A review by bhsmith
Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly (Updated Edition) by Anthony Bourdain
4.0
Kitchen Confidential opens with an explanation and justification for what is contained in remainder of the book. Bourdain makes it clear right up front that after his book was published and he started to travel the world, he was constantly approached by people in the culinary world telling him how accurate his depiction of a life in food really is. This struck me as an odd way to begin the story... already sticking up for the hard-to-believe tales before they're even told. Though, having now read the book, it was probably a good idea to start with the disclaimer! Bourdain's hard-lived life in the restaurant world is fairly hard to believe at times. On one side you have his personal life (which Bourdain claims is more universal than unique) of drugs, sex, thievery, drunkenness and general debauchery, and then on the other side you have his professional life of unbearably long hours, grueling work, ridiculous bosses or employees and general chaos. So, yeah... while I don't doubt his stories are mostly true, that doesn't make them any easier to believe.
I've certainly never ventured into a professional kitchen with any intent of making it my job, so reading Bourdain's account of his life in professional kitchens was truly eye opening and very entertaining. I think I always knew in the back of my mind that a professional kitchen would be a place of constant movement, organized chaos and some pretty interesting characters. Bourdain's stories crank my assumptions up more than a few notches.
Kitchen Confidential follows a rough timeline of Bourdain's life in food, from his first enchanting taste of an oyster to his retirement from the day-to-day kitchen life after the book is published. His stories include profiles of some of the people he has worked with or respected in the world of food. He provides some great insight about how to make your home kitchen more professional, or what to avoid when you are dining out. He details life in many of the kitchens he has worked in during his career. One of the most interesting chapters is a "Day in the Life" recollection of everything that he had to do in a single day of running a restaurant. It was almost tiring just reading about it.
I enjoy pulling the curtain back on food topics, and Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential certainly does this in a way I've never seen or read before.
I've certainly never ventured into a professional kitchen with any intent of making it my job, so reading Bourdain's account of his life in professional kitchens was truly eye opening and very entertaining. I think I always knew in the back of my mind that a professional kitchen would be a place of constant movement, organized chaos and some pretty interesting characters. Bourdain's stories crank my assumptions up more than a few notches.
Kitchen Confidential follows a rough timeline of Bourdain's life in food, from his first enchanting taste of an oyster to his retirement from the day-to-day kitchen life after the book is published. His stories include profiles of some of the people he has worked with or respected in the world of food. He provides some great insight about how to make your home kitchen more professional, or what to avoid when you are dining out. He details life in many of the kitchens he has worked in during his career. One of the most interesting chapters is a "Day in the Life" recollection of everything that he had to do in a single day of running a restaurant. It was almost tiring just reading about it.
I enjoy pulling the curtain back on food topics, and Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential certainly does this in a way I've never seen or read before.