Rating: 
Summary: A Great Culinary Memoir. Glad Tony traded pan for pen.
Review: With this book, Tony Bourdain has turned himself from an average New York City chef and a below average mystery novel writer into a very much above average reporter on the American culinary world. The book is basically a memoir, starting with several chapters that chronicle Bourdain's introduction and early career in the food service industry. Oddly enough, as different as Bourdain seems from your typical Food Network celebrity, he does actually seem to fit the mold of many, those as different as Mario Batali, Bobby Flay, and Alton Brown. If you are to believe the public persona of these swells, they all share the same early exposure and infatuation with culinary skills, an adolescent wildness (maybe not with Alton), and a blossoming into a successful, inspiring career when they find their proper niche in the culinary world.The overriding message of the book is the same I have seen in all books written from the inside. Cooking in a busy restaurant kitchen, especially for the executive chef working the line or the expediting table is very, very hard work. Looking in from the outside, it is so hard, it is sometimes hard for me to appreciate how anyone would actually want to do it, let alone revel in it. This is especially true because we are not talking about Daniel Boulud or Charlie Trotter here. Bourdain may have been considered a 'master chef', but he was in charge of the kitchen in a relatively undistinguished New York City brassiere lookalike. He is not creating new cuisine at his job, he is recreating classic French cuisine in a restaurant named after a famous French market. Not very much room for improvisation here. Bourdain's tales of his early career are an enjoyable first course, but the real meat of the matter is in his tales of New York City restaurants behind the scenes. His trademark revelation is the fact that, in general, the fish served by restaurants on Monday is left over from deliveries made on Friday, but his most interesting stories revolve around a real restaurant owner whose identity Bourdain hides with the nom de guerre of 'Bigfoot'. Bigfoot succeeds in the very difficult restaurant business with a passionate attention to the details of purchasing, chef's operations, and kitchen design. My favorite story is the one of an artisinal bread starter, sometimes known as a poolish or sponge maintained by a singularly irresponsible baker who, with fermented hunks of this sponge made some of the best bread to be found in five states, including New York City. The introduction to this character is a desperate call to Bourdain in the middle of service from the baker requesting that someone in the kitchen feed the sponge. The name he gave the sponge would probably not make it through Amazon.com's automated review censor. I had no sense of what the role of this kind of sponge played in bread baking when I first read this, but after having read several books on artisinal bread baking, I appreciate the humor and irony even more than I did on first reading. I have read many books on the culinary world since I first read 'Kitchen Confidential' and most of the names like Rippert, Bouley, and Luongo unfamiliar to me on first reading are now counted as spiritual intimates. This makes Bourdain's book the sort of work which rewards rereading after two or three years have passed. This book may be a classic in the very small field of culinary journalism.
Rating: 
Summary: I'd highly recommend another book along this line.
Review: I'd recommend a book by author Matt Lehman called "Clam Chowder: A Server's Field Manual". This book is much more realistic, funny, clever and insightful. I couldn't put it down. I'm not sure if it's available on Amazon, but it is online at www.clamchowder.biz I haven't worked in the restaurant for years, but Clam Chowder brought back a flood of memories for me. I have read it twice since I first got it. My book has now been passed on to at least 7 other people. They all agree, Clam Chowder is the best restaurant book ever - told from a server's perspective.
Rating: 
Summary: INSANE, DELICIOUS, FASCINATING
Review: Who knew the world of the chef bubbles with desperation, envy, substance abuse and a rebel, elitist pride in boasting about the burns, blisters, and cuts on their hands and forearms? I've never encountered a group of people who were at once so passionate about food and cooking, yet were such brilliant socio-paths that their organization and connectedness is mesmerizing. As a chef for over the last 20+ years, Bourdain's tone runs from the comedic to Homeric in detailing the frenetic-paced itineraries of running restaurants and dealing with the people in them. The stoves burn like battle tanks and the alleyway is a trench. This back of the house account at haute cuisine bistros and grease-trap seafood shacks is marvelous from start to finish. The exploits on famous chefs and infamous food suppliers abound through a wondrous and obscene lexicon of kitchen talk. In his last chapter, Bourdain relates his astronomical gastronomical feat of eating in Tokyo: a truly lurid and Dionysian challenge. Do you ever want to look away from the pay counter at yiour local fast food joint when the employees are stacking your sandwich? I do. Do you feel more comfortable in an upscale eatery? Perhaps. But you still shouldn't order fish on Sunday or Monday.
Rating:
Summary: Great book even if you're not into cooking.
Review: I like eating food, not cooking so I wasn't sure about this book. But all of his shows are very interesting so I took a chance.
This is an incredibly good book. There isn't a single page that bored me. It read pretty fast and was a lot of fun. He talks about himself, his childhood, his college years, his cooking years, and everything & everyone inbetween. It was a fantastic book & i'd highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: a good counterpart
Review: This was a good read. I enjoyed all of his stories, most I could relate to. Some I missed and still enjoyed. Having worked in few star restaurants things a bit different and yet surprisingly the same. Another good book is Clam Chowder: The Server's Field Manual. I think it can only be purchased through it's isbn or the webite: clamchowder.biz. A great read for waiters and others.
Rating:
Summary: I'm glad I'm not in the industry...
Review: I just finished this book and agree with everyone else; it's a good page-turning read. My husband used to work in a restaurant and everything he ever told me about the goings-on in the kitchen was confirmed with spot-on precision in the book.The author is pretty honest about himself too--full of ego, testosterone and a jerk to boot--and then makes humble admissions about his own shortcomings in his chosen profession. It would have been nice to find out whatever happened to his parents and brother and how they view his success; and how/where he met his wife, but maybe he's saving that for another book.
Rating:
Summary: It's all true
Review: I work as a sous chef in a three star restuarant(name withheld) in downtown Chicago, and let me just tell you that Tony knows what he's talking about. From the disgust of being demoted to cooking brunch to the fact that a fish special on Monday means you're eating at least five day old fish, Mr. Bourdain lets his reader into the sometimes scary glimpses of what professional kitchen life is really like.
Mr. Bourdain also allows the non-professional to see what actually goes into cooking lunch for a hundred plus guest and then turning around and doing two hundred for dinner (don't forget they're different menus). The amount of prep and the realization that at one time or another you will be in the weeds, especially if your mise is out of sorts, is felt in this read. And though some want to romanticize about the Chef's life, Mr. Bourdain has been doing this for twenty-five years and he's still cutting his own shallots and doing inventory every week.
Bourdain also takes a good look at the people who work in this industry. From the "actor" servers to the great line cooks from just south of the border(that's you, Juve), the amusing and different people you'll find are quite astonishing. The life is really for the people who could never do the nine to five but who aren't afraid to put in a twelve hour day. Bourdain describes us characters as sociopaths or anti-social, and he might just be right. The production that the kitchen goes through daily has to be ran by people who truly love food or just people who can make risotto taste the same way fifty times a day, otherwise it just won't work. Don't forget there's always the ever present barracho somewhere in upper managment.
For anyone who is serious about getting into the industry, this book is worth while to see what you're getting yourself into. Did I mention that I've worked over forty hours the last three days, thirty hours split between Christmas Eve and Christmas day. It's the life and you either love it or hate it and Bourdain makes a strong commentary for both.
The read is also very friendly and if you have a good reading spot it might only take one sitting.
Rating:
Summary: Great window into the world of the Chef
Review: This is a very engaging, funny, fascinating look at the life of one of New York's most notorious chefs and a world about which he feels ambivalent. If you have ever wondered what its like to live your days and nights in the kitchen of a popular restaurant - buy this book. Mr. Bourdain is certainly profane at times, but its done in the context of that unique, mixed up, chaotic, wonderful world of fire and knives. I loved every word! I want to go out to eat every night now (except seafood on Tuesday - read the book and find out why)! Bon appetit!
Rating:
Summary: Tales from "Behind the Kitchen Door"
Review: I purchased "Kitchen Confidential" expecting a tell-all expose on what REALLY goes on behind the kitchen door in the average restaurant. And the book absolutely delivers on that level. An added treat is that the book is also the often hilarious tale of Anthony Bourdain's personal journey from misguided youth, who took a job at a restaurant only after friends he was sharing a Summer getaway with during college got tired of him not covering his share of the expenses, to the executive chef at a fine French eatery in NYC today. The story of the single event that caused Bourdain to aspire to become a chef is almost worth the price of the book alone. The most interesting chapter of the book is the "From Our Kitchen to Your Table" section, where Bourdain confirms many of your worst fears about restaurant dining. Some things I took away from this chapter include the advice never to order fish on a Monday (it is most likely at its least fresh state, having been delivered the previous Thursday to cover the weekend orders), never order your meat well-done (you are pretty well insuring that the chef is going to treat you to the absolute worst cut, figuring you won't notice the difference since it will be dry anyway), and don't be so sure that the bread the waiter or busboy brings when you sit down went straight from the oven to your table (it likely was recycled from another table who didn't eat it). Bourdain is an engaging writer with a great wit. I was rarely bored during my reading of "Kitchen Confidential". If, however, you are one who is easily offended by coarse language, consider yourself forewarned that this book has a lot of it. I personally wasn't offended by the language, but I did find myself occasionally annoyed when Bourdain would go overboard in describing what a wild and crazy lifestyle he's led. Bourdain would often go on and on about all of the drugs he's done, how much he drinks and how tough and macho he acted in this situation or that situation. There is something inherently off-putting about someone constantly boasting about what a "bad-boy" he is. To Bourdain's credit, he can also be self-deprecating, particularly in the humorous story about how a dumb misunderstanding on his part during a job interview caused him to lose a great opportunity at an upscale steakhouse. Bourdain also devotes an entire chapter to a fellow, more successful, chef and explains the differences between the two of them that make this so. Overall, a very entertaining book that is easy to recommend.
Rating: 
Summary: Too distasteful for my tastes
Review: I WANTED to like this book. It was our book club selection... I was hosting the book club meeting...and I always read the monthly books. Somehow, this book put me in a bad mood, especially during the holidays, and its foul language and distasteful stories didn't fit with my family, holiday spirit. Instead, I stuck with "Good in Bed", "Clara", and "Master of the Senate".
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