kleph
18-02-2006, 03:09 AM
If you have ever wondered what goes on in that brightly lit, stanless steel and white world behind the swinging doors of the dining room of your favorite restaurant, the fact is you are probably better off not knowing. You don't simply step from the dining room into the kitchen, you step into a different world and it's inhabited by aliens.
But Anthony Bourdain has made his life there and this book is his story of what the life is like for the natives who inhabit this bizarre place. It has been described as a tell-all but it's really more of a travelogue. He isn't so much telling tales out of school as telling great tales.
Trained at the Culinary Institute of America, Bourdain has more than two decades experience in some of the best kichens in New York. He is currently a chef at New York's Les Halles but his writing efforts have cut into that side of his career quite a bit in the past few years.
Bourdain parlayed himself into this strange literary niche with an essay in the New Yorker that let the general public on a few well known kitchen secrets that include; don't order fish on monday, avoid hollandaise sauce and never order a steak well done. This effort had "one hit wonder" all over it until he followed up with this book which stunningly picked up where that essay left off and ran with it.
Any cook and former cook will recognize the characters, incidents and attitude Bourdain fills his little tome with. He isn't forgiving of the flaws of his fellow "drunks, sneak thieves, sluts and psychopaths" but he loves them all the same.
He holds forth on basic facts that most cooks know instinctively but the general public is completely ignorant of: you only need two knives in your kitchen, anyone who won't peel garlic doesn't deserve to eat it and sometimes the most stunning recipes are the simplest.
It takes balls to cook at this level and that machismo seeps through every page of the book. But Bourdain is the rare cook that levens the mix with humor, wit and honesty.
Links:
Anthony Bourdain's home page (http://www.anthonybourdain.com/)
other books by Bourdain on Amazon.com (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/index=books&field-author-exact=Anthony%20Bourdain&rank=-relevance%2C%2Bavailability%2C-daterank/104-7314290-1862316)
A Cook's Tour (http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/show_tb/0,1976,FOOD_9996,00.html) on the Food Network
my original review on kleph's kitchen (http://www.kleph.com/cook/2006/02/cookbook-review-kitchen-confidential.html)
But Anthony Bourdain has made his life there and this book is his story of what the life is like for the natives who inhabit this bizarre place. It has been described as a tell-all but it's really more of a travelogue. He isn't so much telling tales out of school as telling great tales.
Trained at the Culinary Institute of America, Bourdain has more than two decades experience in some of the best kichens in New York. He is currently a chef at New York's Les Halles but his writing efforts have cut into that side of his career quite a bit in the past few years.
Bourdain parlayed himself into this strange literary niche with an essay in the New Yorker that let the general public on a few well known kitchen secrets that include; don't order fish on monday, avoid hollandaise sauce and never order a steak well done. This effort had "one hit wonder" all over it until he followed up with this book which stunningly picked up where that essay left off and ran with it.
Any cook and former cook will recognize the characters, incidents and attitude Bourdain fills his little tome with. He isn't forgiving of the flaws of his fellow "drunks, sneak thieves, sluts and psychopaths" but he loves them all the same.
He holds forth on basic facts that most cooks know instinctively but the general public is completely ignorant of: you only need two knives in your kitchen, anyone who won't peel garlic doesn't deserve to eat it and sometimes the most stunning recipes are the simplest.
It takes balls to cook at this level and that machismo seeps through every page of the book. But Bourdain is the rare cook that levens the mix with humor, wit and honesty.
Links:
Anthony Bourdain's home page (http://www.anthonybourdain.com/)
other books by Bourdain on Amazon.com (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/index=books&field-author-exact=Anthony%20Bourdain&rank=-relevance%2C%2Bavailability%2C-daterank/104-7314290-1862316)
A Cook's Tour (http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/show_tb/0,1976,FOOD_9996,00.html) on the Food Network
my original review on kleph's kitchen (http://www.kleph.com/cook/2006/02/cookbook-review-kitchen-confidential.html)