Rating: 
Summary: Bon appetit!
Review: About 30 years ago, I worked in a restaurant kitchen for all of five days. So I am no expert in the business. But I value good food.What sets Tony Bourdain apart from the stock _Food Channel_ crew of performers is his candor and hard-won understanding of food both as a passion and as a business. This is not really the horror story some described when the book first appeared, and it will not put you off from eating in restaurants. Maybe you will be a wiser consumer, and more apt to push your own limits and to try new fare. That's all to the good. But on a much more elemental level, what I really value about Bourdain is how he tackles, head-on, the really serious subject of our relationship with food. This absolutely essential part of our lives gets the respect it deserves from Bourdain. Bourdain has an easy and familiar writing style. He is also clearly no peasant, but a thoughtful, sometimes disarmingly introspective man-- a persona that belies the "tough guy in the kitchen" image he must maintain to run a business. Excellent and insightful.
Rating: 
Summary: very entertaining
Review: given to me as a present, I gave it to friends, then bought a copy and gave it to another friend. I have no background in Culinary Arts (or fry cooks for that matter), but I found the book was very accessible and fun to read. The chapters on Boudain growing up (being locked inside a car outside a nice restaurant), ordeals as lowbrow restaurant chef team member, and Bourdain's later trip to Japan are probably 3 of the best.
Rating:
Summary: So you want to be a chef? Forget about it.
Review: The author gives us, in excruciating detail and high water scatology, the lowdown on the workings of a restaurant kitchen. He has lived through it for the last twenty-odd years and spares us no detail of his apprenticeship. He has high praise for his Ecuadoran and Mexican helpers because they know their business, are always on time, never call in sick, and work like mad men 17 hours a day for at least six days a week. And that at lousy pay. He tells us about a close-knit fraternity that lives outside civilization as we know it. And, of course, he mentions all kinds of food, their ingredients and the purchase thereof, and their preparation. At the end of the book, you feel that a good chef does the humanly impossible - and solely for the love of food. It is a very, very funny (and Xrated) book that gives you a lot of respect for what goes on behind the facade of that nice restaurant and how much work and knowledge is involved to put that plate in front of you.
Rating:
Summary: Fun book...give it a taste.
Review: I just read this book by recommendation and really enjoyed it. If you've spent a lot of time eating or working in restaurants you will appreciate how grueling of a job it is for the staff. Bordain convinced me that maybe my office job IS cushier, but his job may be more fun. I liked him for his brashness and honesty and enjoyed his cultural references to the more seedy late '70's and early '80s, Provincetown and his drug use intertwined with a solid work ethic, once he got himself going in the morning. I felt like I knew him. He also offers some good insider advice on how restaurants work their specials, what knives to use and my favorite-how to cut garlic, "[like the two mafiasos in the movie Goodfellas who use a razor to cut the garlic paper thin]." That's love of food! To me this feels like a coming-of-age autobiograhy about a guy who struggles to stay afloat in a tenuous business, often flying by the seat of his pants (or his wits) and manages to survive. I hardly saw it as shockingly revealing about the restaurant business-I've heard much worse stories than days old fish on the Monday special. For me it was an honest and entertaining view of the world behind that plate of food that arrives on your table. It made me respect that world a bit more too.
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining and revealing read
Review: I have to say that I used to fantasize about owning a restaurant, or being a renowned chef. Fantasy is one thing--I could never do it. While not an expose (so much) this book is a fascinating look into what really goes on behind-the-scenes in your favorite restaurants. Bourdain writes well and entertainingly...I enjoyed reading his story from start to finish...
Rating:
Summary: That's why I'm browsing the cookbook section
Review: I worked as a "server" (waitress) in good restaurants when I was younger. So, I know it's a rare one that doesn't have "kids" at the broiler, the pantry, and other places. We find the best meals are made at home. Buy some good cookbooks (like one of Emeril's, although I like Cooks Illustrated the best), some great pans, a pasta machine, and invite some friends over. You can always order pizza if you flop (and you'll find out who your friends really are!).
Rating:
Summary: Maybe we should eat in from now on....
Review: Like many readers probably did, I got my first "taste" of Tony Bourdain's prose in the pages of The New Yorker, where one of the more infamous chapters of Kitchen Confidential (you know the one I'm talking about -- are you planning to eat mussels and swordfish anytime real soon?) was excerpted prior to the book's publication. And in that little morsel, we got a sense of just what we were in for when this book hit the stores: a perpetually (often self-consciously) hip style, total lack of qualms about delving into the grime and grunge of the restaurant business, and a great comedic flair. Like many others, I actually laughed out loud while reading Kitchen Confidential -- it's that good. The way that Mr. Bourdain studiously deflates the rarefied aura that so many celebrity chefs today work so hard at cultivating is refreshing, as is his unconcealed loathing for one Fall River-expat in New Orleans (believe me, Tony, you're not alone! When I saw him drop a bundle of asparagus into a pot of boiling water, saying that he tied them together to keep them from floating apart in the pot, I knew that he was a certifiable hack, too!). Yes, the fact that he's now channel-mates with that very same hack is indeed ironic (especially after one reads his line in KC mocking that very possibility), and after watching him on TV, the inescapable conclusion is that he's better taken through the medium of prose. Still, you won't do better than this gem of a book.
Rating: 
Summary: Shallow, Glib, but entertaining
Review: Well, after reading this, I will never order fish on Mondays. Actually, I picked up a few useful tips that I will be grateful for. I expecially appreciate the tips on avoiding food poisoning in restaurants, having experienced it once, I want to avoid it at all costs. On the other hand, the book is full of glib machismo posturing, at times relentlessly shallow. Since shallow has its place and it was entertaining, I rated it a respectable C.
Rating:
Summary: naughty pleasure
Review: This book was just plain fun! Sure, Bourdain is a little mean at times, but for a peek behind the scenes, you couldn't ask for better. For all those who have a fantasy that being a professional chef might be interesting, worth a read! I read it in 2 nights and laughed out loud while reading.
Rating:
Summary: calls 'em the way he sees 'em
Review: Bourdain gives it to us just the way he see it. An irreverent look at what goes on in the world of food service in honest language. No sugar coating here, nothing flowery or contrived; he just spits it out there the way he sees it. Fast read, highly entertaining.
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