“Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the culinary underbelly” by Anthony Bourdain
I’ve been a cook for as long as I’ve been a gardener. For me, there has always been an inextricable link between what I do in the kitchen and what I grow in my garden.
“Kitchen Confidential” is one man’s odyssey through his career in the industry, from dishwasher to executive chef and television producer. The author warns us early on that he is going to tell the truth – the good, the bad, and the just plain beautiful.
As the subtitle of the book states, this is an uncensored look into the culinary underbelly of American restaurants. The casual American restaurant-goer just doesn’t see the fatalism, tension, hard drugs, or the transiency of the workforce from the “front of the house” (the dining room side).
I’ve always believed that everyone should work at both a retail establishment and a restaurant at some point in their lives in order to learn how to treat public-facing workers with the dignity that everyone deserves. Bourdain’s masterpiece illustrates how we can all strive to better appreciate the hard work and dedication of the men and women who prepare our meals when we go out for dinner.
Some of the stories are downright hilarious, and if I hadn’t worked at several different restaurants in the past, I’m not sure I would have believed them myself. I can only guess where some of these characters ended up in life, but I’ve worked in the back of the house with some of these types he describes in this book and can attest that he isn’t making anything up.
Bourdain writes in the coarse language of someone who has come up in a professional kitchen. I’ve never seen any of his t.v. shows, but he strikes me as a very authentic person who has exceedingly high standards and little patience for incompetence or laziness, yet is willing to go to the mat and mentor someone when he recognizes raw determination and talent.
“Kitchen Confidential” wouldn’t have the same impact in printed form. This is one you need to listen to. It feels like Anthony Bourdain is telling you his story as he is sitting across from you while you both have a pint. He not only has a great voice for narration, but his sincerity comes through from cover to cover.
This is a must-read for anyone working in or connected to the restaurant industry, but it’s the type of book that just about anyone would enjoy. I left with a better appreciation for what goes on behind the scenes at a restaurant and among the pirate crews that run the kitchens. While this isn’t an instruction manual – there are no recipes anywhere in it –, I learned a lot about various foods he mentioned and researched them further. The next time I’m in a French restaurant, I’m definitely ordering a medium rare côte de boeuf in Bourdain’s memory.
If you enjoy “Kitchen Confidential”, you would also like his follow-up book, “Medium Raw”, although the former was more captivating in my opinion.
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