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: Kitchen Blender Overdrive
Summary: 5 Stars
Once I picked this up I could not put it down. It flows naturally like a good velote and hits you right in the face like a great wine. Whether you are a foody, chef or just looking for an entertaining read this is a must.Anthony's travels through the underworld of chefdom confirm your worst fears and also build your appreciation of the hard slog that kitchen life really is for most non-TV chefs. From the characters he has met and shows fond affection for in his early years, to the intricacies of fighting to get the clean cloths at the start of a shift.
If your not a chef it is hard to believe at times, but speak to any chef who has read this book and they will tell you that it is very close to their reality. The ride goes from the very top of the souffle to the grimy bottom of the bowl. A must read.
Book Review: Deliciously Funny With a Dose of Salty Spice
Summary: 5 Stars
Having been long mesmerized by the earthy charms of Anthony Bourdain, as he appears in his hit Travel Channel show "No Reservations", I felt it high time I read the book that arguably started it all in 2000. And, too, having once been in relationship with a European hotelier and restaurateur, I thought I knew the biz. Hell no. Apparently I had been sheltered from the truly seamy side of the kitchen and knew nothing. I love this book.
Want to sit in the store room of a restaurant and spy on the egos? The horseplay? The social pathology? Oh the humanity! The humanity!
Bourdain's use of language is brilliant. At once memoir and muck rake, the reader is treated to an intimate peek over the shoulder into Bourdain's life. The rapturous epiphany of a fourth grader's first taste of vichyssoise. The realization that "food is power". Apprentice misadventures: "they'd let us practice our knifework on whole legs of beef... we were the culinary version of the Manson family...". Industry advisements: avoid buffets. Eat out on Wednesday or Thursday. Forget about Saturday night (Well, unless you know the chef or maitre`d, I would add).
Now that Mr. Bourdain has catapulted into a whole other sphere of influence, these early words are fascinating. (As I tap this out he has just returned from Beirut where he was caught up in the recent war. We should eagerly anticipate his first hand - and hopefully unreined-in - experiential comments on the absolute heartbreaking tragedy of the destruction of this beautiful and vibrant city; one devoted particularly to hospitality and dining).
If you are a foodie, or anyway close to that, you'll devour the book in one sitting. Get it. Don't hesitate.
Book Review: A taste of running a kitchen
Summary: 4 Stars
Bourdain writes a glamorous, fast paced account of his career which gives insights like how not to have fish on a Monday. He's great on the (possibly exaggerated) descriptions of how kitchens worked. You can almost smell the sweat. But he tends to glamorise the drug taking of his youth. When he talks about those days of drug taking every night, it's through rose tinted spectacles. He obviously comes from a well off family who could afford to support him through prestigious chef school, but he doesn't mention their reaction to his heroin addiction - or perhaps they never knew until now. I do find that with a lot of men's biographies they tend to focus on a lot of boring detail like how often they were late for work, and not much about their relationships. I would like to find out more about this from Bourdain. It is well written though, apart from when he gets bogged down in boring detail - like his chapter, a day in the life. It just puts you off being a chef (of course). An entertaining read for foodies - especially people who think they want to run restaurants - it'll put you off.Book Review: Chateaubriand with just a touch of Pot Noodle
Summary: 4 Stars
Definitely a book of two courses this one. I make no apology for stretching the culinary metaphor to its limit (possibly even to the extent of flogging it to death).
Parts of "Kitchen Confidential" are brilliant - perfectly cooked chateaubriand with allumette potatoes, if you like. Bourdain is without doubt a talented writer. His use of English is precise, varied and lively: often a pleasure to read. The description of "A Day in the Life" is the highlight of the book for me and the description of his old mentor "Bigfoot" had me in stitches.
Unhappily, just as Pot Noodles really do exist, so this book has some poor sides. Bourdain is determined to have us know that:
A. Cooking is very much the new rock `n' roll;
B. That he is Mick Jagger
At first the passages of excess, swearing and drug abuse are, like the first couple of scoops from a Pot Noodle, diverting and tasty (particularly after a couple of drinks), but like that well known snack, quickly become dull and even nauseating and at some points the book is in danger of degenerating into self-indulgent twaddle. Which is a shame.
Overall though, a fine read (I'd suggest it should be REQUIRED reading for anyone who holds any ambition of either cooking for a living or opening a restaurant), worth the money and I shall certainly be looking out more of Bourdains work: given the ability he has as a writer I think his fictional works could be very good indeed.
Book Review: Highly recommended
Summary: 4 Stars
This book/Anthony is hilarious! i'm really enjoy reading his books, especially this 'kitchen confidential', the food business around him as well as the you-know-what dark side, a must read for food n travel lover.