Rating: 
Summary: This book, I like
Review: I like this book. Its funny, at times witty and I kept on reading while I was having a severe alergic reaction to something. This book makes me appreciate the people who put food on my table. Now I tip more.
Rating: 
Summary: Great insider tale
Review: Bourdain explains that he's trying to write a book like the stories he'd tell you late at night after a few drinks. About what restaurants are really like and how chefs really talk and think. And that's exactly what he does. The book's crude, rambling, ego-centric, drug-addled, downmarket, egotistical, depressing, downright scary, and obnoxious, but also insightful, upmarket, generous, upbeat, and ultimately uplifting. Bourdain may be annoying, but he knows he's annoying, and not only doesn't care, but uses the tone to good effect. This feels like the straight story, at least in part because Bourdain isn't concerned with making himself the hero of every story.I particularly appreciated the author's soul searching on how he got where he is rather than becoming a world class chef, which he claims not to be. He attributes it to taking head chef jobs rather than learning more from masters early in his career. The education and apprenticeship theme is played up as the focus of both Ruhlman's "The Making of a Chef" and Dornenburg and Page's "Becoming a Chef". Although this is not corner diner food, in a typical self-deprecating aside, Bourdain points out that it's really the shallots and monte au beurre that lend the professional taste. Bourdain's respect for food and cooking is evidenced most clearly in the reverential tones reserved for Scott Bryan of Veritas (in New York). He begins the chapter by asking the reader to forget everything they've read up to this point and to look at Veritas, where you can tell how good they are from the spotless side towels, the shallot brunoise in the mise en place, and the fact that everything is prepared a la minute. Although just about every aspect of running a restaurant is covered, I really appreciated the running discussion of creating menus and specials; you realize every chef-owner is first and foremost a Garde Manger. This book's strong medicine. If you love food and need an antidote, try Ruth Reichl's autobiographically inspired "Tender at the Bone" which is as sweet as Bourdain's book is sour.
Rating:
Summary: He's become what he disdains
Review: I enjoyed most of KC, including the childhood reminisces, the cooking tips, and the dining hints. As with other reviewers, I know when not to order fish, what kitchen tools are truly essential, and, most importantly, what goes on behind the kitchen doors (at least at some restaurants). Two things grated on me, however (pun sort of intended). First, Bourdain has obviously read a lot of Hunter S. Thompson, and tries to style his writing after the original Gonzo journalist, but it's very difficult to mimic Thompson. The references to whacked-out, drug abusing, thieving kitchen staff were entertaining for awhile but began to wear thin 2/3 of the way through the book. Second, Bourdain expresses contempt for a particular celebrity chef. Although he never mentions Emeril Lagasse's name, we know who he's talking about. He never gives a basis for such contempt, however, and fails to give credit where it is due. Before they were celebrity chefs, Lagasse and a few of the other Food TV folks spent years and years honing their craft and doing perfectly legitimate and respectable work. The kicker, however, comes when I see advertisements for -- you guessed it -- Anthony Bourdain on Food TV! I saw the first of his Cook's Tour series. It was mildly interesting. But the irony was more than delicious -- the Emeril-basher doing a 22-part celebrity chef series on television!
Rating:
Summary: Delicious and disgusting!
Review: As the daughter of a highly successful restauranteur, my view of the biz is from a somewhat different perspective: the neglected family's point of view. The author does a great service to his readers when he tells you exactly what a time- and soul-sucking trap owning a restaurant can be. I've watched countless restaurants fail, yet dumb hope always springs anew, and there's always some [person] who thinks he can make a go of it with a lot of enthusiasm, an ingenious "theme", and a few good recipes. As the author points out, a love of food isn't enough. Kudos to the author for a sometimes disgusting, sometimes delicious, but NEVER boring book. He's inspired me to eat Japanese tonight.
Rating:
Summary: A bit eager to shock, but good fun
Review: KC is a both a personal memoir and an insider's view of the restaurant kitchen. It is a great read. The author delights in shocking us, I think, but the language does ring true. I suspect the he has grown-up rather a lot since the book was finished. His life, once on-the-edge, has doubtless moved away from the fringe. I wonder if he'll look back on the book in ten years and wince a little.
Rating:
Summary: entertaining reading
Review: Having worked in the food service industry in a range from "mom-n-pop" to 5 star establishments, I found this book very interesting. Bourdain uses some crude language in the book which might turn some readers off, but it is true to life. I found his advice to the average person about his own tricks of the trade very useful. The people from his past are very colorful characters. Just reading about their shenanigans is half the fun of this book.
Rating:
Summary: Haven't even finished it yet...
Review: ...but it rings very true. Having spent quite a few years in the restaurant biz (pre-sports biz), I can appreciate the depraved and possibly embellished tales from Mr. Bourdain. His show on Food Network, Cook's Tour, is a favourite, and I am looking forward to the possibility of one day dining in his restaurant. I'm sure he is too. Buy the book - it's a page turner, to coin a phrase.
Rating:
Summary: X-treme occupation!
Review: One of the great lessons of this book is that there is about as much relationship between cooking and being a chef as there is between being a clothing designer and someone who wears clothes. Anthony Bourdain vividly describes the personalities, pathologies, high crimes, misdemeanors, and ultimately talent, of the those who work in our fine restaurants. After reading this book, I will never be without a handful of shallots, and never order seafood on Monday. And if I ever decide to commit a crime against another person, I shall use as my defense their disturbance of my mis en place, and fall on the mercy of the court. This book is both funny and disturbing--and a must-read for those who think it would be "fun" to own their own restaurant. It falls short of five-star status only because the last 40 or so pages could have been lopped off, with no damage to the essence--or the humor--of the book.
Rating:
Summary: The cure...
Review: If you have ever had the nagging feeling that you--a fine host or hostess who often makes people comfortable in your home and feeds them well--should open a restaurant, then this book will cure you of that delusion immediately. You will then be free to continue your life all the better because of it. 'Nuff said, since the other reviews give you a fair idea of what this book is about and extol its unique edgy, foodie charm.
Rating:
Summary: Hard to put down
Review: Reveals what it is really like to be a chef -- at least in the places that Bourdain has worked. It is an engaging read, and is hard to put down.
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