Rating: 
Summary: Not what it claims to be, but great anyway
Review: I'm one of those people who loves to cook and has occasionally been told "You should open a restaurant!", so I read this book with great interest -- also in part because one of my sisters is a professional cook. I read the book in one sitting and found it enormously entertaining. In no real sense does "Kitchen Confidential" meet its advertising claims -- that it's going to be shocking and dismaying to professionals in the industry who are going to see their secrets revealed. I don't think so. I'm not sure I really wanted to know that this particular chef used to engage in blood-squirting contests with his fellow cooks, true, but I didn't see anything in the book, including information about older foodstuffs in the freezer, that I hadn't suspected as a frequent diner or, for that matter, seen while I was a waiter during college. Rather, I found this book entertaining as the autobiography of a scoundrel who clawed his way back up to the top, and -- what was particularly interesting and touching -- demonstrating great loyalty to his friends and supporters all along the way. The look which Bourdain gives into restaurant kitchens was intriguing but secondary to me. I can agree with other reviewers that the book could have used considerably tighter editing in some places, and the most screaming shortcoming as far as I'm concerned is the lack of photographs. I'm sure I was not the only one who REALLY wanted to see what the crazed guy who is the world's best bread baker looks like. Be that as it may, I was hooked on this character when he swallowed his first raw oyster at the age of nine, and I stayed hooked all the way through the book. It's great!
Rating:
Summary: Reality does bite-sometimes it bites hard
Review: As a working professional chef, and a CIA graduate, I thouroughly enjoyed this book from start to finish. Yes, he dwells too much on his and others drug habits, but they are a very real part of the business, day in and day out. I howled out loud with laughter at some parts of the book, and nodded my head at others, knowing exactly what he was trying to say, even if it was directed only to those of us who have made the restaurant business our life. I sent this book to my mom and dad with a note stating that this is what my life has been like, only without the heroin and cocaine. The stress, the burns and cuts, the mentality of cooks digging in for the siege at Khe Sahn, they are all very real, and not just in New York.
Rating: 
Summary: No Spice or Garnish. Just your everyday fare.
Review: First let me say that there was a chapter toward the end of the book that was an interesting description of an average day for a chef. The question is, after that nightmare description, why would anyone want to become a chef or work anywhere near a resturant kitchen? This book was advertised as a "tell-all" story about resturants. Instead of giving us a luscious scoop of resturant deJour, what the reader receives is more than you ever wanted to know about the suthor's drug habit. The story is shallow, uneven, and disjointed. If you want a good story to sink your teeth into then I suggest you look elsewhere.
Rating: 
Summary: Pageturner
Review: "Bourdain is not only a first rate Chef,He is also a first rate author who grabs You by the lapels and drags You through the helter skelter culinary scene,previously unknown to us civilians!
Rating:
Summary: Cooking is not pretty!
Review: At least for this guy! I didn't find this book funny, though there was some (very) dark humor in it and a few really hilarious laugh-out-loud passages. I don't understand why people like to laugh at those pathetic souls throwing their lives and talents away. That said, I must admit I couldn't put this book down. The high points for me were the advice on what kind of kitchen equipment is useful to have; the advice on what to look for, what not to order in a restaurant; the interesting descriptions of restaurants and the owners. The low points: well, Mr. Bourdain comes across as a real low-life; he sneers at the common, Great Unwashed, tacky hordes of tourists and weekend diners cluttering up restaurants he toils in. Hey, Bub, we're paying your salary!(This is akin to a piano, if it could talk, protesting anyone except Mozart pounding on its keyboard!) There are long, loving descriptions of the many geeks and freaks he has befriended and worked with, and just as many long, loving descriptions of the many drug benders,toots,runs and all-nighters they indulged themselves in, though how they managed to go to work every day is beyond me. (Note to self: if served another bad restaurant meal, storm the kitchen, determine if chef is conscious.) There is a shadowy wife mentioned but what part she played in all this is ignored completely. (Not that I was exactly interested in, say, what the color scheme was for their wedding; but didn't his wife notice their Christmas tree was still up in August, and why couldn't she dispose of it?) I grew weary and disgusted with Mr. Bourdain's non-stop doping and drifting, but I loved reading about food and restaurants and kitchen knives. One thing stood out, a chef's job is difficult and dangerous, and the hours are long. I recommend this book, but mostly as a hair raising autobiography. Please read "The Making of a Chef" by Michael Ruhlman for a more "palatable" and in-depth book about chef-ery and the love of food.
Rating:
Summary: Great Kitchen Gossip
Review: As a chef-wannabe, I found this book full of insight and intrigue. I loved the conversational style and behind-the-scenes that Chef Bourdain provided. I felt like I was a fly on the wall of the kitchens he described (be that good or bad). The kitchen scenes were fast-paced and really let you get a sense of what it is like on a busy night in the kitchen putting out hundereds of meals. At times my heart was racing! It has just the right sprinkling of gossip and scandal to keep you turning the pages. This book is a must read for anyone who enjoys dining out, Food TV (as long as you're not an Emeril fan) and other chef wannabes.
Rating:
Summary: ...Like the Monday Night Fish Special.
Review: In VH1's rocumentary series "Behind the Music" the format goes something like this: rock star struggles; rock star makes it big; rock star self destructs and nearly dies; rock star gets the band back together; rock star triumphs but doesn't know why or how considering all the sex, drugs and rock & roll. Substitute Chef for rock star, toss in a few useful tidbits of how to buy a good chef's knife and where not to buy smack on 9th Ave., and so goes the life and times of Anthony Bourdain in his "tell-nothing" book Kitchen Confidential. For a book presumably about food, this one is neither fish nor fowl. Bourdain is all over the map on this one. In fact the spine is the only thing holding this book together. Sometimes it's Bourdain's life stungout, other times it's food, and sometimes it's how Ecuadorians make better line-cooks than "white boys." The only constant is that Bourdain is a bully in the kitchen with an incredible appetite for cigarettes and an ego the size of Manhattan. Bourdain should stick with the cote du boeuf and not let those two years at Vassar lull him into thinking he's a writer or even as interesting as Motley Crue for that matter. Readers are painfully reminded that indulgences of the 70's and 80's continue to pay dividends in the 90's and beyond. By the way, his wife Nancy deserves a medal.
Rating: 
Summary: Diner Confidential
Review: This book is boring and even though the author provides some tips about "what really happened behind the closed restaurant kitchen doors", it is done in a very arrogant way. The book is more about Mr. Bourdain personal life than stories about the culinary world. As a profesional cook I find that the author is a very near minded person and does not aknowledge people with different taste than his. Being a professional cook is to know to satisfy anyone taste with good food without criticism. Waist of time and money.
Rating:
Summary: Sex, drugs and curse words
Review: This book is very boring. Every scandalous tidbit you are expecting is already in the promos, so you needn't bother with this. He actually has a page of curse words used in the kitchen - and their definitions. Yeah, with 40 pages left I decided not to waste any more time.
Rating:
Summary: This is a fun book, for eaters and cooks of all kinds
Review: I fought with my wife while reading this book, over who got to read it each night. We kept alternating, and eventually finished it a couple hours apart. We both *loved* this book. The story the author tells is frequently funny, sometimes very funny. I suffered from out-of-control laughing at one point in the book, at a story that still brings chuckles to my day. It's also a great book for aspiring home cooks; one chapter, How to Cook Like the Pros, is worth the price of the book all by itself. There's nothing revolutionary in the chapter, but there's no hype or dishonesty, either. Bourdain tells you want you need, what you don't need, and how paying attention to the details makes a huge difference. We saved the cost of the book, and then some, by buying a different set of cookware for the kitchen. No lie! Most of all, this is a book by someone who loves food, and loves cooking in restaurants. His stories are honest, if not always flattering. Frankly, I don't know that Bourdain is a very nice person...but I can't wait to eat at his restaurant.
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