A review by kutreen
Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly (Updated Edition) by Anthony Bourdain

funny informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

For someone with no experience working in the food service industry, this was quite eye-opening, though I understand many things might have changed since Bourdain's career as a chef from the 70s to the 00s and also in different kinds of restaurants than the ones he worked in, and outside of NYC. Bourdain's audience is mostly other cooks, so there was a lot about different dishes, tools, and techniques that I didn't understand, but I liked that nothing seemed sugar-coated or dumbed down for us civilians. Bourdain is a great writer, which honestly I did not expect for a career chef, and is fantastic at conveying the chaotic atmosphere of a kitchen and the mind of a cook; most of all this is what kept me hooked.

There is a lot of alarming behavior by cooks in and out of kitchens that Bourdain mostly meets with an "oh well" which isn't acceptable by today's standards, but I see why that was his response at the time based on the kitchen culture he had spent ~30 years in.
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