Customer Reviews

Kitchen Confidential

5 star:		(147)
4 star:		(97)
3 star:		(28)
2 star:		(21)
1 star:		(18)

 

 

The book is just what it is, an insider's look at kitchen's and the people behind the food.

I was reading chapter after chapter saying to myself, "Yes, that really happens, it happened in a place I worked at!"

Anyone who wants to know the "real deal" in kitchens should read before venturing forth. Cooking is rewarding and brutal at the best of times. I watch his shows as well and glad he has kicked through the glass door. Its great for a few laughs for sure.

I totally loved this book! If one is a foodie, a gourmand, or lover of memoirs, one will thoroughly enjoy this rollicking, insider's account of the restaurant industry and how the author ended up as a highly respected chef who is a passionate about food.

This is a well-written, thoroughly enjoyable and informative book, replete with self-deprecating humor and any number of quirky and crude characters that can be found in the belly of the beast known as the restaurant industry. It is an eye-opening and engrossing book that will keep the reader riveted until the very last page is turned.

This is how it really can be in the restaurant business. Perhaps the best book I have read in a long time. Though being a chef I have not had much time to read other than the quick reference of a few cookbooks. Hats off to Boudain who can not only cook but can write text interesting, funny and captivating. Anyone who has worked in restaurants can identify with this book. You Know who you are!

Tony Bourdain's breakthrough book Kitchen Confidential invites readers into a world few have seen more than the tiniest hints of: the hectic, high-pressure world of the professional kitchen.

Written as an expose of sorts, many of the things Bourdain covers will shock the casual diner reading his book, from staff parties afterhours with lines of coke all down the bar to the reasons not to ever order the seafood special or get your steak cooked well-done. Primarily, the book covers Tony's life as a chef, from his drug-filled college days to stints at what must seem half the restaurants in NYC to his getting his life back on track and his success at his current job--yet the book is not a biography (unless of the industry itself); it instead offers on-the-mark observations on personalities, the business of restaurants, and the trials of achieving one's dreams.

While the book's subject matter is in itself interesting, what really makes Bourdain's book excel is his writing style: harsh, frank, and unapologetic yet still paced well and very readable. His descriptions leap out like something from a hard-boiled detective novel and make for an easy read.

Are you socially incorrigible, substance-dependent, able to curse fluently in multiple Spanish dialects, have a high tolerance for knife wounds, burns, cramped spaces, no sleep, and people looking to stab you in the back at every turn? Well, if you are, and you're not interested in a career in piracy in Latin America, you might want to try being a fancy chef.

Anthony Bourdain's "Kitchen Confidential" is a salty, rambling, rambunctious love letter to the world of a professional chef and to the insane people who inhabit it, interspersed with some advice to the general public (such as why you should never order your steak well-done or a fish frittata, and how many knives you REALLY need to make all those hoity-toity dishes you see on TV). Bourdain gleefully jumps from describing his falling in love with french cuisine as a boy, to his experience as a junior "know-nothing" in Cape Cod, to what a typical day at Les Halles is, to a full-blown food and alcohol orgy in Japan, all at a pace that will leave you gasping for breath.

Not necessarily for the faint-hearted, but if you want to know what life is like behind your fancy dishes, this is a must-read.

... but darned fine.

The first half of Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential had me turning pages compulsively; I stayed up half the night reading half of it.

But the next night I found myself growing tired of his "oh-I'm-so-self-deprecating but here's how such a crazy man as me dealt with it" schtick. I just wish there had been a little more "here's how it works" and a little less "this is how a crazy guy like me did it".

Still, two thumbs up.

As a Bourdain fan for years I will admit to being a little biased, but I found this book a very entertaining look inside kitchens and the food service business. I felt like Bourdain was talking to me, I found his style of writing to be very personable and like he was having a conversation with you. I gave it 4 stars only because I found the management of the chapters and sections to be a little fragmented and slightly confusing as he goes back and forth in time and thought all throughout the book. If you were/are a fan of "A Cook's Tour" and "No Reservations" - get this book, you will love it.

Mr. Bourdain's bittersweet tale of being a chef rippled through the mass media in 2000 when it was first published. The candid account of his 25-plus years in the culinary industry outraged some (mostly restaurant owners), delighted some (mostly culinary professionals), and shocked many (the public).

Mr. Bourdain discovered his passion for food when he was ten, while on a family vacation to France. He stumbled into the restaurant business when he took a job as a dishwasher in Provincetown during his college years. This was when he discovered the dysfunctional yet fascinating world of the culinary profession. The eye-opening experience as a novice cook introduced him to the world of booze, drugs, power, and money. He knew by then there was no turning back.

Mr. Bourdain's tales are candid and raw. He starts as a ruthless punk and finishes as a professional chef. How the 25-plus years have changed him is remarkable, although Mr. Bourdain rarely dwells on retrospective analysis . Rather, he relies on his stories to lead the way.

In a mere 300-some pages, Mr. Bourdain explains why readers should not order seafood on Mondays, why so many restaurants fail, why good cooking is not about creativity, how to get professional-grade cookware cheap, and how he keeps on top of things via his private intelligence network. As a result, his narrative is sometimes choppy.

Some parts of this book were excellent, such as the part on important tools in a good kitchen and the one on the 3 types of restaurant owners and the day-in-the-life-of-a-chef chapter. Other parts of this book are meandering and almost pointless. In the middle of the book the chapters stop flowing together and the storyline is lost. The editor should have wielded a larger red pen.

Bourdain faithfully carries the battle standard of gonzo journalism in his (semi) autobiography & expose of the world behind the swinging double doors. I found nearly every page fascinating and repeatedly congratulated myself for not perusing a career in the culinary arts - I would not have lasted. I did, however, gain a new found awe and respect for those that are in that world and especially for those who are successful. Bourdain creates another dimension - the hours they work, the secrecy, the drugs & alcohol, the stress. It's an amazing tale and a real eye-opener. Enjoy!