Kitchen Confidential Updated Ed: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly (P.S.) by Anthony Bourdain Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Kitchen Confidential Updated Ed: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly (P.S.)
Book Review: Willing Suspension of Dish Belief
Summary: 5 Stars
Tony Bourdain, the Keith Richards of the culinary world, has written an entertaining and shocking "dish" book in "Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly." With the advent of armchair adventures of food television, Americans are glamourising the chef as cult hero. Bourdain takes the reader behind "the line" to show that cooking is not pretty. While this book will not scandalise the New York restaurant business as did Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle" for the Chicago meatpacking industry, it will give pause to those who are willing to look past his "raw" presentation to discover his satiric "bite."As a longtime pesco-vegetarian, I am a member of one of Bourdain's "hate groups," but, oddly enough, his "forking" did not offend me. As he says himself, this book is a "rant," which I hope is a but a preface for a second book in which he will find further courage to fling open the back doors of more hot kitchens.
An aside for female readers: yes, this book is phallocentric, but so is the world which Chef Bourdain describes. At times, I found the language of the kitchen to be appalling, but that is the reality of what one does not hear from the "four top." Read this book and learn from him!
Book Review: Realistic
Summary: 4 Stars
If you are afraid of hard work, course language and the horror of what lies behind your waiteress smile don't read. Yes Bourdain is macho and crude but so is kitchen life. The pressure is on and running out 500 meals a night is no easy task so yes drugs, sex and harrassment are common. A blunt insight to what makes a chef tick but an enjoyable journey for those both in the industry and those on the other side!!. A refreshing read and I laughed outloud!.Book Review: No sign of Mr Oliver then ?
Summary: 5 Stars
Ok..so I'm not the first chef to write a review of this brilliant book but I doubt I will be the last, having spent almost as many years working in kitchens as the author this book made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. It's all true ..every word of it, kitchens are foul places to work and the author has show every reader a window into this hellish world. I recognised the types who inhabit this world and could almost feel the heat from the ranges. I laughed out loud especialy at the ' body ' in the freezer. If real life is your thing then spend some cash and buy this book, if Jane Austen is your thing ....I DARE YOU..Book Review: Gawd, this is awful ;-)
Summary: 5 Stars
Who dares to eat out after reading this book? Well, not me... which isn't true ofcourse... but I will never-ever-ever in my life order fish on Mondays. And never-ever-ever again think the chef's nose was covered in flour... Have YOU ever read such a hysterical book about the great myth: chefs in star rated restaurants? To me, it was quite an eye-opener, and some chefs I know assured me that every [...] bit is very true. Well done, Anthony, and now I am very curious about the amount of enemies you made! Thank God for writing chefs...Book Review: A horribly accurate picture!
Summary: 5 Stars
Tony Bourdain has written a portrait of life in a professional kitchen that will be instantly recognisable to anyone who's worked in one, and probably horrifying to anyone who hasn't. An accurate portrayal that perfectly conveys the swashbuckling efficiency that gets the food to your table hot and on time. Hugely enjoyable, with plenty of laugh-out-loud bits.