Kitchen Confidential

I'm wondering if anyone has read "Kitchen Confidential--Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly". (By Anthony Bourdain) It's a hillarious tell-all memoir of this man's career in "a sub-culture whose centuries-old militaristic hierarchy and ethos of rum, buggery and the lash make for a mix of unwavering order and nerve-shattering chao...I find it all quite comfortable, like a nice warm bath..." I'd love to hear if anyone is as sick as I am and finds this book to be laugh-out-loud funny.

[Pete]

I have been waiting for this book to come out for months now, so tomorrow morning I am going out, first thing, and buying it!

[Jim]

This looks like a great book the ChefTalk Store could carry. Hint, hint.

[Pete]

I just finished reading it. It was great! One of the best books I have read in a long time. I laughed until it hurt! But I also found it to be one of the most true to life books about cooking I have ever read. Anyone disagree? Anyone think Bourdain is the world's biggest A****** for exposing the darker side of the restaurant business? The only thing I hate about Bourdain is that he wrote this book and not me.

Oh, yeah, I unfortunately know all too well..

[Greg]

Just finished the book; it's like reading about my own life (except for the heroin). I'd agree that anybody that is mad about the "expose'" aspect of the book is just suffering from sour grapes because they didn't write it themselves. Hey, Nicko, how about having a scheduled chat with Chef Bourdain? This is a guy I can relate to!

[Nicko]

Actually Greg, that is a great idea! Authors are much easier to get than high profile chefs. We were thinking of doing the chats with guys like Trotter, Bayless, Emeril, but they are impossible to get a hold of. Authors are easier and generally more willing to sit down and chat. Any other authors that we should think about chatting with?

Thanks for the tip!



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Best Regards,

Nicko
nicko@cheftalk.com

[Pete]

Is there no one who thinks that Bourdain is full of crap? I was hoping to get an interesting debate going on about this book and life in the business. Or is his book really that true to the real world (I think it is).

I just finished the book myself, having anticipated it from the previews in the New Yorker and the backlsh in Food Arts. I wasn't dissapointed, though one of my line cooks heard him on NPR today and was somewhat put off, I didn't hear said interview and thus won't comment. As far as thinking he's full of crap, well. he says as much himself, or at least that for every one of his rules, there is an exception. But when he describes his callous, waking up thinking about a prep list etc... the only thing he leaves out is dreaming about making the prep list!

I am not a chef, just a wannabe, but heres my opinion anyway. I leafed through this in Barnes and Noble a few times and I was horrified (Im sort of a prude when it comes to drugs). I finally bought it; now Im halfway through it and not horrified but inspired. What is wrong with me??

Great book.
tamar

Is Anthony Bourdain full of ****? Or is he serious about this stuff. Funny book.

[Nicko]

I have never heard of this guy Borudain, is he at least a good chef?

[Pete]

I have eaten at Les Halles and had a really good meal there. It wasn't the greatest I've ever had but it was really good.

[QJWIN]

I couldn't be happier that a bunch a hard-boiled professional chefs and cooks like the posters here are digging my book. When I do signings and see civilians coming at me to sign a book; I can't help but wonder: "Why?"
But when I see that haunted, "I expect-the-worst-to-happen-at-any-second" look of the lifer line cook, I can recognize it from across a crowded room and nothing feels better. We don't need no stinking secret handshake to recognize one another--even in civvies. Being a chef--or a line cook--is a state of mind, an attitude--a stance against the normal world. Thanks to all here for "getting" this book and not being turned off by all the obnoxious tell-all promo nonsense.COOKS RULE!.... gracias, carnales, Anthony Bourdain

[Greg]

A caveat: be careful about whom you let know about the book. I loaned it to my chef hoping that it would inspire his work ethic (my guys have been complaining). Now, instead of being a lazy, nit-picking micro-manager, he's becoming Machiavellian as well. It's either find a new job or take up my gun-freak waitron's offer to off him.