Another Book Review.  Christopher loves to cook and share food.  His take on Kitchen-Confidential is a little colorful as it seems the book is also.  Christopher recently spent a month in South America, enjoying several countries.  Soon, he is about to leave for the UK.  Hopefully, there will be blogs relating to his recent travels.  The weather appears to be warm in the UK, maybe he should pack some low organic cotton socks for when he is relaxing.

In Kitchen Confidential, Travel Channel host and rough cut gem of a human being Anthony Bourdain offers an inside look at the restaurant kitchen. I wouldn’t say an expose, but just some damn good anecdotes and lessons learned from years of living and breathing the restaurant world and tumbling through the rough life that it often spawns outside the kitchen. In his book, he did not live the “American Dream” of rags to riches. He came from a well to do family with a well rounded east coast upbringing and was then thrashed to the bottom rung, partially by his involvement in the cookie culture. After a few too many cocaine and heroin binges and horrible restaurant experiences he managed to turn his life around to become known around the world as a chef, writer and after writing the book a television host.

The book is part autobiography, part chronicle of New York restaurants and part guidebook to being a chef. When I say “chef,” I mean it according to his definition of being a captain of your own pirate ship. The debauchery committed in the kitchen including drugs, sex, extreme profanity, health code violations and overall angst towards one another can be appealing to some and a deterrent for patrons to even set foot into their favorite restaurant.

Bourdain’s lessons learned are very helpful ranging from how to purchase ingredients, build a menu, be a human resources guru and work with New York gangsters. The book is great for anyone who enjoys having food prepared for them and loves a good laugh spawned from a wicked sense of humor. With decades of experience in nearly every type of kitchen, Bourdain profiles dishwashers to owners, from the cream of the crop to the bottom of the barrel. His descriptions of former crew members are the making of a cast for an instant cult classic film where the camera never leaves the kitchen. If possible, read the updated edition because Bourdain reflects on how Kitchen Confidential changed his career and gives reactions from his fellow cooks.