Rating: 
Summary: funny and fascinating
Review: 'Ya just gotta love this book.Bourdain truly has a way with words. Many books in this genre fall into simply recounting event after event in a chef's experience. This one does this a little, of course, [otherwise, there's no book], but Mr. Bourdain [Flaco, for the initiated] does so with flair and color. Bourdain is all New York, and it shows in his prose. But I like that [but warning to the faint of heart--get ready for some rough language!]. I listened to this audio tape in my car, and there were several times I had to bang on the dashboard I was laughing so hard. And mostly, it's because of Mr. Bourdain's word choice. He can really tell a colorful story. And he has great insight into people [and he's sure met some interesting ones], and you can tell that. Hey, I'm a student of management, and believe it or not, parts of this book wax into this area. Flaco, maybe your next book ought to be "A Chef's Guide to Management," or something like that. Clearly, if you can survive in any management capacity in the New York restaurant scene, you can survive anywhere! I learned a lot about the whole restaurant industry from this tape. Oh, anyone contemplating entering the food service industry should read, or listen to, this book. [By the way, I recommend the audio version, as you get the benefit of Bourdain reading to you, which further spices up an already spicy account of chefdom!] Final piece of advice. Hey, get this book to a Hollywood producer! It'd be a great comedy. There's all kinds of insight into people too. Great read [listen].
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding and entertaining
Review: For anyone interested in the food business, who enjoys a fast-paced writing style, and has an open mind and a sense of humor, this is a great book. A review I read compared his writing style to Hunter S. Thompson, which I would agree with completely. Its an opportunity to hear the informal autobiography of an accomplished, wacky, and honest chef. I am not employed in the food business, but I am interested by it, and I found this easy to read, entertaining, and generally informative.
Rating:
Summary: THE BEST, THE BEST, THE BEST
Review:
What an author! Bourdain's prose style is elegant, and his comic timing is absolutely marvelous. As a long-ago resort restaurant employee, I know that much of what he writes is true, but he still gave me some surprising information. For instance, I like his Tuesday night restaurant suggestion. And mussels? Though I love them, I'll never order them blindly again, unless I know how they have been prepared. Fortunately, they're a breeze to make at home, so that shouldn't be a problem. Bourdain writes like a veteran, and makes you feel like a restaurant insider. His stories about "Bigfoot" (most feared/loved/loathed/admired restaurant boss) are priceless.
Rating:
Summary: A must read...
Review: I happened along this book because of my interest in culinary arts. I purchased it and read it in a couple of days. Anthony Bourdain's view on basically about everything is extremely funny and witty. I would recommend this book to everyone even if you don't eat out, don't care if you eat out, or eat out but don't want to know who makes/serves your food.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating read, non-stop page turner
Review: Chef Bourdain is the dark twin of the TV food gurus.
Rating:
Summary: Most enjoyable read
Review: This book one of the most enjoyable books I have read in years. Not only did it capture the edgy lifestyle I remember from restaurant work during my student years, but it is extremely funny. Even if you have never worked in a restaurant, if you have ever eaten in a restaurant you owe it to yourself to read this book. My husband and I have very different tastes in books, but we both laughed out loud and wound up reading chapters to each other out of this one!
Rating:
Summary: GO GET THIS BOOK!!!
Review: this book is so great. I am a high school student and I plan to go to culinary school after and this book is showing me what i am getting into. I am writing a book report for this book as I write this. I really hope the teacher doenst read this book!
Rating: 
Summary: Good, But Probably Not What You Had In Mind
Review: If you're like me you probably got interested in this book by reading the blurbs about it, which say that it rips the lid off of the seamy underworld of world-class cuisine or some such thing, and that it is filled with tips about what to order or not to order the next time you go out to eat. If this is the case, you're going to be disappointed.
It's not a bad book though. Primarily, it's about the author's life as a professional chef, mostly in New York City. Along the way, he talks about the restaurant business and cooking in general. He talks about his youthful stay in France and what got him interested in food in the first place. There is a chapter on the sort of basic ingredients and equipment amateur chefs should have in their kitchens. There is a chapter on what types of people go into the restaurant business and why, and why some restaurants fail and some succeed. Towards the end there is a chapter about his one-week business trip to Tokyo, which I found very interesting, because he reports on the sorts of things that I want to know about in a foreign city: namely, its bars, restaurants and hotels. All of this is pretty good. The chapters having to do with his professional life, though--which comprise most of the book--are less intriguing, and read more like a confessional. He talks about the big and small personalities he has known, why some of the restaurants he was in charge of failed, why he had to fire somebody; that sort of thing. If you are in the business, or live in lower Manhattan, you will undoubtedly find this more interesting than the average reader. But, let's face it, we're not reading about the life of a spy or a deep-sea diver, we're reading about the life of a chef. A good chef, and an entertaining guy, but a chef nevertheless. The big secrets? Well, don't order fish on Sunday, because it's usually three days old by then; don't ever order mussels because most restaurants don't know how to maintain them properly; don't order things with hollandaise sauce because it must be kept at or near room temperature and is a perfect breeding ground for bacteria; and, finally, never eat in a restaurant with dirty bathrooms. Oh, and a lot of the cooks in the place are alcoholics, drug-addicts or sex maniacs, and they speak to each other in a very ribald manner.
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining and informative
Review: The chapter on eating out is a must. Never order the fish "special" on monday! The rest is enjoyable especially if you are a "foodie."
Rating:
Summary: NoTypos in the Paperback!
Review: I saw Anthony Bourdain on Oprah one afternoon. They shot a bit in his kitchen at Les Halles, and he was standing around, spinning a knife, while he showed America the secrets of restaurant food. He seemed like a pretty funny guy, and I eat way too many meals out, so I thought I would like to read his book. I waited for the paperback edition, because I am poor from eating out too much. And let me say first of all, there are no weird typos or random commas in this edition as there seem to have been in the hardback. I suppose it could have been better organized, and there are a lot of things that i would have liked to know. I gather that his wife has been with him since his college days, but I don't know when he got married exactly. Also, he never explained what a garde-manger is. In the new preface for the paperback, he says that he wrote the book really for other cooks/chefs to read, so he maybe didn't think of explaining it. (A garde-manger is the cold foods station, I recently found out, for salads and appetizers and that sort of thing.) There are a few things like this that take a little bit from one's enjoyment of the book. Anyway, it's a wonderful book. It is truly truly funny. It is so difficult to write humorously, but Bourdain really did a fine job. I don't know how many times I laughed aloud. I just wanted to keep reading it. I think I stayed up until about three in the morning to finish it. It's not fine literature, but it is whole lot of fun. There are a lot of reviews here by people who were shocked by all the sex and drugs and profanity and how very self-absorbed Bourdain is. I think Bourdain knows exactly how arrogant he is. Half of the fun is in seeing how his arrogance got him into trouble over the years. He may be arrogant, but he also has no fear of showing the reader how completely foolish he can be. And I think he has a great amount of respect and even tenderness beneath his profane, macho shell. For example, he talks a lot about the sex that goes on, but he is personally involved in none of it. He is married, so maybe he just doesn't want to talk about it for his wife's sake, but still, he doesn't seem to be nearly as bad as you might think if you were not paying attention. And he also does appreciate and respect really great chefs, while freely admitting that he is not a really great chef. He has respect for the chefs that don't work in a pirate galley and who turn out beautiful and delicious food every night with consistency and grace. He loves the business he is in. He loves people who really love food. He seems like a fun guy, and his book is a fun book. I highly recommend it.
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