Rating: 
Summary: Where's the beef?
Review: Here is a great way to save some time and money - read this sentence: Restaurant kitchen staff drink alot and use alot of drugs, they also use alot of vulgar language. There you have it! The whole book! Kind of Hunter Thompson meets Julia Child. Quite repetitious and superficial. A bit of a disappointment.
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Summary: THE REAL WORLD
Review: I found his book to be very honest . As a fellow "CIA alumni 83" of Anthony, And I am currently an executive chef .I would strongly recomend his book to any of my friends in the business, and anyone looking into the hospitality industry. I feel that when you read his book you can slip in to his shoes, I know I did .I can remember like it was yesterday the dreaded souffle station at the CIA . This book is not for every body as I could tell by the reviews I could tell the blue collar reviewer from the white collar reviewers in only one sentence if you know what I mean . The only thing that Anthony failed too completely express is that just because you go to culinary school dosen't mean you are a chef when you graduate. They only give you the basic skills and tools needed to expand your knowledge. The school setting is a fantasy world application and you will be eaten up in the real world .You only realy become a chef is thru years of hard work and life experiences that make you a chef like Anthony Bourdian is. Just becaues you wear a tall hat and chefs coat gives you the skills and experience to call your self a chef. I proudly wear a dishwasher shirt when working the line in a kitchen. I would say this book should be a must read for the insane people who want to enter the restaurant business , along with Michael Ruhlmans "The Making Of A Chef" , their are far to many people calling them selfs chefs these days .I look foward to his next book
Rating: 
Summary: Been there, seen that!
Review: As a fifteen year member of the restaurant fraternity,I found Chef Bourdain's accounts of life in the "Culinary Underbelly", Sordid, lewd, and deliciously accurate. While Chef does contrast his style and affection for chaos with Chef Scott Bryon's more reserved and in control methods, Chef Bourdain's accounts are far more the rule than the exception! The restaurant business is, almost by definition, a world, of break-neck energy, disturbingly diverse characters, and see it to believe it anecdotes. This book captures the true spirit and soul of the restaurant business. Moreover, it captures the passion of the cast of characters who call the industry their home, and to who, it is, all about the food. As for Chef Bourdain's writing style, I found the book to be a great read, he is not a highly polished pulitzer author, however I'm sure Mr. Stienbeck never tried to plate 300 meals in a night or even knew how to make a true demi-glace.
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Summary: Brassiere Les Halles
Review: If you have any thoughts about getting into the restaurant business, read this book. It will enlighten the reader on the many positives and negatives (mostly negatives) on what this business is really all about. I have some friends in the restaurant business and much of the book replicates their business and personal lives. Many messages here, one of which is being willing to totally commit your life to the business or don't even bother to try, because YOU WILL FAIL! I love to cookand I'm now convinced to do ALL my cooking at home. I wish the book had provided the address of Brassiere Les Halles, because I would like to dine there some day. I have searched all over the internet and cannot find a street address or e-mail address. Can anyone help me on this?
Rating: 
Summary: He should have stuck to cooking
Review: This book came to my attention as a review from Amazon, probably because I buy a lot of cook books. About 1/3 of the way through, and one typo to many I realised it needed an editor. 2/3 of the way through I realised it needed a writer too. Pages of patois curses and their meanings. Of what relevance is this to restaurants really? Dated anecdotes of trivial New York decadence. Ethnic stereotyping. Sexism. Some very odd anachronisms. A few good pages here and ther on food and cooking. Not enough to warrant the price or time spent reading it. Ersatz gonzo journalism is both obsolete and out of date. Shame Amazon! For a few dollars you lauded this woefully inadequate book and now I can't ever trust your reviews again. 00000
Rating:
Summary: spicy page-turner
Review: A glimpse into a life I'll never probably lead, not being born to it, this is a fine autobiography. I feel anyone who loves cooking and food will enjoy it, perhaps anyone who loves gossip and intrigue will also. Not for the fainthearted, it does cast a bit of a shadow on the mystery of fine cuisine, you might not look at your order from the kitchen quite the same waya again. That may not be a bad thing. All in all an enjoyable, fast read.
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Summary: Want to be a chef? Read this first.
Review: This book should be required reading at every culinary school in America. It should be the book you bring as a hostess gift when your friend (who's a fabulous chef) has another dinner party but won't stop talking about how, someday, she wants to open 'a little restaurant.' In short, it is 100% the real deal when it comes to what it's like to be a professional chef. It captures the excitement, the misery, the pain, the anger, the pride and the abuse that is part and parcel of cooking in a restaurant. As a pro-chef-turned-pro-writer, it is the book that I always wanted to write but never did because, frankly, I wasn't in the life long enough to do it justice. In that short period, I had a freakish ascent from prep cook to bistro sous chef (and w/out the benefit of cooking school). During that time, I witnessed everything that Bourdain writes about - and quickly realized that I didn't love the world of 24/7 back-breaking work in someone else's restaurant to make it my calling. And as for the idea of opening my own place - as Bourdain himself said in a recent online chat, 'NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER.' Not only do 80% of restaurants die a horrible death within 5 years of opening, but those that survive extract an incredible toll on their owners. (You've got to be a little of a masochist to be chef, but you are a victim of psychosis if you become a chef-owner.) Bourdain is justifiably proud of his current post as a journeyman chef as NYC's Brasserie Les Halles, but I think he should be even prouder that he managed to capture everything it means to be a chef in his first nonfiction book - something that The 'BAM!' Food Channel, with its dozens of programs, doesn't even begin to understand. Bravo, chef! PS: Bourdain advises that the quickest way to find out if you *really* want to be a chef is to become a restaurant's dishwasher for six months. And he's absolutely right.
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Summary: Good read. Informative and motivating.
Review: While I don't agree with some of Chef Bourdain's philosphies (you never call in sick, thriving on chaos, etc.), this book is a great read. Informative, inspiring, excruciatingly honest, and downright funny in many places. He is a smart, decent, no-nonsense, and hard-working guy, who gives his all to his people and his cause. That is something to be appreciated. By all means buy the book and read it, for you will get hooked and enjoy it thoroughly. Also be prepared to spend money eating at expensive restaurants and get into a "chef mode," buying saute pans, chef's aprons, and other such accoutrements that you suddenly realize you "need" for your kitchen. I did.
Rating:
Summary: Highly opinionated and a lively read.
Review: Mr. Bourdain and I may be kindered souls only in our shared disdain of vegetarians and Emeril Legasse, and our adventurous palates. BUT, his book is so enthusiastically written, so unabashed and scandalous that I couldn't put it down. I have little tolerance for tales of drug addicts, mafiosi and general losers either, so I'm surprised I loved this book as much as I did. I think it was the author's honesty, passion, and embrace of a world so foreign to the casual diner that made this book fascinating. Much has been made about the "don't order this dish on a Monday" section of the book, but the real attraction lies not in any advice the author gives, just his appealing way of dishing out the juicy details of restaurant life. Or, as Richard Wagner put it, "the bleeding chunks of meat."
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Summary: My compliments to the chef
Review: I enjoyed this book more than any other I've read in the last year or so. It's a scandalous and scandalizing behind the scenes look at the cooking game, and it's a joy to read. Bourdain may not be one of the best chefs in the world, but he has to be the best writer among those who sling hash (expensive or not) for a living. Part autobiography, part how-to (or how-not-to) book, part gossipy tell-all, "Kitchen Confidential" is a book that will amuse, appall, and delight. The story of Bourdain's path from delinquent to chef is interesting enough. The stories he tells about his misadventures as a young, arrogant, clueless jerk in his first kitchens are honestly and hilariously put forth. He doesn't spare himself, especially in one episode when he tells of working in a hard-core kitchen and getting burned on a frying pan, and whining to the other cooks that he needs burn creme. Their scornful and contemptous replies are just the kind of experience that beats sense into a man, as it did to Bourdain. He learned to be as rough and rude as those around him, and as he describes the kitchens he's worked in, that is PLENTY rude. When Bourdain is describing the restaurant business he's just as funny and interesting. Whether he's describing why most restaurants fail (look at the owners) or why bartenders and chefs tend to become close friends (free drinks = free food) or why you should NEVER eat the seafood frittatas at a Sunday brunch (read the book to find out) it's always a blast to read. He's not just a treasure trove of neat stories. He's also an extremely talented writer, mean, profane, hilarious. Some of the criticism levelled at this book is that Bourdain is only describing the restaurants he's worked at, not the industry as a whole. And Bourdain does address this in a chapter of his book when he describes the kitchen of a three-star chef working at an exquisite restaurant, which is as different from Bourdain's kitchens as an all-girl's school is to a maximum-security prison. It still doesn't detract from the pleasure you get from reading about his experiences. I read and re-read this book like three times on my honeymoon, which should give you an idea of how much I liked it (it gave my wife ideas, like how bad a concussion I'd have if she brained me with it). I have a healthly fear of flying, but reading this book kept my nice and calm on the flight down. For that I gratefully thank Mr. Bourdain. His book was entertaining enough to push the terror from my mind. And from me, that is high praise indeed.
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