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Summary: Hilarious look at the hidden world of restaurant kitchens
Review: When you describe a book as being hilarious, you don't always mean that you also learned something--or that there was anything worthwhile about the book other than it having given you a laugh or two. Tony Bourdain's "Kitchen Confidential" handily accomplishes all these goals and more. You'll never look at restaurant eating the same way again. Worried about that little greasy spoon you hit for lunch every day? Wait until you read about how things go even at the chi-chi, high-end New York City restaurants--in the kitchen, at the bar, when food is delivered, and so on. Bourdain examines the type of personality drawn to restaurant work in every form--he looks not only at the executive chefs, but the prep cooks, the waiters, the hostesses, the owners (like the ones who want to own a restaurant just so they can display their good taste in furniture), the "runners," the bartenders, and the delivery men. His eye is acute and unerring and ruthless, most especially when he descibes his own foibles and quirks. This is a superb read and a must-have for anyone who has waitressed, cooked, or otherwise worked in a restaurant even if they only lasted a day or two.
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Summary: Great Airplane Read!
Review: Very entertaining. I read half the book on a cross country flight, and finished the book on the way back. Engrossing, funny, engaging. Made me forget I was boxed in a tin can 30,000 feet in the air.
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Summary: Brings me back to formative summers
Review: in the restaurant biz. I laughed aloud many times. I remember the tattoos, the ripped clothes, the bandanas. I remember the oppressive heat, the frantic rushes, the crush of waitrons hoping to get a few of the (too few) popovers in the middle of a mad rush... I can hear A. yelling diminutives that only a sailor or a cookie could love.... after time as a dishie, time as a runner, and time as yes, (gasp) a waitron (no Doogie Howser here!), it's good to know that my experience rings true to the Chez OohLaLas of New York. And here's to the folks who still live this life, making dinner out so good for the rest of us. Makes me want to become a regular at a really good restaurant near me. :-) Not a book for the faint of heart, or for the folks who need to believe that their chefs are as figuratively scrubbed and polished as their surgeons. Bourdain describes people who are serving, creating, and dealing with life as it comes. These folks, for all of their colorful foibles, CAN take the heat in the kitchen. Good to see that through all the stress, and all of the hassles, that Bourdain is a stand up guy. I can see why his peers have responded so well. Makes me think fondly of the cookies at JPH, and reminds me that perhaps my life is calmer and more comfortable than it was those summers, perhaps it's duller, too. Maybe those folks are really LIVING a lot more than the rest of us are, too. It's a small consolation to know that I still can speak the lingo.
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Summary: Marvellously informative, hysterically witty!
Review: I laughed out loud at least ten times while reading this book. Tony Bourdain is SO very witty and has such an amazingly conversational style of writing, it's like sitting around having drinks and swapping anecdotes with a very funny old friend. I have a friend who is a chef in San Francisco and I always thought that it was just *him*, but now I realize that most, if not all cooks are like him! I can't wait to give him this book. He's a filthy-mouthed pervert who speaks constantly of sex and drugs, dishes out the crudest Spanish slang I've ever heard from a white guy, works six days a week, changes restaurants every few months, dresses like a pirate, has a shaved head, usually *stinks* of onions and body odor, and makes the most wonderful food I've ever tasted. He has more knowledge of, and passion for good food, than anyone I've ever met. So it was with him in mind that I read Tony Bourdain's account of his life, the kitchens he's worked in, the characters he's met along the way, how things *really* work behind the kitchen doors of most restaurants. Absolutely fascinating read. I give the book 4 stars, not 5, simply because the chapters are kind of schizophrenic at times, though all are good. One is about a friend of his, the next will be about kitchen slang, the next about some other seemingly unrelated subject. It's all kind of thrown together hodge-podge, but it never annoys,and it all does work quite well in the end. A definite recommendation.
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Summary: i wish i had worked in a kitchen
Review: the young chef i handed this book off to, couldn't put it down, i didn't know anything about a chef's kitchen but i felt as if i were there on his journey! i know NEVER to order a steak Well Done & not to ask if that is fresh bread! i really enjoyed this book because of the behind the scences/workings of a chef's kitchen & that i felt that i was working next to him
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Summary: Very funny....a gift for all foodies
Review: For those of us who have a social life that hinges on restaurants (rather than bars, or clubs, or the couch) this is a sigh of relief. The level of pomposity around restaurants is becoming annoying (esp. if you eat in LA, NY or London) and this shows us that the swinging doors at the back of the room are actually the gates to Hades....it also seems that is where the fun is in restaurants. Something to think about while you're being bored by another story about some acquaintance' food knowledge.
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Summary: Fun Summer Reading
Review: This is a good book that should be read poolside. Ya gotta agree with his description of vegitarians as people scared of life.
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Summary: that's really how it is folks!!!
Review: having worked in the kitchens of a few great nyc restaurants, I was awestruck by Bourdain's candor..I used to tell my pals about restaurant life and they just couldn't believe it until I gave them this book......the better the chef, the better the kitchen, the more intense and wild the experience...I am a woman who survived this life for 10 years and Bourdain nailed it on the head....what a great read..
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Summary: No Discount Sushi for Me, Thank You
Review: Anthony Bourdain's account of his life in a restraunt kitchen is not for the faint of heart. Squeamish diners may want to avoid this book and continue to dine in ignorant bliss. For the rest of us this hilarious book provides a candid look behind the kitchen door, warts, ...er...rats, and all.Sex, drugs, and profanity abound in Bourdain's world, but before taking offense the reader should remember the author's only promise was to tell the truth about about his experiences in the restaurant business. Anyone seeking a glorified account of life as a chef will be disappointed. This is not your Food Channel version; this is the real thing. I doubt that anyone who reads this book will be able to experience restaurant dining in quite the same way again. As for me, I'll pass on the swordfish.
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Summary: No Discount Sushi for Me, Thank You
Review: Anthony Boudrain's account of his life in a restraunt kitchen is not for the faint of heart. Squeamish diners may want to avoid this book and continue to dine in ignorant bliss. For the rest of us this hilarious book provides a candid look behind the kitchen door, warts, ...er...rats, and all. Sex, drugs, and profanity abound in Boudrain's world, but before taking offense the reader should remember the author's only promise was to tell the truth about about his experiences in the restaurant business. Anyone seeking a glorified account of life as a chef will be disappointed. This is not your Food Channel version; this is the real thing. I doubt that anyone who reads this book will be able to experience restaurant dining in quite the same way again..
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