Reviews tagging 'Drug abuse'

Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly by Anthony Bourdain

31 reviews

lizsurber's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Misogyny, Sexual content, Cursing, Alcohol, Addiction, Drug abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Alcoholism, Bullying, Mental illness, and Sexual harassment

alanabenjamin's review against another edition

dark informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

3.5

This book was a lil too bro-ish for me but I see why it's a bestseller and a literary staple. 

His voice & perspective are unique and fresh for its time. Every time I wanted to give up, there was a line or a turn of phase that kept me reading...

Happy that the food industry isn't like this anymore. However, I wonder what he would say of the TikTok food reviewers. Lol.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction

Moderate: Drug abuse and Drug use

lori_j's review against another edition

adventurous funny informative fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use and Alcohol

Moderate: Drug abuse and Alcoholism

hmetwade's review against another edition

informative medium-paced

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Cursing, Homophobia, Sexual harassment, Drug use, Medical content, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Misogyny, and Sexual content

Moderate: Drug abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Mental illness, Addiction, Alcohol, Classism, Drug use, and Sexual violence

jenmcreads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Sexual harassment, and Drug abuse

amberlfaris's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny informative inspiring lighthearted reflective tense medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing

Moderate: Suicide, Drug use, Homophobia, and Drug abuse

youngluteplayer's review against another edition

dark funny reflective medium-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse and Cursing

Moderate: Drug use, Addiction, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, and Drug abuse

kimveach's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny informative reflective tense medium-paced

2.5

My son, a bartender, wanted me to read this.  I was not an Anthony Bourdain fan, having never read any of his books, nor watched his shows.  This book didn't make me a fan, either.  

I think I would have liked it if I'd read it in the early 2000s when it was first published.  As a forty-something person, I would have enjoyed this book's rough, vulgar, stream-of-consciousness.  But reading it in 2023 was a different experience.  I found the repeated descriptions of substance abuse, criminal activity, and swearing tiring and boring.  

The book's best parts were the detailed descriptions of what it takes to manage and run a restaurant and the incredible skill and timing of the people working on the line.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Self harm, Violence, Drug use, Sexism, Drug abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Bullying, Cursing, Excrement, Medical content, Medical trauma, Sexual content, Addiction, Alcohol, Blood, Sexual harassment, Suicide, and Vomit

cmcrockford's review against another edition

adventurous challenging funny informative fast-paced

4.5

Obviously would be very different in many senses if published in 2023 but this is fun as all hell. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Racism, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Sexual harassment, Vomit, Drug use, and Sexual content

eilishtoohey's review against another edition

4.0

I should preface this review with the admission that until about a year ago, I knew basically nothing about Anthony Bourdain. I had heard his name before and knew that he was big in the culinary world. But as I have never had much interest in reality TV, that was the extent of my knowledge. It was only after viewing this incredible video essay by Lola Sebastian (which you should definitely watch if you have the time) that I found myself wanting to learn more about the man. And his most well-known memoir seemed the best place to start.

Kitchen Confidential is a difficult book to review, since Bourdain himself would go on to regret most of what he wrote here. This is particularly obvious in this edition, which includes handwritten annotations Bourdain wrote 12 years after the original publication date. It creates a stark contrast between the more inexperienced—I'm hesitant to say 'immature,' considering Bourdain was in his 40s when the book was released—narrator of the main text and the Bourdain that the world would come to know. As he states in the book's introduction, "I never knew shit about shit."

Read the full review at My Cluttered Bookshelf. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, Cursing, Drug abuse, and Gore

Moderate: Alcoholism, Drug use, Homophobia, and Suicide