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Confesiones de un chef
El cocinero más salvaje, procaz y desarmantemente sincero del planeta cuenta sin pelos en la lengua sus andanzas tras los fogones, probando todos los manjares, incluidos los prohibidos. Escritas a mordiscos y hasta a cuchilladas, en un enloquecido galopar de historias rabiosamente reales, estas Confesiones de un chef nos muestran lo que de verdad se cuece en las cocinas de los restaurantes, lo que los comensales seguramente preferirían no saber sobre cómo se trabaja en el hábitat de los cocineros, entre fogones, calor, explotación laboral, pinches de aspecto patibulario, chefs no muy ortodoxos, dudosa higiene y manipulaciones de la comida no siempre confesables.
285 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 2000
About the author
Anthony Bourdain
78 books6,401 followersAnthony Michael Bourdain was an American celebrity chef, author, and travel documentarian. He starred in programs focusing on the exploration of international culture, cuisine, and the human condition.
Bourdain was a 1978 graduate of The Culinary Institute of America and a veteran of many professional kitchens during his career, which included several years spent as an executive chef at Brasserie Les Halles, in Manhattan. He first became known for his bestselling book Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly (2000).
Bourdain's first food and world-travel television show A Cook's Tour ran for 35 episodes on the Food Network in 2002 and 2003. In 2005, he began hosting the Travel Channel's culinary and cultural adventure programs Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations (2005–2012) and The Layover (2011–2013). In 2013, he began a three-season run as a judge on The Taste and consequently switched his travelogue programming to CNN to host Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown. Although best known for his culinary writings and television presentations, along with several books on food and cooking and travel adventures, Bourdain also wrote both fiction and historical nonfiction.
Bourdain was a 1978 graduate of The Culinary Institute of America and a veteran of many professional kitchens during his career, which included several years spent as an executive chef at Brasserie Les Halles, in Manhattan. He first became known for his bestselling book Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly (2000).
Bourdain's first food and world-travel television show A Cook's Tour ran for 35 episodes on the Food Network in 2002 and 2003. In 2005, he began hosting the Travel Channel's culinary and cultural adventure programs Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations (2005–2012) and The Layover (2011–2013). In 2013, he began a three-season run as a judge on The Taste and consequently switched his travelogue programming to CNN to host Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown. Although best known for his culinary writings and television presentations, along with several books on food and cooking and travel adventures, Bourdain also wrote both fiction and historical nonfiction.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 29,987 reviews
April 12, 2023
I'll be right here. Until they drag me off the line. I'm not going anywhere.
Oh, Anthony Bourdain. The world lost a great chef and unmatched culinary ambassador the day you died.
Kitchen Confidential is the memoir that originally put Anthony Bourdain on the map. I never got around to reading it when it was first published back in 2000, but I've always been a fan of his, catching his No Reservations and Parts Unknown whenever I had the chance. So it's with no small amount of excitement that I've finally gotten around to his famed memoir.
Reading it for the first time more than two decades later, I can't help but feel as though a ghost has leapt off the pages. His voice is as vibrant as ever, his eye for the delicious and the shocking coming through on every page. To read his words is to experience his view of the world, and it is filled with food, drugs, profanity, and astonishing candor.
If you've ever been curious about how a professional kitchen is run, well, this will satisfy that curiosity. And what's in here is eye-opening, to say the least. Sprinkled with Bourdain's self-deprecating dark humor, it's sure to make you chuckle and cringe in equal measure. After having read this, I'm not sure I'm in a particular hurry to eat out, at least in the types of restaurants he highlights.
What makes Bourdain so special is clearly evident amongst the pages here, even from a book he wrote long ago. He has a way with words, building what would be mundane happenings at the hands of a lesser wordsmith into riveting and scintillating vignettes. And he does this again and again. I couldn't look away.
In particular, his chapter on his first visit to Japan has all the flavors of what would become his trademark later. His unabashed enthusiasm for trying new foods and experiencing new cultures, and his innate understanding that the two are inextricably linked. To read his words is to feel his emotions, and they are tinged with the bittersweet—wonder for new culinary adventures but also sadness for all that he wouldn't have the chance to experience.
I confess I'm a full-blown foodie. I love trying new restaurants, finding new things to eat that I've never had before. That moment, when you take the first bite of a never-before-tried dish and realize you've found a new favorite, it's one of the best feelings in the world. And Anthony Bourdain passionately embodied that. To read about his early days is an honor, and I'm glad I finally got around to it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
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July 9, 2018
Excellent, vivid read about life in restaurant kitchens. Very atmospheric and I feel like I learned a lot about a very specific culture.
March 28, 2008
My first exposure to Anthony Bourdain, via his show No Reservations, left me with with the sense of a true asshole who sneered down his nose with aging punk-rock disdain at people and things he deemed beneath him, and, honestly, it seemed like most people and things were beneath him. For some reason, even though he crossed my Southern sensibilities and turned me off to him on that first exposure, I kept watching the show and realized that there is a lot more to him than that first impression suggested. No Reservations is now my favorite show and when I saw a copy of Kitchen Confidential for sale in the book store, I snapped it up and began reading it that night. I unfortunately wasn't able to keep his voice in my head (his delivery is a large part of the draw of his show for me) but the series of stories from his past that he lays out are captivating even when heard inside my skull as coming from the disembodied larynx of my standard reading voice.
Personally, I didn't find the shocking bits all that shocking. I've been backstage at good restaurants. I've heard it all before. Honestly, I'm not really all that hung up on food safety. Instead it was the parts dealing with his own erratic career path that kept me interested. Instead of leaving this book with the impression that Bourdain was an even bigger jerk than my first impression left me with (as someone suggested would happen), I left the last page of the book with an even more positive view of the guy. Sure, Bourdain is still cynical, obscene, and wears that brusque New York attitude like a badge of honor, but what stands out in his book is his glowing admiration for people who earned his respect for their willingness to work or pushing him down the right path as a chef (his almost loving references to Bigfoot and Pino are prime examples), his seeming compulsion to take in less than desirable underlings, and his complete willingness to point out when and where he screwed up. In this more recent update, he even points out that he learned he was wrong about Emeril Lagasse (as a chef and person, not as a TV Celebrity) and frequently comments that he isn't a top-tier chef because of his own mistakes. He even goes so far as to point out that the only reason he is able to hang out with and talk to the Michelin-starred chefs he always admired from afar is because of his notoriety as author and TV host.
This isn't some self-aggrandizing piece literary self-pleasuring. This is a very human piece of literature that reveals its author to be a man who may have grown up a couple of decades too late, but isn't too vain to admit that when he did it was in a large part because of those who took a chance on him and supported him when he was at his worse.
Personally, I didn't find the shocking bits all that shocking. I've been backstage at good restaurants. I've heard it all before. Honestly, I'm not really all that hung up on food safety. Instead it was the parts dealing with his own erratic career path that kept me interested. Instead of leaving this book with the impression that Bourdain was an even bigger jerk than my first impression left me with (as someone suggested would happen), I left the last page of the book with an even more positive view of the guy. Sure, Bourdain is still cynical, obscene, and wears that brusque New York attitude like a badge of honor, but what stands out in his book is his glowing admiration for people who earned his respect for their willingness to work or pushing him down the right path as a chef (his almost loving references to Bigfoot and Pino are prime examples), his seeming compulsion to take in less than desirable underlings, and his complete willingness to point out when and where he screwed up. In this more recent update, he even points out that he learned he was wrong about Emeril Lagasse (as a chef and person, not as a TV Celebrity) and frequently comments that he isn't a top-tier chef because of his own mistakes. He even goes so far as to point out that the only reason he is able to hang out with and talk to the Michelin-starred chefs he always admired from afar is because of his notoriety as author and TV host.
This isn't some self-aggrandizing piece literary self-pleasuring. This is a very human piece of literature that reveals its author to be a man who may have grown up a couple of decades too late, but isn't too vain to admit that when he did it was in a large part because of those who took a chance on him and supported him when he was at his worse.
July 4, 2008
I love food and I love hot sexy chefs with potty mouths.
I remember first discovering Anthony Bourdain on the Food Network many years ago. It was 3am and I was unable to sleep and here was this brooding, hot piece of ass chain smoking and touring Russia.
I never remembered his name but he haunted my dreams until I re-discovered him years later on the Travel Channel show, No Reservations.
In Kitchen Confidential, he is able to translate his sultry self onto paper.
But he is not just a piece of meat, my friends. He is a very good writer with a quit wit and he conveys a passion that touched my [fill in the blank] like no other.
Anthony Bourdain pretty much despises vegetarians, but I do not hold it against him. In fact, he makes me wish I was a heartless carnivore like him. And we would eat steak tartar together and take bathes together in a pool of goats blood.
I've said too much. I'm sorry.
I remember first discovering Anthony Bourdain on the Food Network many years ago. It was 3am and I was unable to sleep and here was this brooding, hot piece of ass chain smoking and touring Russia.
I never remembered his name but he haunted my dreams until I re-discovered him years later on the Travel Channel show, No Reservations.
In Kitchen Confidential, he is able to translate his sultry self onto paper.
But he is not just a piece of meat, my friends. He is a very good writer with a quit wit and he conveys a passion that touched my [fill in the blank] like no other.
Anthony Bourdain pretty much despises vegetarians, but I do not hold it against him. In fact, he makes me wish I was a heartless carnivore like him. And we would eat steak tartar together and take bathes together in a pool of goats blood.
I've said too much. I'm sorry.
June 7, 2016
What follows is my summary of this book. Blah, blah, blah, drugs blah, blah, fuck everyone, pork chop, fuck you all, mince, veal, drugs, blood, blah, blah, blah.
Maybe you can tell, I am less than impressed. I don't feel too bad writing this review, because Bourdain certainly never minces his words (culinary pun intended;-) I was expecting entertaining anecdotes, but frankly I was bored most of the time and started skimming two thirds of the way through. Bourdain is eloquent and even charming, if quite wry, in his TV shows and I guess I expected more of the same here. That being said, this is an older book and I think he matured quite a bit since then.
Maybe you can tell, I am less than impressed. I don't feel too bad writing this review, because Bourdain certainly never minces his words (culinary pun intended;-) I was expecting entertaining anecdotes, but frankly I was bored most of the time and started skimming two thirds of the way through. Bourdain is eloquent and even charming, if quite wry, in his TV shows and I guess I expected more of the same here. That being said, this is an older book and I think he matured quite a bit since then.
January 12, 2022
“People confuse me. Food doesn't.”
Kitchen Confidential is Bourdain's memoir that offers a deep look at the behind-the-scenes of restaurant kitchens. But two other things stood out to me in late Bourdains’s professional memoir. The first thing is his love of food, and the specific relationship he developed with food early in his childhood. The second thing is the frightening descriptions of his mental state, which I feel were largely overlooked as people were distracted with lushness and brilliant humor with which he described a world of restaurants. Having in mind Bourdain’s death from suicide in 2018, I can presume that he did not receive the adequate help that he desperately need, which is evident in his memoir written almost a decade before the tragic death.
Food is sex
Best chapters in the book for me were the first few chapters about Bourdain's relationship with food. Bourdain eloquently describes the origin of his passion for food. In Kitchen Confidential, Bourdain does not share a lot of his private life nor emotions, and he is kinda hiding, or revealing himself metaphorically, through his trajectory of the professional life in the kitchen. In a lot of ways, the kitchen has all of the space in his memoir, much more than he himself has, or his private life and relationships.
One thing can be presumed from that, of all relationships in life, the relationship he had with food was one of the most important, if not the most important relationship he had.
Even though he does not share a lot from his early childhood and primary family life, except for the notion they traveled frequently, his early life has a veil of melancholy, the veil that grows into the depression of adult age.
But as a lighthouse in the darkness of melancholy, with so much joy, passion, and pure happiness, Bourdain describes the time he realized he fell hopelessly in love with food - the first time he tried oysters in France as a child - the picture than lingered vividly in his memory.
“It tasted of seawater… of brine and flesh… and somehow… of the future…
Everything was different now. Everything.
I'd not only survived-I'd enjoyed.”
Bourdain did not only taste oysters - he experienced the ecstatic sensory joy, the deep value of the sensual experience that can give meaning to life. In rich flavors, he experienced happiness, creativity, inspiration, id, the life force itself. For Bourdain, food is sex as the sensory pleasure that comes from food is life-invigorating and gives existence a new purpose.
For Bourdain, this was transformative experience, the moment of apotheosis.
“I'd learned something. Viscerally, instinctively, spiritually-even in some small, precursive way, sexually-and there was no turning back. The genie was out of the bottle. My life as a cook, and as a chef, had begun.
Food had power.
It could inspire, astonish, shock, excite, delight and impress. It had the power to please me and others.”
Fining both meaning and drive for life in sensory experiences is by no means a new stance in the world of literature. The ecstatic moments of sensual joy can be found in Proust's Swann's Way, and in Camus’s The Stranger and The Plague, where the characters experience the transference of absurdity of life in the sensory experience of the moment. But it is beautiful to find such an experience eloquently described in a memoir. Life replicates art and art replicates life.
“I had, as yet, no plans to cook professionally. But I frequently look back at my life, searching for that fork in the road, trying to figure out where, exactly, I went bad and became a thrill-seeking, pleasure-hungry sensualist, always looking to shock, amuse, terrify and manipulate, seeking to fill that empty spot in my soul with something new.”
Kitchen’s closed
The environment of the professional kitchen is intense, unpleasant, and oftentimes ruthless, which Bourdain demonstrates, again and again, through the narrative of memoir. The narrative is somewhat fragmented from chapter to chapter as they're not linked, and each individual chapter could be a standalone short story. I enjoyed greatly the first 150 pages of the book, but the last 150 pages I was struggling and dragging through, so be prepared for uneven writing. There were a few magnificent chapters and a lot less magnificent ones. I think the book would be much better if it had been a more continuous narrative. I feel that a few stories about the kitchen atmosphere of cursing, swearing, boiling, steaming are enough and at times the anecdotes described seemed to me as something you would tell to a group of people that you are trying to impress at the dinner table, not stories of adequate quality to put in a book. But through Bourdain's stories, one learns about the world of the kitchen, the predominantly world of macho men, and one definitely has to have a defensive strong facade to survive sometimes hazardous workplace environment staffed by the misfits.
“The basic character of the chef and cook hasn't wandered too far from the same recognizable personality types found in Orwell, Freleng or Bemelmans: Sensualist, often socially inept outside the kitchen, frequently dyslexic——people with appetites that go beyond food. The kitchen remains a refuge for the fugitive, the obsessed, the border jumper and the borderline, people who are only truly confident behind a stove or standing at the pass. They still and likely always will share a common ethos and patois.“
One of my feelings was constant, that by telling the macho stories Bourdain tried to hide the depth of his psychological suffering that became painfully evident in only a few, but terrifying passages.
Bourdain had prominent personality traits that were present from early adolescence. This is how he described himself;
“Let it suffice to say that by age eighteen I was a thoroughly undisciplined young man, blithely flunking or fading out of college (I couldn't be bothered to attend classes). I was angry at myself and at everyone else. Essentially, I treated the world as my ashtray. I spent most of my waking hours drinking, smoking pot, scheming, and doing my best to amuse, outrage, impress and penetrate anyone silly enough to find me entertaining. I was-to be frank-a spoiled, miserable, narcissistic, self-destructive and thoughtless young lout, badly in need of a good ass-kicking. Rudderless and unhappy...”
But also, Bourdain was an incredibly charismatic, passionate, intelligent, well-read, eloquent, funny and honest human being, a sensualist that had plenty of life inside himself and who truly appreciated the pleasures of life. Under the strong facade he was deeply sentimental and empathetic, and also suffering from a raging depression he tried to self-medicate through large amounts of alcohol and all kind of drugs, including heroin, an addiction he later on recovered from. This passage shows the depths of his depression and is terrifying in the light of the future event.
“I was utterly depressed. I lay in bed all day, immobilized by guilt, fear, shame and regret, my ashtrays overflowing with butts, unpaid bills stacked everywhere, dirty clothes heaped in the corners. At night, I lay awake with heart palpitations, terrors, bouts of self-loathing so powerful that only the thought of diving through my sixth-floor window onto Riverside Drive gave me any comfort and allowed me to lull myself into a resigned sleep.”
Bourdain’s death is indeed a truly tragic one, and I was deeply sad and moved when I found out about it in 2018. From the time of writing of Kitchen Confidential, and before, to 2018, a year of his death, Bourdain continued to struggle with his mental health. He often brought out death, and in one of his last interviews, he said that he was going to “die in the saddle” — a sentiment that later proved chilling. His statements, as well some passages of the book proved how desperately he needed help. So it is somewhat puzzling that his loved ones expressed their disbelief after the event, with his mother saying he was “absolutely the last person in the world I would have ever dreamed would do something like this.”
“I'm still here. And I'm surprised by that. Every day.”
But oftentimes it is hard to look through the facade of the persona, of cheerful person that makes laugh everyone at the table with self-deprecating humor, the charismatic passionate man, the traveler that loves life, a chef rockstar, watched and loved by millions, with appeal stretched beyond the delicious food he cooked and ate. It is hard to see through all of that and even admit to oneself that there are people in the world quietly suffering as much Bourdain did, haunted by the darkness that they cannot seem to shake. In the last paragraph of the book he writes farewell;
“I’m good. Im free, as it were, of the complications of normal human entanglements, untormented by the beauty, complexity and challenge of a big magnificent and often painful world.”
Rest in peace, Anthony.
Kitchen Confidential is Bourdain's memoir that offers a deep look at the behind-the-scenes of restaurant kitchens. But two other things stood out to me in late Bourdains’s professional memoir. The first thing is his love of food, and the specific relationship he developed with food early in his childhood. The second thing is the frightening descriptions of his mental state, which I feel were largely overlooked as people were distracted with lushness and brilliant humor with which he described a world of restaurants. Having in mind Bourdain’s death from suicide in 2018, I can presume that he did not receive the adequate help that he desperately need, which is evident in his memoir written almost a decade before the tragic death.
Food is sex
Best chapters in the book for me were the first few chapters about Bourdain's relationship with food. Bourdain eloquently describes the origin of his passion for food. In Kitchen Confidential, Bourdain does not share a lot of his private life nor emotions, and he is kinda hiding, or revealing himself metaphorically, through his trajectory of the professional life in the kitchen. In a lot of ways, the kitchen has all of the space in his memoir, much more than he himself has, or his private life and relationships.
One thing can be presumed from that, of all relationships in life, the relationship he had with food was one of the most important, if not the most important relationship he had.
Even though he does not share a lot from his early childhood and primary family life, except for the notion they traveled frequently, his early life has a veil of melancholy, the veil that grows into the depression of adult age.
But as a lighthouse in the darkness of melancholy, with so much joy, passion, and pure happiness, Bourdain describes the time he realized he fell hopelessly in love with food - the first time he tried oysters in France as a child - the picture than lingered vividly in his memory.
“It tasted of seawater… of brine and flesh… and somehow… of the future…
Everything was different now. Everything.
I'd not only survived-I'd enjoyed.”
Bourdain did not only taste oysters - he experienced the ecstatic sensory joy, the deep value of the sensual experience that can give meaning to life. In rich flavors, he experienced happiness, creativity, inspiration, id, the life force itself. For Bourdain, food is sex as the sensory pleasure that comes from food is life-invigorating and gives existence a new purpose.
For Bourdain, this was transformative experience, the moment of apotheosis.
“I'd learned something. Viscerally, instinctively, spiritually-even in some small, precursive way, sexually-and there was no turning back. The genie was out of the bottle. My life as a cook, and as a chef, had begun.
Food had power.
It could inspire, astonish, shock, excite, delight and impress. It had the power to please me and others.”
Fining both meaning and drive for life in sensory experiences is by no means a new stance in the world of literature. The ecstatic moments of sensual joy can be found in Proust's Swann's Way, and in Camus’s The Stranger and The Plague, where the characters experience the transference of absurdity of life in the sensory experience of the moment. But it is beautiful to find such an experience eloquently described in a memoir. Life replicates art and art replicates life.
“I had, as yet, no plans to cook professionally. But I frequently look back at my life, searching for that fork in the road, trying to figure out where, exactly, I went bad and became a thrill-seeking, pleasure-hungry sensualist, always looking to shock, amuse, terrify and manipulate, seeking to fill that empty spot in my soul with something new.”
Kitchen’s closed
The environment of the professional kitchen is intense, unpleasant, and oftentimes ruthless, which Bourdain demonstrates, again and again, through the narrative of memoir. The narrative is somewhat fragmented from chapter to chapter as they're not linked, and each individual chapter could be a standalone short story. I enjoyed greatly the first 150 pages of the book, but the last 150 pages I was struggling and dragging through, so be prepared for uneven writing. There were a few magnificent chapters and a lot less magnificent ones. I think the book would be much better if it had been a more continuous narrative. I feel that a few stories about the kitchen atmosphere of cursing, swearing, boiling, steaming are enough and at times the anecdotes described seemed to me as something you would tell to a group of people that you are trying to impress at the dinner table, not stories of adequate quality to put in a book. But through Bourdain's stories, one learns about the world of the kitchen, the predominantly world of macho men, and one definitely has to have a defensive strong facade to survive sometimes hazardous workplace environment staffed by the misfits.
“The basic character of the chef and cook hasn't wandered too far from the same recognizable personality types found in Orwell, Freleng or Bemelmans: Sensualist, often socially inept outside the kitchen, frequently dyslexic——people with appetites that go beyond food. The kitchen remains a refuge for the fugitive, the obsessed, the border jumper and the borderline, people who are only truly confident behind a stove or standing at the pass. They still and likely always will share a common ethos and patois.“
One of my feelings was constant, that by telling the macho stories Bourdain tried to hide the depth of his psychological suffering that became painfully evident in only a few, but terrifying passages.
Bourdain had prominent personality traits that were present from early adolescence. This is how he described himself;
“Let it suffice to say that by age eighteen I was a thoroughly undisciplined young man, blithely flunking or fading out of college (I couldn't be bothered to attend classes). I was angry at myself and at everyone else. Essentially, I treated the world as my ashtray. I spent most of my waking hours drinking, smoking pot, scheming, and doing my best to amuse, outrage, impress and penetrate anyone silly enough to find me entertaining. I was-to be frank-a spoiled, miserable, narcissistic, self-destructive and thoughtless young lout, badly in need of a good ass-kicking. Rudderless and unhappy...”
But also, Bourdain was an incredibly charismatic, passionate, intelligent, well-read, eloquent, funny and honest human being, a sensualist that had plenty of life inside himself and who truly appreciated the pleasures of life. Under the strong facade he was deeply sentimental and empathetic, and also suffering from a raging depression he tried to self-medicate through large amounts of alcohol and all kind of drugs, including heroin, an addiction he later on recovered from. This passage shows the depths of his depression and is terrifying in the light of the future event.
“I was utterly depressed. I lay in bed all day, immobilized by guilt, fear, shame and regret, my ashtrays overflowing with butts, unpaid bills stacked everywhere, dirty clothes heaped in the corners. At night, I lay awake with heart palpitations, terrors, bouts of self-loathing so powerful that only the thought of diving through my sixth-floor window onto Riverside Drive gave me any comfort and allowed me to lull myself into a resigned sleep.”
Bourdain’s death is indeed a truly tragic one, and I was deeply sad and moved when I found out about it in 2018. From the time of writing of Kitchen Confidential, and before, to 2018, a year of his death, Bourdain continued to struggle with his mental health. He often brought out death, and in one of his last interviews, he said that he was going to “die in the saddle” — a sentiment that later proved chilling. His statements, as well some passages of the book proved how desperately he needed help. So it is somewhat puzzling that his loved ones expressed their disbelief after the event, with his mother saying he was “absolutely the last person in the world I would have ever dreamed would do something like this.”
“I'm still here. And I'm surprised by that. Every day.”
But oftentimes it is hard to look through the facade of the persona, of cheerful person that makes laugh everyone at the table with self-deprecating humor, the charismatic passionate man, the traveler that loves life, a chef rockstar, watched and loved by millions, with appeal stretched beyond the delicious food he cooked and ate. It is hard to see through all of that and even admit to oneself that there are people in the world quietly suffering as much Bourdain did, haunted by the darkness that they cannot seem to shake. In the last paragraph of the book he writes farewell;
“I’m good. Im free, as it were, of the complications of normal human entanglements, untormented by the beauty, complexity and challenge of a big magnificent and often painful world.”
Rest in peace, Anthony.
November 23, 2016
Maybe 3.5 stars, sometimes 4. It has lots of interesting anecdotes, but it was somewhat repetitive at parts. While interesting for the non-culinary inclined, I think it would be better received by someone with a kitchen background or a person who has worked in food and beverage.
Some parts of this book talk about fantastic food and will leave you drooling. As a result, you will want to hop the next flight and travel the world visiting as many restaurants and trying as many types of food as you can.
Other parts will disgust you and leave you nauseous. You will never look a restaurant food the same way - and may not want to eat it at all unless you get a good look at the kitchen and the people preparing the food.
Bourdain doesn't pull any punches talking about the life of the kitchen staff fueled by drugs, alcohol, sexual innuendo, sarcasm, anger, impatience, and tyranny. Some how, as a result, schedules are met, food is delivered, and customers are satisfied. Food prep is a lifestyle that can occupy the serious chef 24/7. It is something I will not take for granted in the future.
R.I.P. Chef Bourdain
Some parts of this book talk about fantastic food and will leave you drooling. As a result, you will want to hop the next flight and travel the world visiting as many restaurants and trying as many types of food as you can.
Other parts will disgust you and leave you nauseous. You will never look a restaurant food the same way - and may not want to eat it at all unless you get a good look at the kitchen and the people preparing the food.
Bourdain doesn't pull any punches talking about the life of the kitchen staff fueled by drugs, alcohol, sexual innuendo, sarcasm, anger, impatience, and tyranny. Some how, as a result, schedules are met, food is delivered, and customers are satisfied. Food prep is a lifestyle that can occupy the serious chef 24/7. It is something I will not take for granted in the future.
R.I.P. Chef Bourdain
September 22, 2018
"I don't know, you see, how a normal person acts. I don't know how to behave outside my kitchen. I don't know the rules. I'm aware of them, sure, but I don't care to observe them anymore because I haven't had to for so many years. Okay, I can put on a jacket, go out for dinner and a movie, and I can eat with a knife and fork without embarrassing my hosts. But can I really behave? I don't know."
I can't explain why it's taken me this long—nearly 20 years since it was published—to read Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential . Having attended culinary school, I'm fairly obsessed with all things cooking-related, and consider myself to be a bit of a foodie. I was also an enormous Bourdain fan, religiously watching his television appearances and loving his take-no-prisoners philosophy when it came to adventurous eating (not something we shared, per se). Yet only now, in the few months since his shocking suicide, did I sit down to read his nearly 20-year-old look at his journey to executive chef, the knowledge he gained and the trouble he stepped into, time after time.
While certainly it's a little eerie (and a little sad) to read a memoir by someone who subsequently dies, that didn't spoil my enjoyment of this terrific, brash, funny, and at times introspective, book. Bourdain was a natural storyteller—not only did he use food to tell the stories he (and his bosses) wanted to create, but he also loved to talk about the ways the culinary world has changed through the years, how what restaurants serve (and what people eat) has changed, and how the role of the chef has changed with it.
Unlike many memoirs, Bourdain was never afraid to admit his flaws, his transgressions, his pet peeves, all of which served to make him more human and make his story more compelling. I loved everything about this book—from his days of being a cocky young man thinking he knew more (and could do more) than those who had been cooking for years, to his struggles to find the chef's job in a restaurant where he felt he belonged for more than a few weeks. He doesn't skimp on his addictions to cocaine, heroin, and whatever else he could find, and he was candid about how those problems nearly ruined his life and his career.
While there are moments of vulnerability, there are more moments of humor, mischief, and tons of information about the life of a chef (at least in 2000), and why some restaurants and chefs succeed while others fail. The infamous chapter, "From Our Kitchen to Your Table," in which he warns of some restaurant tricks to get rid of older food (although not all of the things he discusses are still true today), is terrific, if not a little bit disturbing. How can you not love a book in which the author says, "Vegetarians, and their Hezbollah-like splinter-faction, the vegans, are a persistent irritant to any chef worth a damn. To me, life without veal stock, pork fat, sausage, organ meat, demi-glace, or even stinky cheese is a life not worth living." (I guess if you're a vegetarian or vegan, you might take umbrage...)
I love Bourdain's writing style, so I'll definitely be picking up some of the other books he wrote. Even if you're not an aspiring chef or a foodie or even a home cook, you may enjoy this simply for the pleasure of hearing his words, which are so vivid you probably can imagine him reading them to you. It's a great book for cooking pros and novices alike.
Sure, reading Kitchen Confidential made me sad as I realized once again the magnitude of Bourdain's loss. But I'm also so happy he left such a rich legacy, in print, on television, and of course, in food.
See all of my reviews at itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blogspot.com, or check out my list of the best books I read in 2017 at https://itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blogspot.com/2018/01/the-best-books-i-read-in-2017.html.
I can't explain why it's taken me this long—nearly 20 years since it was published—to read Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential . Having attended culinary school, I'm fairly obsessed with all things cooking-related, and consider myself to be a bit of a foodie. I was also an enormous Bourdain fan, religiously watching his television appearances and loving his take-no-prisoners philosophy when it came to adventurous eating (not something we shared, per se). Yet only now, in the few months since his shocking suicide, did I sit down to read his nearly 20-year-old look at his journey to executive chef, the knowledge he gained and the trouble he stepped into, time after time.
While certainly it's a little eerie (and a little sad) to read a memoir by someone who subsequently dies, that didn't spoil my enjoyment of this terrific, brash, funny, and at times introspective, book. Bourdain was a natural storyteller—not only did he use food to tell the stories he (and his bosses) wanted to create, but he also loved to talk about the ways the culinary world has changed through the years, how what restaurants serve (and what people eat) has changed, and how the role of the chef has changed with it.
Unlike many memoirs, Bourdain was never afraid to admit his flaws, his transgressions, his pet peeves, all of which served to make him more human and make his story more compelling. I loved everything about this book—from his days of being a cocky young man thinking he knew more (and could do more) than those who had been cooking for years, to his struggles to find the chef's job in a restaurant where he felt he belonged for more than a few weeks. He doesn't skimp on his addictions to cocaine, heroin, and whatever else he could find, and he was candid about how those problems nearly ruined his life and his career.
While there are moments of vulnerability, there are more moments of humor, mischief, and tons of information about the life of a chef (at least in 2000), and why some restaurants and chefs succeed while others fail. The infamous chapter, "From Our Kitchen to Your Table," in which he warns of some restaurant tricks to get rid of older food (although not all of the things he discusses are still true today), is terrific, if not a little bit disturbing. How can you not love a book in which the author says, "Vegetarians, and their Hezbollah-like splinter-faction, the vegans, are a persistent irritant to any chef worth a damn. To me, life without veal stock, pork fat, sausage, organ meat, demi-glace, or even stinky cheese is a life not worth living." (I guess if you're a vegetarian or vegan, you might take umbrage...)
I love Bourdain's writing style, so I'll definitely be picking up some of the other books he wrote. Even if you're not an aspiring chef or a foodie or even a home cook, you may enjoy this simply for the pleasure of hearing his words, which are so vivid you probably can imagine him reading them to you. It's a great book for cooking pros and novices alike.
Sure, reading Kitchen Confidential made me sad as I realized once again the magnitude of Bourdain's loss. But I'm also so happy he left such a rich legacy, in print, on television, and of course, in food.
See all of my reviews at itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blogspot.com, or check out my list of the best books I read in 2017 at https://itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blogspot.com/2018/01/the-best-books-i-read-in-2017.html.
Read
July 31, 2026You know what, hell yeah
July 20, 2021
“I’m asked a lot what the best thing about cooking for a living is. And it’s this: to be a part of a subculture. To be part of a historical continuum, a secret society with its own language and customs. To enjoy the instant gratification of making something good with one’s hands – using all one’s senses. It can be, at times, the purest and most unselfish way of giving pleasure (though oral sex has to be a close second).”
What a true delight it was to read my first Anthony Bourdain book! It was humorous, crude, exhilarating, mouth-watering, and highly informative. Oh, and I should mention, Bourdain may be a master at wielding a knife, but his skills with a pen aren’t too shabby either. I spent the past several days in his kitchens and dreaming about food and travel. (Well, I’m pretty much always fantasizing about these things, but let’s just say it became a bit of an incurable obsession of late!)
One thing is certain, I’m definitely on the right side of the kitchen – in the dining room! There’s no way I could cope working in this sort of an environment. The hours, the pace, the chaos, the pressure! But I admire anyone that can do it – and like Bourdain, I can see his point that “line cooks are the heroes.” I’m a firm believer now.
He takes us on a journey from his first realization that food was something more than just nourishment (when as an elementary student he tasted vichyssoise on the Queen Mary) through the various restaurants he inhabited for countless hours, to the heart of Asia where he learned that New York City was not the be-all and end-all of cuisine. The descriptions of certain food ‘encounters’ were probably some of my favorite morsels in the book. Bourdain’s experience with his first oyster was so vivid and tactile, sensual really, that I could well imagine it like it was my own. Such pleasure! It made me think of a certain scene from When Harry Met Sally. You know which one I mean.
“It tasted of seawater… of brine and flesh… and somehow… of the future… I had had an adventure, tasted forbidden fruit and everything that followed in my life – the food, the long and often stupid and self-destructive chase for the next thing, whether it was drugs or sex or some other new sensation – would all stem from this moment.”
I’ve never watched Anthony Bourdain’s shows. I didn’t really know much about him even five years ago – except that he was apparently some sort of deity in the food world. I’ve learned a bit more about him from reviews right on this site and became more and more interested in him, determined to glean more about his life. This book fit the bill perfectly.
If you’re not offended by honesty (and drugs and profanity and some ass-grabbing), and you’re not squeamish about what might go on before the wait staff brings those exquisite dishes to the table, then you may very well want to consider picking this up. The Afterword in my edition informs us that some things have changed in the restaurant world (namely the use of drugs and alcohol while on the job, the sexual antics during food service) since the writing of this book twenty years ago. I’m not going to lie – whether this is factual or not, I’m happy to erase some of those images from my mind when sitting down to enjoy a great meal! Nevertheless, I was greatly entertained and feel a lot more informed thanks to this.
It was a bit of serendipity to find out that Road Runner, the Bourdain documentary, was just released the other day! I’m pleased to say that the quaint little, locally owned theater nearby did not suffer a pandemic collapse. Its doors are once again open, and I plan to make a trip there very soon to watch this. I might even grab dinner before. But not at one of those chain establishments. Tony wouldn’t approve.
“Good food and good eating are about risk.”
“People confuse me. Food doesn’t.”
What a true delight it was to read my first Anthony Bourdain book! It was humorous, crude, exhilarating, mouth-watering, and highly informative. Oh, and I should mention, Bourdain may be a master at wielding a knife, but his skills with a pen aren’t too shabby either. I spent the past several days in his kitchens and dreaming about food and travel. (Well, I’m pretty much always fantasizing about these things, but let’s just say it became a bit of an incurable obsession of late!)
One thing is certain, I’m definitely on the right side of the kitchen – in the dining room! There’s no way I could cope working in this sort of an environment. The hours, the pace, the chaos, the pressure! But I admire anyone that can do it – and like Bourdain, I can see his point that “line cooks are the heroes.” I’m a firm believer now.
He takes us on a journey from his first realization that food was something more than just nourishment (when as an elementary student he tasted vichyssoise on the Queen Mary) through the various restaurants he inhabited for countless hours, to the heart of Asia where he learned that New York City was not the be-all and end-all of cuisine. The descriptions of certain food ‘encounters’ were probably some of my favorite morsels in the book. Bourdain’s experience with his first oyster was so vivid and tactile, sensual really, that I could well imagine it like it was my own. Such pleasure! It made me think of a certain scene from When Harry Met Sally. You know which one I mean.
“It tasted of seawater… of brine and flesh… and somehow… of the future… I had had an adventure, tasted forbidden fruit and everything that followed in my life – the food, the long and often stupid and self-destructive chase for the next thing, whether it was drugs or sex or some other new sensation – would all stem from this moment.”
I’ve never watched Anthony Bourdain’s shows. I didn’t really know much about him even five years ago – except that he was apparently some sort of deity in the food world. I’ve learned a bit more about him from reviews right on this site and became more and more interested in him, determined to glean more about his life. This book fit the bill perfectly.
If you’re not offended by honesty (and drugs and profanity and some ass-grabbing), and you’re not squeamish about what might go on before the wait staff brings those exquisite dishes to the table, then you may very well want to consider picking this up. The Afterword in my edition informs us that some things have changed in the restaurant world (namely the use of drugs and alcohol while on the job, the sexual antics during food service) since the writing of this book twenty years ago. I’m not going to lie – whether this is factual or not, I’m happy to erase some of those images from my mind when sitting down to enjoy a great meal! Nevertheless, I was greatly entertained and feel a lot more informed thanks to this.
It was a bit of serendipity to find out that Road Runner, the Bourdain documentary, was just released the other day! I’m pleased to say that the quaint little, locally owned theater nearby did not suffer a pandemic collapse. Its doors are once again open, and I plan to make a trip there very soon to watch this. I might even grab dinner before. But not at one of those chain establishments. Tony wouldn’t approve.
“Good food and good eating are about risk.”
“People confuse me. Food doesn’t.”
January 19, 2015
“Good food is very often, even most often, simple food.”
― Anthony Bourdain, Kitchen Confidential
There is a certain thrill to being the first person to reach the top of a mountain, the first to eat at a soon-to-be famous restaurant, the first to discover an author, a band, a new food or experience. Well friend, the thrill of a late discovery (even when you are 15 years late to the party) is still pretty damn sweet. I might have seen Bourdain's books as I wandered through a bookstore. I might have seen him on CNN, the Travel Channel or the Food Network while searching for another show on another station. I didn't hardly notice him. He was like that girl you know in class but have never given much real attention to (only later to discover she is witty, wicked, and everything you want in a lover and fear in a daughter).
Over Christmas, while visiting and bonding my foodie brother in Arkansas, he introduces me to Parts Unknown on CNN. I am hooked. I love Bourdain. I'm addicted to the show. It mixes things that mix well: my love for travel, my love for food, my love for a damn good story with interesting characters. So, I figure, I might need to actually read his book. Yeah this one. The one that put him on the map. The one that turned him from an executive chef with personality to THE chef with personality.
The book is a quick read. It dances. It seems to operate with a certain mechanical, hyper-caffeinated efficiency. Whatever money it made Bourdain, he probably deserved even more. Right now, I've muted my desire to put it on the bookshelf next to my other just reads. I want my wife to read it first. Oh, I've got a friend who would love it too. My initial reaction to finishing this book is the same I get when I discover a fantastic new restaurant (Republica Empanada in Mesa, AZ) -- I want to take friends and family to it. I become not just a disciple, but a crazy-eyed evangelist.
― Anthony Bourdain, Kitchen Confidential
There is a certain thrill to being the first person to reach the top of a mountain, the first to eat at a soon-to-be famous restaurant, the first to discover an author, a band, a new food or experience. Well friend, the thrill of a late discovery (even when you are 15 years late to the party) is still pretty damn sweet. I might have seen Bourdain's books as I wandered through a bookstore. I might have seen him on CNN, the Travel Channel or the Food Network while searching for another show on another station. I didn't hardly notice him. He was like that girl you know in class but have never given much real attention to (only later to discover she is witty, wicked, and everything you want in a lover and fear in a daughter).
Over Christmas, while visiting and bonding my foodie brother in Arkansas, he introduces me to Parts Unknown on CNN. I am hooked. I love Bourdain. I'm addicted to the show. It mixes things that mix well: my love for travel, my love for food, my love for a damn good story with interesting characters. So, I figure, I might need to actually read his book. Yeah this one. The one that put him on the map. The one that turned him from an executive chef with personality to THE chef with personality.
The book is a quick read. It dances. It seems to operate with a certain mechanical, hyper-caffeinated efficiency. Whatever money it made Bourdain, he probably deserved even more. Right now, I've muted my desire to put it on the bookshelf next to my other just reads. I want my wife to read it first. Oh, I've got a friend who would love it too. My initial reaction to finishing this book is the same I get when I discover a fantastic new restaurant (Republica Empanada in Mesa, AZ) -- I want to take friends and family to it. I become not just a disciple, but a crazy-eyed evangelist.
August 30, 2018
Abandoned, I think, most likely with prejudice.
The audio version is read by Bourdain, which may be the most problematic aspect for me. In the first couple of chapters, Bourdain discusses his introduction to the world of cooking, followed by his experiences at the Culinary Institute of America and his forays into the cooking world after. I'm stalled out on recommendations for the home chef chapter, which I'd kind of like to finish. Here's the trouble:
He sounds pretty much like a conceited, arrogant asshole, even as he's admitting he was a conceited, arrogant, twenty-year-old asshole. In this case, though certainly there is a feel of realism added by listening to him talk, it is far, far too much arrogance for me. I work with that type quite a bit, so I'm not really enjoying it during my free time.
The writing style is also somewhat over-done. It reminds me of when I was in high school and a group of us learned how to write humorous essays, that mostly consisted of wild exaggeration coupled with sarcasm. It's tiring.
The last part, and potentially most damning, is that there doesn't seem to be a lot of insight into food. Or rather, there was limited insight for the time period which it was about (remember truffle oil?), such as the infamous chapter with the advice 'never order fish on Mondays,' which he later amended (https://www.businessinsider.com/antho...). From a foodie perspective, he's focused on proteins and presentation: it was surprising to me that he recommended a solid chef's knife for the home cook, but not necessarily a paring knife (essential, imo, for delicate fruit and veggie work). And why does he hate the garlic press so much? Sure, for the first twenty-some years of my cooking life, I flattened and chopped with my chef's knife, but I confess the press I started using was perfect for garlic in homemade salad dressing.
Overall, I think I would benefit more from his last book, the one that potentially offers more insight from an older, more worldly person, and from his later-career focus in food as a representation of culture.
The audio version is read by Bourdain, which may be the most problematic aspect for me. In the first couple of chapters, Bourdain discusses his introduction to the world of cooking, followed by his experiences at the Culinary Institute of America and his forays into the cooking world after. I'm stalled out on recommendations for the home chef chapter, which I'd kind of like to finish. Here's the trouble:
He sounds pretty much like a conceited, arrogant asshole, even as he's admitting he was a conceited, arrogant, twenty-year-old asshole. In this case, though certainly there is a feel of realism added by listening to him talk, it is far, far too much arrogance for me. I work with that type quite a bit, so I'm not really enjoying it during my free time.
The writing style is also somewhat over-done. It reminds me of when I was in high school and a group of us learned how to write humorous essays, that mostly consisted of wild exaggeration coupled with sarcasm. It's tiring.
The last part, and potentially most damning, is that there doesn't seem to be a lot of insight into food. Or rather, there was limited insight for the time period which it was about (remember truffle oil?), such as the infamous chapter with the advice 'never order fish on Mondays,' which he later amended (https://www.businessinsider.com/antho...). From a foodie perspective, he's focused on proteins and presentation: it was surprising to me that he recommended a solid chef's knife for the home cook, but not necessarily a paring knife (essential, imo, for delicate fruit and veggie work). And why does he hate the garlic press so much? Sure, for the first twenty-some years of my cooking life, I flattened and chopped with my chef's knife, but I confess the press I started using was perfect for garlic in homemade salad dressing.
Overall, I think I would benefit more from his last book, the one that potentially offers more insight from an older, more worldly person, and from his later-career focus in food as a representation of culture.
June 8, 2018
R.I.P.
March 22, 2026
To say that Anthony Bourdain is as readable as he is watchable is not doing him justice. ‘Readable’ implies that the reading experience will at least be a smooth sail through the text, with comprehension and a minimum of pleasure guaranteed. Here, every single story of Bourdain’s “adventures in the culinary underbelly” grabbed my attention and fascinated me from start to finish. The man was a born storyteller, frank, entertaining, well-versed and (pleasantly) full of himself. Although he wouldn’t admit it, a romantic, too. If his cooking was as good as his narrative, then he was being unnecessarily modest when describing himself as only a mediocre chef. But that was also part of his charm and his undisputed cool.
In the book’s afterword, written six years after its first publication, he describes the phenomenon of the “celebrity chef” as “silly and annoying”, but he sure had a hand in the disproportionate rise of the public’s interest in the goings-on inside professional kitchens. An interest that doesn’t always stem from a genuine love for food, but rather from the gossipy and voyeuristic attitude that’s part of the social media era.
Despite its many captivating detours to a broad range of themes, food is at the core of this book. It seems that what has most stayed in its readers’ minds throughout the years is the chapter titled “From Our Kitchen to Your Table” where that “underbelly” of the subtitle is explicitly described and advice is magnanimously proffered on why we shouldn’t order fish on Monday, stay away from hollandaise sauce, shrimp toast and discount sushi; those tips will likely stay with me too, along with a bunch of his simpler tricks for yummy cooking. But what has lodged in my mind since finishing it is those passages eloquently describing why, in a chaotic world full of confusion and contradiction, food connects and is one of the few things (perhaps, the only one) that “makes perfect sense”:
“Though I’ve spent half my life watching people, guiding them, trying to anticipate their moods, motivations and actions, running from them, manipulating and being manipulated by them, they remain a mystery to me. People confuse me.
Food doesn’t. I know what I’m looking at when I see a perfect loin of number-one tuna. I can understand why millions of Japanese are driven to near bloodlust by the firm, almost iridescent flesh. I get why my boss grows teary eyed when he sees a flawlessly executed choucroute garnie. Color, flavor, texture, composition…and personal history. Who knows what circumstances, what events in his long-ago past so inspire this rare display of emotion? And who needs to know? I just know what I see. And I understand it. It makes perfect sense.”
In the book’s afterword, written six years after its first publication, he describes the phenomenon of the “celebrity chef” as “silly and annoying”, but he sure had a hand in the disproportionate rise of the public’s interest in the goings-on inside professional kitchens. An interest that doesn’t always stem from a genuine love for food, but rather from the gossipy and voyeuristic attitude that’s part of the social media era.
Despite its many captivating detours to a broad range of themes, food is at the core of this book. It seems that what has most stayed in its readers’ minds throughout the years is the chapter titled “From Our Kitchen to Your Table” where that “underbelly” of the subtitle is explicitly described and advice is magnanimously proffered on why we shouldn’t order fish on Monday, stay away from hollandaise sauce, shrimp toast and discount sushi; those tips will likely stay with me too, along with a bunch of his simpler tricks for yummy cooking. But what has lodged in my mind since finishing it is those passages eloquently describing why, in a chaotic world full of confusion and contradiction, food connects and is one of the few things (perhaps, the only one) that “makes perfect sense”:
“Though I’ve spent half my life watching people, guiding them, trying to anticipate their moods, motivations and actions, running from them, manipulating and being manipulated by them, they remain a mystery to me. People confuse me.
Food doesn’t. I know what I’m looking at when I see a perfect loin of number-one tuna. I can understand why millions of Japanese are driven to near bloodlust by the firm, almost iridescent flesh. I get why my boss grows teary eyed when he sees a flawlessly executed choucroute garnie. Color, flavor, texture, composition…and personal history. Who knows what circumstances, what events in his long-ago past so inspire this rare display of emotion? And who needs to know? I just know what I see. And I understand it. It makes perfect sense.”
June 22, 2023
This was my book club read for June, although it had been on my TBR for years! When this was written back in 2000, it was groundbreaking and shocking. It was the advent of celebrity chefs and everything that industry has brought to food and restaurants.
I have long been a Bourdain fan, we watched all of his shows and his enjoyment of food and travel has encouraged us more than once to get out of our comfort zones and to embrace new and unique experiences. I was devastated when I heard news of his suicide, I feel like the world is a bit less bright without him in it.
I liked this book but didn't love it. I loved that he reads the audiobook, because hearing his inflection and emphasis made me know when he was being serious and when he was being sarcastic. Some parts of this book are eye-opening and interesting, you definitely won't look at a restaurant or its food the same way again. Yet other parts of the book get really tedious, going through endless names of people and different restaurants kind of made me glaze over. I am not familiar with any of these people or places, so those parts didn't connect with me.
Overall this is a fascinating look at Bourdain's start and early days working as a chef in restaurants and his path and journey in life. There's some good advice here to aspiring chefs and "regular" people who just like to eat in restaurants.
I have long been a Bourdain fan, we watched all of his shows and his enjoyment of food and travel has encouraged us more than once to get out of our comfort zones and to embrace new and unique experiences. I was devastated when I heard news of his suicide, I feel like the world is a bit less bright without him in it.
I liked this book but didn't love it. I loved that he reads the audiobook, because hearing his inflection and emphasis made me know when he was being serious and when he was being sarcastic. Some parts of this book are eye-opening and interesting, you definitely won't look at a restaurant or its food the same way again. Yet other parts of the book get really tedious, going through endless names of people and different restaurants kind of made me glaze over. I am not familiar with any of these people or places, so those parts didn't connect with me.
Overall this is a fascinating look at Bourdain's start and early days working as a chef in restaurants and his path and journey in life. There's some good advice here to aspiring chefs and "regular" people who just like to eat in restaurants.
January 11, 2021
3.5 stars rounded up. A fascinating look into the professional kitchens of NYC. I'm immediately moving on to his other books!
I've never watched his show or heard much about him besides the suspicious rumors surrounding his death. It seems the world lost a talented, intriguing man. I hope to gleam what I can from his words.
I've never watched his show or heard much about him besides the suspicious rumors surrounding his death. It seems the world lost a talented, intriguing man. I hope to gleam what I can from his words.
May 23, 2017
Oh boy. Where to begin? I found this book - and by extension Anthony Bourdain - somewhat distasteful.
On the surface, it works. Bourdain promises to take you behind the scenes of the restaurant industry, which he certainly does - it's just that he only takes you to very specific restaurant environments that he has worked in and has directly helped shape, a revelation that he only gets to almost three-quarters of the way through the book. All kitchens are chaotic and full of machismo, he says, and the only way to survive them is to fully commit to the culture. But later, he takes the reader to Scott Bryan’s kitchen, where “there are islands of reason and calm, where the pace is steady, where quality always takes precedence over the demands of volume, and where it's not always about dick dick dick.” I was flabbergasted: this passage seemed to negate almost everything that came before it. The restaurant industry is hard and requires a phenomenal amount of work from its chefs, but it apparently does not, as Bourdain tries to say for hundreds of pages, require them to be assholes.
Bourdain's writing is excellent in parts. I loved his descriptions of various restaurants over his long and interesting career, particularly the restaurant run by the mafia. The entire segment about Adam (no last name) who makes the magical bread made me laugh out loud. The sections where he’s relating stories about his coworkers and the New York restaurant scene are great; the personal sections, not so much. The structure of the book is choppy and doesn’t have a linear narrative, which makes it hard to follow the thread of his story. Bourdain seems almost too self-aware to write about himself. He’s too ready to call younger versions of himself an idiot. At first, it seems like he gets it - his younger self really was an idiot - but it slowly becomes apparent that he’s still just as arrogant as before. He’s just learned how to make it sound like he’s learned something.
For me, the most telling anecdote in the book, and the one that I’ll remember, is when Bourdain realizes that, statistically, only one in four heroin addicts gets clean. He’s in a car with three other junkies, and he immediately promises himself that he will be the one to get out alive, no matter what. And he does, and he goes on to write that story - but not the story of his recovery - in this book. And that’s all you need to know about Anthony Bourdain.
On the surface, it works. Bourdain promises to take you behind the scenes of the restaurant industry, which he certainly does - it's just that he only takes you to very specific restaurant environments that he has worked in and has directly helped shape, a revelation that he only gets to almost three-quarters of the way through the book. All kitchens are chaotic and full of machismo, he says, and the only way to survive them is to fully commit to the culture. But later, he takes the reader to Scott Bryan’s kitchen, where “there are islands of reason and calm, where the pace is steady, where quality always takes precedence over the demands of volume, and where it's not always about dick dick dick.” I was flabbergasted: this passage seemed to negate almost everything that came before it. The restaurant industry is hard and requires a phenomenal amount of work from its chefs, but it apparently does not, as Bourdain tries to say for hundreds of pages, require them to be assholes.
Bourdain's writing is excellent in parts. I loved his descriptions of various restaurants over his long and interesting career, particularly the restaurant run by the mafia. The entire segment about Adam (no last name) who makes the magical bread made me laugh out loud. The sections where he’s relating stories about his coworkers and the New York restaurant scene are great; the personal sections, not so much. The structure of the book is choppy and doesn’t have a linear narrative, which makes it hard to follow the thread of his story. Bourdain seems almost too self-aware to write about himself. He’s too ready to call younger versions of himself an idiot. At first, it seems like he gets it - his younger self really was an idiot - but it slowly becomes apparent that he’s still just as arrogant as before. He’s just learned how to make it sound like he’s learned something.
For me, the most telling anecdote in the book, and the one that I’ll remember, is when Bourdain realizes that, statistically, only one in four heroin addicts gets clean. He’s in a car with three other junkies, and he immediately promises himself that he will be the one to get out alive, no matter what. And he does, and he goes on to write that story - but not the story of his recovery - in this book. And that’s all you need to know about Anthony Bourdain.
February 8, 2008
Halfway through this book I remembered I don't have the slightest bit of interest in the culinary arts whatsoever. Luckily, I was listening to it on audiotape. Unluckily, cassette 4 broke and I had to read the rest with my eyes. I'm not sure why I picked this up, I guess because I heard Bourdain was the "punk rock chef," but besides listening to the Sex Pistols and Velvet Underground while he cooked, there's not a whole lot else going on of a punk rock nature. He was a drug addict, but the book kind of skips right over that, which would have been interesting; I'd rather it had been more of a total autobiography than just a chronicle of his history of the restaurant biz, but once again, it's my fault because that's clearly what the book is labeled as. I wanted dirty stories from the seedy underbelly of the high-class dining world, but it didn't really get much wilder than a bunch of cooks making racist, sexist, homophobic jokes. Dude, that's not exclusive to the culinary world, that's pretty much behind the scenes at any workplace, or really any time you get a lot of misplaced testosterone in one room. You're not leading a "pirate crew," you're supervising people who are following recipes. I rented a dvd from his show "No Reservations" and was again surprised at myself for forgetting I don't really care about exotic foods, and that's a traveling show, which I'm also not into. So now I'm watching like 3 hours of a guy I don't like, eating shit I don't care about, in places I'm not interested in going to. It should be noted that I do like Rachel Ray's "Tasty Travels," but that's another story I don't want to get into. The only really funny anecdote I found was when he was in an interview for chef at a new steakhouse in New York, things were going smoothly until the owner asked him, "What do you know about me?" Bourdain thought it over, not sure what he should say, so he said the truth, "Nothing." So then the guy gives him a weird look, and the interview ends with Bourdain knowing he's not getting the job. He walks a few blocks down the street before he realizes the guy actually asked, "What do you know about MEAT."
September 6, 2010
If you are like me and love food, watching Top Chef and Food Channel, think that cooking is art, an outlet for creativity, consider chefs featured on such shows (including Anthony Bourdain) as super-sophisticated artists, you are up for a surprise with this book.
Bourdain definitely crushes all preconceived notions we might have about the industry. You remember those foul-mouthed, unkempt, ever-fired-and-hired kitchen workers with shifty pasts you've come across at some points in your life? I thought I simply had a misfortune of working in crappy places, but, apparently, all cooks are exactly like that! There is no such thing as a sophisticated cook, according to Bourdain. In his book, cooks are a dysfunctional lot - drug-addicted, unable to hold a "normal" job, people from the fringes of the society. Actually, Bourdain is one of these people himself. He supports this statement by numerous stories of his drug-, crime- and sex-infused culinary career. As for artistry in cooking, there is none. Cooking is all about mindless, unvarying repetition. Only a few executive chefs in high-end restaurants have a luxury of being creative with the food they make.
Besides the anecdotes about dysfunctional kitchen workers, Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly is a sort of biographical account of Bourdain's cooking career. He talks about how his love for food came about. He takes us on his life journey - from a dishwasher in a seaside joint to an executive chef position in a swanky NYC restaurant. He describes his experiences in failed and successful businesses. Offers practical advice about the industry and food. The morsels of wisdom I am taking away from this book are: don't order specials and don't attend brunch buffets (apparently, both are dumping grounds for old leftovers); don't eat at places with dirty bathrooms; vegetarians are crazy and sickly people who can't be trusted.
As a narrator, Bourdain is very entertaining. He is a no-nonsense, no-holding-back kind of writer, sarcastic and witty and, I assume, quite honest about his exploits. One does start to wonder however if he is laying the bad boy thing a little too thick. It is interesting that in spite of his years-long heroine, cocaine, and alcohol addictions and his bad behavior at work, he not only managed to line one chef job after another in decent places (no McDonald's and Shoney's on his resume) but maintained a marriage as well.
While I thought the book was entertaining, I finished reading it thinking it needed some editing help. First, it is not very well structured, the narration is not cohesive in any shape or form, it reads like a bunch of anecdotes thrown together in no apparent order. The stories of debauchery become repetitive and redundant by the end where I started skipping chapters because none of it was new. Finally, seeing some pictures of people and places Bourdain talks about would have been great too.
Nevertheless, I would recommend this book to all food lovers and especially people who are toying with the idea of becoming restaurateurs or cooks. The author's advice and warnings about the business are sound. I, personally, am convinced not to ever get involved in this business, in any capacity, and will try to continue enjoying food knowing what actually goes on behind the kitchen doors.
Bourdain definitely crushes all preconceived notions we might have about the industry. You remember those foul-mouthed, unkempt, ever-fired-and-hired kitchen workers with shifty pasts you've come across at some points in your life? I thought I simply had a misfortune of working in crappy places, but, apparently, all cooks are exactly like that! There is no such thing as a sophisticated cook, according to Bourdain. In his book, cooks are a dysfunctional lot - drug-addicted, unable to hold a "normal" job, people from the fringes of the society. Actually, Bourdain is one of these people himself. He supports this statement by numerous stories of his drug-, crime- and sex-infused culinary career. As for artistry in cooking, there is none. Cooking is all about mindless, unvarying repetition. Only a few executive chefs in high-end restaurants have a luxury of being creative with the food they make.
Besides the anecdotes about dysfunctional kitchen workers, Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly is a sort of biographical account of Bourdain's cooking career. He talks about how his love for food came about. He takes us on his life journey - from a dishwasher in a seaside joint to an executive chef position in a swanky NYC restaurant. He describes his experiences in failed and successful businesses. Offers practical advice about the industry and food. The morsels of wisdom I am taking away from this book are: don't order specials and don't attend brunch buffets (apparently, both are dumping grounds for old leftovers); don't eat at places with dirty bathrooms; vegetarians are crazy and sickly people who can't be trusted.
As a narrator, Bourdain is very entertaining. He is a no-nonsense, no-holding-back kind of writer, sarcastic and witty and, I assume, quite honest about his exploits. One does start to wonder however if he is laying the bad boy thing a little too thick. It is interesting that in spite of his years-long heroine, cocaine, and alcohol addictions and his bad behavior at work, he not only managed to line one chef job after another in decent places (no McDonald's and Shoney's on his resume) but maintained a marriage as well.
While I thought the book was entertaining, I finished reading it thinking it needed some editing help. First, it is not very well structured, the narration is not cohesive in any shape or form, it reads like a bunch of anecdotes thrown together in no apparent order. The stories of debauchery become repetitive and redundant by the end where I started skipping chapters because none of it was new. Finally, seeing some pictures of people and places Bourdain talks about would have been great too.
Nevertheless, I would recommend this book to all food lovers and especially people who are toying with the idea of becoming restaurateurs or cooks. The author's advice and warnings about the business are sound. I, personally, am convinced not to ever get involved in this business, in any capacity, and will try to continue enjoying food knowing what actually goes on behind the kitchen doors.
March 25, 2019
I had Kitchen Confidential for quite a while lying in my e-reader and I thought it was about time I read it. I wish I hadn't now! I had thought a book about food can never possibly be so boring and disgusting. But Anthony Bourdain's personality permeates throughout the book and put me off completely.
Bourdain appears to have had a decent enough childhood and his chapter about discovering good food in France was nice. But the rest of it was just him being a dickhead. It is no surprise that most industries are sexism, racism, homophobia, and whatever other "isms" you care to mention. These are not unique to the food industry. But the toxic masculinity that Bourdain advocates, and even revels in, is disgusting.
Tim, a veteran waiter, is dry-humping Cachundo—to Cachundo's apparent displeasure. He's blocking the lane and impeding traffic in the narrow kitchen with his thrusting. I have to ask Tim nicely not to sexually harass my runners during service . . . after work, please.
If you are easily offended by direct aspersions on your lineage, the circumstances of your birth, your sexuality, your appearance, the mention of your parents possibly commingling with livestock, then the world of professional cooking is not for you.
I mean, really! WTF? Who would change things if you don't? He goes on and on in this vein for pages. He was kind enough to admit that some tough women handle the sexual harassment very well and are stars of the kitchen. I mean, are you brain damaged? Why should women have to be experts at handling gropers to work in a fucking kitchen? It's not a fucking qualification!
And then, there are all the Ecuadorians, Mexicans, Cubans, etc. whom he specifically chose in order to exploit them. Looks like people who have no expectations of holidays, sick leave, healthcare, and such, should only work in Bourdain's kitchen. He makes it abundantly clear. That's why he didn't hire white Americans, who would never put up with his shit.
The book was disgusting in other ways too. Bourdain is against vegetarians and frankly I am glad he hated us. Bourdain's never ending descriptions of groping and namecalling in his kitchen got on my nerves very fast. He calls a sexual abuser - one who gropes everyone in the kitchen - his best friend because he was oh, so efficient! But it appears he was more bonkers than ignoring just what many other men like to do.
We considered ourselves a tribe. As such, we had a number of unusual customs, rituals and practices all our own. If you cut yourself in the Work Progress kitchen, tradition called for maximum spillage and dispersion of blood. One squeezed the wound till it ran freely, then hurled great gouts of red spray on the jackets and aprons of comrades. We loved blood in our kitchen.
The man was really messed up. I am not surprised he committed suicide. It appears he supported the Me Too movement and regretted this horrible memoir before his death, but it's too little too late if you ask me. A lifetime of promoting toxic masculinity cannot be erased with a few words in old age. And this book would serve better as a coaster.
Okay, so there were some interesting bits if you just skimmed through all the abuse and the nasty bits. He offers some cooking tips and a pretty decent insight into dining for customers. I personally find that restaurants in Pune are mostly useless with loud music, large TV playing sports, unbearably bright lights, and indifferent service. It's like they can't decide whether they are a club, sports bar, or operation theatre. Reading Kitchen Confidential gave me some real insights into why restaurants would make it such a chore to sit through a damn meal.
At the end, Bourdain gives tips on how to become a chef. Assume the worst. About everybody. But don't let this poisoned outlook affect your job performance. Let it all roll off your back. Ignore it. Be amused by what you see and suspect. Just because someone you work with is a miserable, treacherous, self-serving, capricious and corrupt asshole shouldn't prevent you from enjoying their company, working with them or finding them entertaining. This business grows assholes: it's our principal export. I'm an asshole. You should probably be an asshole too.
That just about sums up the book and the man.
Bourdain appears to have had a decent enough childhood and his chapter about discovering good food in France was nice. But the rest of it was just him being a dickhead. It is no surprise that most industries are sexism, racism, homophobia, and whatever other "isms" you care to mention. These are not unique to the food industry. But the toxic masculinity that Bourdain advocates, and even revels in, is disgusting.
Tim, a veteran waiter, is dry-humping Cachundo—to Cachundo's apparent displeasure. He's blocking the lane and impeding traffic in the narrow kitchen with his thrusting. I have to ask Tim nicely not to sexually harass my runners during service . . . after work, please.
If you are easily offended by direct aspersions on your lineage, the circumstances of your birth, your sexuality, your appearance, the mention of your parents possibly commingling with livestock, then the world of professional cooking is not for you.
I mean, really! WTF? Who would change things if you don't? He goes on and on in this vein for pages. He was kind enough to admit that some tough women handle the sexual harassment very well and are stars of the kitchen. I mean, are you brain damaged? Why should women have to be experts at handling gropers to work in a fucking kitchen? It's not a fucking qualification!
And then, there are all the Ecuadorians, Mexicans, Cubans, etc. whom he specifically chose in order to exploit them. Looks like people who have no expectations of holidays, sick leave, healthcare, and such, should only work in Bourdain's kitchen. He makes it abundantly clear. That's why he didn't hire white Americans, who would never put up with his shit.
The book was disgusting in other ways too. Bourdain is against vegetarians and frankly I am glad he hated us. Bourdain's never ending descriptions of groping and namecalling in his kitchen got on my nerves very fast. He calls a sexual abuser - one who gropes everyone in the kitchen - his best friend because he was oh, so efficient! But it appears he was more bonkers than ignoring just what many other men like to do.
We considered ourselves a tribe. As such, we had a number of unusual customs, rituals and practices all our own. If you cut yourself in the Work Progress kitchen, tradition called for maximum spillage and dispersion of blood. One squeezed the wound till it ran freely, then hurled great gouts of red spray on the jackets and aprons of comrades. We loved blood in our kitchen.
The man was really messed up. I am not surprised he committed suicide. It appears he supported the Me Too movement and regretted this horrible memoir before his death, but it's too little too late if you ask me. A lifetime of promoting toxic masculinity cannot be erased with a few words in old age. And this book would serve better as a coaster.
Okay, so there were some interesting bits if you just skimmed through all the abuse and the nasty bits. He offers some cooking tips and a pretty decent insight into dining for customers. I personally find that restaurants in Pune are mostly useless with loud music, large TV playing sports, unbearably bright lights, and indifferent service. It's like they can't decide whether they are a club, sports bar, or operation theatre. Reading Kitchen Confidential gave me some real insights into why restaurants would make it such a chore to sit through a damn meal.
At the end, Bourdain gives tips on how to become a chef. Assume the worst. About everybody. But don't let this poisoned outlook affect your job performance. Let it all roll off your back. Ignore it. Be amused by what you see and suspect. Just because someone you work with is a miserable, treacherous, self-serving, capricious and corrupt asshole shouldn't prevent you from enjoying their company, working with them or finding them entertaining. This business grows assholes: it's our principal export. I'm an asshole. You should probably be an asshole too.
That just about sums up the book and the man.
August 31, 2026
I think I annoyed my partner with how many times I read a passage out loud. Really fun book that I wish I could *feel* more deeply, but as a non food obsessed person - I’ll always be good with a smoothie for dinner - it’s still a good time simply because Tony’s an expert story teller
April 10, 2026
There are a number of people in my life who worked in restaurants in the 1980's and 90's, both in the kitchen and in the front of the house. Their tales rival Bourdain's. While I have been an entertained listener, I have never been tempted to join them. I love food; the work hours, the chaos and craziness, not so much.
Bourdain lays down his tales with verve and wit. His writing is so good that I can taste the food and feel the weight of those huge sacks he's lugging. If you don't mind the seedy and the vulgar, Bourdain will suck you in with his storytelling and show you his world. At the very least you will have a new appreciation for restaurants and their staffs. And you just might change the night you dine out to a Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday. 😏😋
And bottom line--It's all about the food!
Publication 2000
Bourdain lays down his tales with verve and wit. His writing is so good that I can taste the food and feel the weight of those huge sacks he's lugging. If you don't mind the seedy and the vulgar, Bourdain will suck you in with his storytelling and show you his world. At the very least you will have a new appreciation for restaurants and their staffs. And you just might change the night you dine out to a Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday. 😏😋
And bottom line--It's all about the food!
Publication 2000
June 27, 2018
I am ashamed to say I knew very little about Anthony Bourdain before he died. I knew he was a celebrity chef, with a pile of published books, TV shows and a reputation for being abrasive, but not much else. After reading this, I regret not paying more attention when I could, because I found Mr. Bourdain to be an incredibly passionate, well-read, deeply articulate, hysterically funny and brutally honest human being. It is creepy to think I could have crushed on him super hard was he still around?
I'm amused by people who think he was arrogant: I mean, half French, half New Yorker is not a blueprint for humility, but I also found him to have worked his ass off and to have earned his success. He decided he wanted to be the best, and then single-mindedly gave everything to that goal. There's a strong working class ethic that transpires from his writing, a love of work well-done, of hard work that makes him someone with very high standards - because he knew how tough it is to do your best. I have a lot of respect for that, and as far as I am concerned, he earned the right to be a snob. He also acknowledges how grateful he is to anyone who helped him, anyone who gave him an opportunity, anyone who showed loyalty and shared his love of food and good work. That shows a lot of heart; most prickly people are kinda gooey in the middle, and I feel that Bourdain was like that too.
A career in food is a hard, hard thing to do. I don't know if everyone realizes it's not really glamorous, that it requires the weirdest hours, the most strenuous pace and the most frustrating interactions. Bourdain wanted everyone to know what there is behind the curtain, who teams up to put together the beautifully plated and delicious things you eat at fancy restaurants. He did that with self-deprecating humor, and gave no-nonsense advice for people who want to cook like he did - at the risk of deeply offending vegetarians all over the world.
Reading this after Bourdain committed suicide is a bit rough, because while he certainly had a tendency for self-destructive behavior (he mentions excessive drinking and developing a heroin addiction), he also clearly loved to feel alive. How hard it must get for a man who loved life as much as he did to decide it wasn't worth living anymore is beyond what I can imagine, and it makes me incredibly sad to think he took his own life.
Four and a half stars, rounded down because I know a few of those chapters are old articles Bourdain wrote for various publications, and I think the book would hold itself together better if it had been a more continuous narrative. But I will be looking up his other books and scour Netflix for his shows.
--
Additional thoughts:
-Yup, food is sex. I can't trust people who don't enjoy food, who eat just to sustain their bodies and not for the amazing sensual pleasure that eating can be. Maybe its the French and Italian upbringing, but that's just not right to me. Love and fully experience your food! Giving someone delicious, lovingly prepared food is a profound act of love in my opinion. All these thoughts also apply to sex. Obviously.
-My (French) father always said that margarine is the devil's lubricant, and I think he would have disowned me if he had ever found that greasy blasphemy in my fridge. It's nice to have this opinion vindicated. Apologies to my father-in-law and his "I can't believe it's not butter" spray bottles: I will never surrender, Ed!
-Sorry my darling Anthony, but demi-glace is overrated. And no one gets between me and a plate of smoked salmon eggs Benny and lives to tell the tale. Hollandaise is LIFE. Bacteria, shmackteria. What happened to living dangerously?!
-Yes, excessive meat consumption increases the risk of lifestyle diseases. It's also terrible for ecological sustainability. Less meat and a lot more veggies is definitely the way to go, but people who preach about veganism and try to make other people feel like bad human beings for not hopping onto their high-horse really, really need to pipe the fuck down.
-This book made me fall in love with Bourdain; I started reading all his other books and binging every one of his shows I could find. A piece of my heart will always belong to him - not just because he was a smokin' hot, smart-mouthed hunk, but because of how inspired I am by his work, and because of how much I've learned reading him and watching him explore the world. Thank god he wrote this book, which started it all.
I'm amused by people who think he was arrogant: I mean, half French, half New Yorker is not a blueprint for humility, but I also found him to have worked his ass off and to have earned his success. He decided he wanted to be the best, and then single-mindedly gave everything to that goal. There's a strong working class ethic that transpires from his writing, a love of work well-done, of hard work that makes him someone with very high standards - because he knew how tough it is to do your best. I have a lot of respect for that, and as far as I am concerned, he earned the right to be a snob. He also acknowledges how grateful he is to anyone who helped him, anyone who gave him an opportunity, anyone who showed loyalty and shared his love of food and good work. That shows a lot of heart; most prickly people are kinda gooey in the middle, and I feel that Bourdain was like that too.
A career in food is a hard, hard thing to do. I don't know if everyone realizes it's not really glamorous, that it requires the weirdest hours, the most strenuous pace and the most frustrating interactions. Bourdain wanted everyone to know what there is behind the curtain, who teams up to put together the beautifully plated and delicious things you eat at fancy restaurants. He did that with self-deprecating humor, and gave no-nonsense advice for people who want to cook like he did - at the risk of deeply offending vegetarians all over the world.
Reading this after Bourdain committed suicide is a bit rough, because while he certainly had a tendency for self-destructive behavior (he mentions excessive drinking and developing a heroin addiction), he also clearly loved to feel alive. How hard it must get for a man who loved life as much as he did to decide it wasn't worth living anymore is beyond what I can imagine, and it makes me incredibly sad to think he took his own life.
Four and a half stars, rounded down because I know a few of those chapters are old articles Bourdain wrote for various publications, and I think the book would hold itself together better if it had been a more continuous narrative. But I will be looking up his other books and scour Netflix for his shows.
--
Additional thoughts:
-Yup, food is sex. I can't trust people who don't enjoy food, who eat just to sustain their bodies and not for the amazing sensual pleasure that eating can be. Maybe its the French and Italian upbringing, but that's just not right to me. Love and fully experience your food! Giving someone delicious, lovingly prepared food is a profound act of love in my opinion. All these thoughts also apply to sex. Obviously.
-My (French) father always said that margarine is the devil's lubricant, and I think he would have disowned me if he had ever found that greasy blasphemy in my fridge. It's nice to have this opinion vindicated. Apologies to my father-in-law and his "I can't believe it's not butter" spray bottles: I will never surrender, Ed!
-Sorry my darling Anthony, but demi-glace is overrated. And no one gets between me and a plate of smoked salmon eggs Benny and lives to tell the tale. Hollandaise is LIFE. Bacteria, shmackteria. What happened to living dangerously?!
-Yes, excessive meat consumption increases the risk of lifestyle diseases. It's also terrible for ecological sustainability. Less meat and a lot more veggies is definitely the way to go, but people who preach about veganism and try to make other people feel like bad human beings for not hopping onto their high-horse really, really need to pipe the fuck down.
-This book made me fall in love with Bourdain; I started reading all his other books and binging every one of his shows I could find. A piece of my heart will always belong to him - not just because he was a smokin' hot, smart-mouthed hunk, but because of how inspired I am by his work, and because of how much I've learned reading him and watching him explore the world. Thank god he wrote this book, which started it all.
July 17, 2007
The book's author is clearly impressed with having passed through the esteemed halls of Vassar College, yet prouder still of his hard knocks and rough-and-tumble street degree earned working for a slew of restaurants. Much of the book is spent describing the working stiffs in the culinary field and their wildly anti-social and anti-establishment behavior and greedy incompetent restaurant owners. The anecdotes were mildly amusing for the first hundred pages but tiresome by the end. If you're stuck on a plane with nothing else to read, go for it!
August 31, 2018
No one needs me to tell them anything about this book, I feel like I'm the last person in the universe to read it. Bourdain is a really good writer and he makes it very hard to criticize him, anything you're going to say he's already said. And yet.
I started out enjoying this a lot but after a while it lost some momentum. More than that, I just started to get tired of the shtick. You know, the macho tough kitchen guy shtick. Bourdain insists that this is how it is and also insists, in the way only a straight white cis man can, that it is not an atmosphere that is targeting women or queer people. No, this is a place where everyone gets attacked, everyone is called out, everyone is insulted. He doesn't seem to get that there's a real difference between being a straight guy in that environment where the language revolves around straight male-ness and when you're not the person being centered in those conversations. Sure a straight guy is going to laugh at another straight guy by using some gay slurs and he'll use the exact same gay slurs against a gay guy, but do you really think those two people are going to hear those slurs the same way? It's shockingly oblivious. To Bourdain's credit, in one chapter he takes down every argument he's made by showing another chef's kitchen where there isn't this hostile atmosphere, but after showing that it doesn't have to be this way he doesn't have a moment of insight or self-reflection, considering the way his whole industry is pushing people out.
I started out enjoying this a lot but after a while it lost some momentum. More than that, I just started to get tired of the shtick. You know, the macho tough kitchen guy shtick. Bourdain insists that this is how it is and also insists, in the way only a straight white cis man can, that it is not an atmosphere that is targeting women or queer people. No, this is a place where everyone gets attacked, everyone is called out, everyone is insulted. He doesn't seem to get that there's a real difference between being a straight guy in that environment where the language revolves around straight male-ness and when you're not the person being centered in those conversations. Sure a straight guy is going to laugh at another straight guy by using some gay slurs and he'll use the exact same gay slurs against a gay guy, but do you really think those two people are going to hear those slurs the same way? It's shockingly oblivious. To Bourdain's credit, in one chapter he takes down every argument he's made by showing another chef's kitchen where there isn't this hostile atmosphere, but after showing that it doesn't have to be this way he doesn't have a moment of insight or self-reflection, considering the way his whole industry is pushing people out.
May 12, 2011
It's hard to know how to classify "Kitchen Confidential." Memoir? Expose? Humor? Its author Anthony Bourdain is easier to pin down: the hard-drinking, hard-swearing, hard-living executive chef of a New York restaurant who can't write a sentence without being funny, poignant, or offensive, often simultaneously. Bourdain's book ranges freely over his French childhood where he first got obsessed with food, his time at fry-shacks, grill bars, and the Culinary Institute of America which variously taught him to cook, his exceedingly checkered career as chef for a variety of restaurants both doomed and successful, and his observations on the underbelly of the restaurant biz. He can be lyrical and almost tender (his fierce advocacy for the under-appreciated Latinos who make so much of America's three-star cuisine, and get so little recognition) but things really get fun when he lets it rip. Targets for his sarcasm include celebrity chefs who don't actually cook, the Food Network, and restaurants who pretty up leftover Saturday-night crap and package it for $29.99 as Sunday Brunch. Bourdain's macho testosteronal voice would be unbearable if he didn't make just as much fun of himself as he does of everyone else: he recounts stealing from restaurants in his youth, cheating through Chicken Stock class in the Culinary Institute, snorting cocaine on the job, not being able to cook worth a damn compared to his culinary idols, and in general being an asshole. Maybe he is, but he's a funny asshole and he sure can write. You will never order fish on Tuesday again after reading this book, and you will never walk into a restaurant without looking at the kitchen doors and wondering if the crew making your food is the kind of swaggering foul-mouthed unabashedly entertaining batch of borderline outlaws who are depicted so vividly in Bourdain's pages.
November 13, 2025
This was arguably one of my favorite reads of 2025! Every word, each sentence and all paragraphs captured the essence of Anthony Bourdain, in all his glory. Often I found myself hearing his voice narrating the story in his characteristic iconoclastic, bordering on subversive style. He was an institution in the culinary world without a doubt, even before he featured in shows such as Parts Unknown and No Reservations (which are incidentally among my favorite culinary, travel shows of all time)!
Kitchen Confidential is undoubtedly worthy of respect for recounting the truth about the quirky, remarkable lives of those who prepare and cook our food in restaurants. Bourdain shines a light on the complicated, harsh underbelly of the culinary universe that we often overlook. He humanizes their experiences, and makes it relatable to the daily vicissitudes of own life struggles. His culinary journey, in many ways is a life lesson from which we all can glean valuable insights.
May he R.I.P. and eternal glory for the contribution he has made to the world!
Kitchen Confidential is undoubtedly worthy of respect for recounting the truth about the quirky, remarkable lives of those who prepare and cook our food in restaurants. Bourdain shines a light on the complicated, harsh underbelly of the culinary universe that we often overlook. He humanizes their experiences, and makes it relatable to the daily vicissitudes of own life struggles. His culinary journey, in many ways is a life lesson from which we all can glean valuable insights.
May he R.I.P. and eternal glory for the contribution he has made to the world!
July 14, 2025
An eye opener for sure. AB talked about lots of “behind the scenes” stuff in the restaurant business. I now knows when it’s best to eat at restaurants & what to eat & what not to eat… There were just so many funny interesting personal restaurant & food related stories AB talked about throughout the book. The Deluxe Edition that I read had many additional funny editorial notes AB sprinkled from first to last chapters… If you’re a fan of Anthony Bourdain or just love the whole cooking scene, this book should be the first one on your list to read.
August 14, 2007
I reread Kitchen Confidential in memory of Anthony Bourdain. I still can't believe he's gone.
I enjoyed the book and smiled at Anthony's brash-yet-loveable style. Plus, it reminded me of my baby brother, who is also a chef.
Highly recommended for restaurant workers and foodie fans.
I enjoyed the book and smiled at Anthony's brash-yet-loveable style. Plus, it reminded me of my baby brother, who is also a chef.
Highly recommended for restaurant workers and foodie fans.
December 29, 2012
How could I have never reviewed this book? I read this at a key turning point in my life, and was one of those books that changed everything for me. I was 22. I had gotten married and gone directly to graduate school right after graduating with a BA in music, with a full ride and graduate assistantship in the School of Folklore at Indiana University. It wasn't a good fit for me. By the time I enrolled in the fieldwork class, I knew I was probably on my way out, and got permission to do my fieldwork assignments in restaurant kitchens. The culinary-school trained cooks in the restaurant commanded me to read this book when I was still just observing and volunteering (I later worked there until I moved away), and it solidified my love for an industry that I was already excited by because of my experiences.
Anthony Bourdain may seem a bit extreme, but his tales of what really goes on in restaurants and among cooks is not that far off from my own experiences. Ask me to tell you about the time I slammed the head waiter's head in the fridge door, or ask for a kitchen-scar tour of my body. Once you are immersed in that world, it changes you. I loved it. I loved the rush, the thrill, the creativity, the challenge. I feel like Bourdain's memories are my memories. I may love him as a TV personality and a guest actor in my dreams, but this is where I love him the most.
Anthony Bourdain may seem a bit extreme, but his tales of what really goes on in restaurants and among cooks is not that far off from my own experiences. Ask me to tell you about the time I slammed the head waiter's head in the fridge door, or ask for a kitchen-scar tour of my body. Once you are immersed in that world, it changes you. I loved it. I loved the rush, the thrill, the creativity, the challenge. I feel like Bourdain's memories are my memories. I may love him as a TV personality and a guest actor in my dreams, but this is where I love him the most.
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