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Anthony Bourdain

Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly Paperback – May 1, 2001

by Anthony Bourdain (Author)

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When Chef Anthony Bourdain wrote "Don't Eat Before You Read This" in The New Yorker, he spared no one's appetite, revealing what goes on behind the kitchen door. In Kitchen Confidential, he expanded that appetizer into a deliciously funny, delectable shocking banquet that lays out his 25 years of sex, drugs, and haute cuisine.

From his first oyster in the Gironde to the kitchen of the Rainbow Room atop Rockefeller Center, from the restaurants of Tokyo to the drug dealers of the East Village, from the mobsters to the rats, Bourdain's brilliantly written, wild-but-true tales make the belly ache with laughter.

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Most diners believe that their sublime sliver of seared foie gras, topped with an ethereal buckwheat blini and a drizzle of piquant huckleberry sauce, was created by a culinary artist of the highest order, a sensitive, highly refined executive chef. The truth is more brutal. More likely, writes Anthony Bourdain in Kitchen Confidential, that elegant three-star concoction is the collaborative effort of a team of "wacked-out moral degenerates, dope fiends, refugees, a thuggish assortment of drunks, sneak thieves, sluts, and psychopaths," in all likelihood pierced or tattooed and incapable of uttering a sentence without an expletive or a foreign phrase. Such is the muscular view of the culinary trenches from one who's been groveling in them, with obvious sadomasochistic pleasure, for more than 20 years. CIA-trained Bourdain, currently the executive chef of the celebrated Les Halles, wrote two culinary mysteries before his first (and infamous) New Yorker essay launched this frank confessional about the lusty and larcenous real lives of cooks and restaurateurs. He is obscenely eloquent, unapologetically opinionated, and a damn fine storyteller--a Jack Kerouac of the kitchen. Those without the stomach for this kind of joyride should note his opening caveat: "There will be horror stories. Heavy drinking, drugs, screwing in the dry-goods area, unappetizing industry-wide practices. Talking about why you probably shouldn't order fish on a Monday, why those who favor well-done get the scrapings from the bottom of the barrel, and why seafood frittata is not a wise brunch selection.... But I'm simply not going to deceive anybody about the life as I've seen it." --Sumi Hahn

Review

"...the kind of book you read in one sitting, then rush about annoying your coworkers by declaiming whole passages." -- USA Today

"Utterly riveting, swaggering with stylish machismo and precise ear for kitchen patois." -- New York Magazine

"You'll laugh, you'll cry...you're gonna love it." -- Denver Post

A gonzo memoir of whats really going on behind those swinging doors.... Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain is unique. -- Newsweek

Hysterical.... Bourdain gleefully rips through the scenery to reveal private backstage horrors. -- New York Times Book Review

Publisher : Harper Perennial; 1st Ecco Ed edition (May 1, 2001)
Language : English
Paperback : 320 pages
ISBN-10 : 0060934913
ISBN-13 : 978-0060934910
Item Weight : 9.6 ounces
Dimensions : 5.31 x 0.72 x 8 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #522,235 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #273 in Mid Atlantic U.S. Biographies
- #815 in Gastronomy Essays (Books)
- #1,092 in Culinary Biographies & Memoirs

Customer Reviews:
4,022 ratings

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5 star		75%
4 star		17%
3 star		5%
2 star		1%
1 star		1%

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Top reviews from the United States

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Brendan McMahon

In it to win it. But you better stay in...

Reviewed in the United States on December 10, 2016

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GREAT book! I couldn't put it down. Having been in food service most of my life, I'm only 26yrs old and feel like I've already been exposed to it all. After reading this...not even close. Anthony never goes far beyond the truth of spending his time in a kitchen. Explaining each and every detail about his experiences from culinary school all the way to executive chef running his own restaurant. There's definitely some evil out there, but also many rewards. He tells it how it is. There's plenty of spoilers in this book including talk about what kinds of knives to use, kitchen equipment and about how to improve upon your own skills as a chef, restaurant employee or even an owner. However, this is really a story--not business for dummies. He's done a great job here.

145 people found this helpful

Helpful

The Book that Made Anthony Bourdain Holds Up Very Well

Reviewed in the United States on June 5, 2018

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“Kitchen Confidential" is the book that made Anthony Bourdain and, after two decades, it holds up extremely well. Bourdian offers insights on what happens in the kitchen and what drove him to become a chef. He presents am engaging and sometimes funny look at his early experiences with restaurants, their owners, staffs and even takes readers behind the scenes with his own life. This is a very different Bourdian than the one who pops up on CNN these days, far less mature and worldly and more profane. Regardless, fans will appreciate “Kitchen Confidential” and Bourdian’s writing--easily one of the strengths that has kept him on TV for most of the last decade and a half--helps move readers along and offers a memorable impression. Highly recommended.

107 people found this helpful

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Peter J. Dawes

The beans have now been spilled

Reviewed in the United States on May 28, 2016

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Some years ago I had an interest in a restaurant along with two other partners. I also had a French family background with a deep appreciation of fine cuisine. I also have dined at Les Halles, his famous restaurant in New York. My partnership was to be "silent", that is, just kick in your share of the money and go away. In the first week of operation I was tapped to do dishes because the washer didn't show, wait tables for a similar reason etc. etc. For weeks we struggled to bring order and routine to the restaurant. So, the trap was well set. Fortunately, I was eventually able to sell back my share and jump clear of the unfolding disaster, but I wish I had read Anthony Bourdain's book first. All the best kept secrets of the restaurant business are revealed in this terrific book.

Everything he says about the business is spot-on and, once you read his book, which is written in the coarse language of a professional kitchen which adds color and authenticity, you will never look at a menu or see a restaurant the same way again.

I liked the muscular way he writes about food and I fully share his view that prissy concoctions of food with way too many ingredients that only stroke a chef's vanity have nothing to do with first class cooking. As he rightly points out, great cooking, as always, involves only the finest and freshest ingredients presented to their greatest advantage where less is more. As any artist will tell you, if you mix up all the colors of the pallet, the result will always be a muddy black.

The very best chapter, however, is about his going to Japan for the first time and seeing the famous Tokyo fish market which I remember seeing in the 1970's and feeling exactly the same way about. I also remember my first visit to Japan as the same hallucinatory experience which delighted every sense especially the quirky drinking habits of "salary men" or office workers after the day's work is done.

I suggest that you read the book and then visit his great restaurants...or the other way around. Both are a worthwhile experience.

123 people found this helpful

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Michael T.

Must Read

Reviewed in the United States on January 4, 2017

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I have worked in the restaurant industry my entire life, and I have to say that even if you've only waited tables for a month, or never worked in the industry at all, this is a must read. When people go out to dinner, they have a pleasant time, or they don't. They like their waiter, or they don't. They have strong opinions on the food, the smells, the décor, or they don't. Regardless of peoples experience in a dining room, there is a circus act going on continuously long before these people ever arrived, and it was in full effect when their order was placed, and it will continue after they have paid their bill and left. If you've ever wondered what the circus in the back of the house is like, then pick up this book.

34 people found this helpful

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Alex

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States on June 8, 2018

Verified Purchase

I guess God needed good chef for his kitchen today. Rest in peace, Anthony.

344 people found this helpful

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Kindle Customer

Truth

Reviewed in the United States on June 11, 2018

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Anthony Bourdain tells us early in the book that he is going to tell the truth - and he does. The good, the bad and the beautiful. It was poignant to read this the day he died by suicide. I felt like I had him here in my room as he talked to me. He writes the same way that he talks, so it is easy to hear his voice in your ear as you read. If you have ever worked in restaurants, as I have, you will recognize a lot of what he talks about. But some of it is just Bourdain's restaurants. He tends to gather his crews from a pool of sociopaths, junkies, inveterate alcoholics and just marginally sane people. They are never late, never call in sick and are loyal to him to the end. I learned about lots of wonderful food I had never tasted. I was constantly looking up these exotic items in the dictionary. He teaches as he tells his story. What's not to like about this book?

21 people found this helpful

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DPitty

Blood, drugs, sex, and fine dining...

Reviewed in the United States on February 24, 2018

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Kitchen Confidential is an edgy look into some of the scariest kitchens in America. It is also a glimpse of punk rock cooking, drugs, and slave like efforts the public never knew existed. I enjoy cooking simple dishes and exploring new foods. I am by no means a trained chef. There are some great basic cooking tips along with warnings of what not to order... Hollandase sauce at the brunch buffet 🤢. Anthony Bourdaine, to me, comes across as an arrogant New Yorker. However, he has put in his dues and obviously made a successful career through hard work and talent. He shares what he learned and funny stories of the odd characters who shaped his career. I do get a strong sense of Hunter S. Thompson and Mr. Bourdaine's affinity for the counter culture. I found the book an easy page turner. It is fun, witty, and serious about how to make it in the back of the house.

13 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

last year's girl

The soul of the man fizzes out of the pages

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 23, 2019

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“Your body is not a temple – it’s an amusement park.” The book that launched a man from jobbing chef to beloved TV personality pulls no punches about life in the trenches of a professional kitchen – and while the language and behaviours that Bourdain swears do not discriminate should be a turn-off, his very soul fizzes up out of the pages of this book in a way that will stick with you. The passages I highlighted: a very practical one about shopping for pans (go for the heaviest ones); and one on writing (“writing anything is a treason of sorts”) which shows up my chosen profession for the nonsense that it is and brought tears to my eyes. Be warned: the “Department of Human Resources” chapter should come with a note for its frank, dispassionate discussion of suicide, which shook me to my toes after a recent loss, and given how Bourdain’s own story ended.

6 people found this helpful

Ben

Culinary Adventures

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 22, 2020

Verified Purchase

Mr Bourdain comes across as something of a tortured soul totally at odds with most aspects of being a regular functioning human being, this in itself is why I love this book soo much. He has a gift for story telling and self effacing behavior that I find very appealing in a writer and for that matter a person. Very true to himself.

The book fires along at great pace through his life starting from a brief look at his childhood and some of his formulative inspirations, interspersed with foodie bits, all the way through his early cooking years in Provincetown and what became a very chequered career filled with full on substance fuelled misadventures. Dealing with life on the fringes he stumbles from one mad job\situation to the next as he struggles with his inner demons and various addictions. Carving up a reputation as a force to be reckoned with he crashes his way through the new york culinary scene leaving a trail of destruction in his wake think Fear And Loathing and your on the right tracks.

What I find most appealing about this book is how he comes across as having a lot of depth of personality and is able throughout to be reflective, understanding on a deeper level his potential, regularly defacing his own bad behaviour showing growth and understanding of his flaws despite being hopelessly bound by them as many of us are, (speaking personally). He is great at describing time and place making this reader feel and sense the energy of the life. He meets some fascinating, darkly charming characters with lots of funny, wicked moments and tales. Even though I have no doubht he made a lot of mistakes and upset a few people on route. I didnt have him down as a bad or malicious person at any stage, he did what was necessary to survive in a difficult business and survive he did with gusto! This versatility is perhaps one of his greatest strengths, his ability to adapt and keep rolling on. I found him also to show a deeper understanding of the human condition, what makes us all tick or motivations and drives, out of this awareness comes a kindness and sense of humility that I found appealing in his character. All in all a very entertaining book!

One person found this helpful

Nick Lincoln

You Can Almost Taste It

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 15, 2014

Verified Purchase

I saw this title on a friend's bookshelf, read the sleeve and Kindled it up. What a ride!

You probably (though not absolutely) have to enjoy food, to enjoy eating out, to get the most from this. Food luddites can let this one pass by. But for anyone with an interest in what goes down our throats, stomachs and intestinal passages this book is a gem.

It is pacy - think "noir" - in the depictions of the shady characters and shadier scenes behind that amuse bouche you are wolfing down. It is also a reminder of how organised restaurants have to be, in back-of-house. The workload, hours and pressure are monumental: As Bourdain states, good cooking really is a labour of love, of old-fashioned craftwork. It certainly ain't art.

If you like food then buy this and devour it. Pun intended.

Note: Avoid the Monday fish specials at all costs.

7 people found this helpful

daSilva_UK

An open and honest memoir

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 4, 2020

Verified Purchase

This isn't just a story about the road trip for the TV show, Bordain opens all the way up, treating the reader like a confidante, the pressure of the TV work, the genuine heartfelt pleasure of eating things cooked by those who have very little (and some of those who have the world at their fingertips); his passion for good food no matter where it comes from and an insight into the highs and lows of the bipolar mind

J.M.R.

Too good to miss

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 16, 2018

Verified Purchase

First reading about the world of Bourdain at just the time he died tragically. I loved his writing and him. His sojourn in Tokyo was very funny indeed. I want to read more and to read the books he likes. Glad to find he respects George Orwell and his time as a down and out in London and Paris. His kitchen friends and their patois made me laugh out loud.

2 people found this helpful

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