous real lives of cooks and restaurateurs. He is obscenely eloquent, unapologetically opinionated, and a damn fine storyteller–a Jack Kerouac of the kitchen. Those without the stomach for this kind of joyride should note his opening caveat: “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.” –Sumi Hahn
The Book that Made Anthony Bourdain Holds Up Very Well “Kitchen Confidential” is the book that made Anthony Bourdain and, after two decades, it holds up extremely well. Bourdian offers insights on what happens in the kitchen and what drove him to become a chef. He presents am engaging and sometimes funny look at his early experiences with restaurants, their owners, staffs and even takes readers behind the scenes with his own life. This is a very different Bourdian than the one who pops up on CNN these days, far less mature and worldly and more…
In it to win it. But you better stay in… GREAT book! I couldn’t put it down. Having been in food service most of my life, I’m only 26yrs old and feel like I’ve already been exposed to it all. After reading this…not even close. Anthony never goes far beyond the truth of spending his time in a kitchen. Explaining each and every detail about his experiences from culinary school all the way to executive chef running his own restaurant. There’s definitely some evil out there, but also many rewards. He tells it how it is. There’s plenty…
Five Stars I guess God needed good chef for his kitchen today. Rest in peace, Anthony.