Kitchen
Confidential by Anthony Bourdain (2000).
If you are an aspiring chef, food connoisseur or just want read about a
crazy genius who does everything extreme and doesn’t know when or how to stop,
Anthony Bourdain is your man.
This is one of the craziest biography I’ve ever read. He is up there with
Johnny Cash and Hunter S. Thompson for his pure madness and creativity.
Genius is a man who can channel his madness into something extraordinary,
and Anthony Bourdain is just that.
P
|
layers. – Anthony Bourdain.
A crazy but genius chef who tries and eats literary everything he can put
his hands on. And I’m not kidding. He Eats Everything!!
He
was
a permanently pissed-off kid who didn’t really do anything but sulking and
smoking, etc. until one faithful day, his French uncle took him to the seashore
and handed him a fresh oyster. From there, Anthony Bourdain’s journey into the
great chef and moreover, a vivacious eater begins!!
After cooking
for the local restaurant for a while and embarrassed himself for being an ass
and NOT professional, he went to the famous Culinary Institute of America to
become a chef.
What he went
through for the next ten to fifteen years as a chef, an addict, a thief, a
crazy son of bitch is one truly, remarkably fascinating story worth a biography
and your time.
If you think
becoming and surviving a chef is like choosing any other job, you better read
this book carefully. Examples here are a bit extreme I think, but none the
less, they will give you a general idea of what waits for you ahead and I
assure you, none of them are pretty.
Now, here is
the interesting thing about this book. There are lots of names mentioned in
this book and all of them are real names of real people. And since all of them
are either cooks or persons who are involved in restaurant business, they are
all, in one way or other, eccentric and egomaniac, to say the least. Control
freak is another good word to describe them as well. And since these tough guys
are generally working in the small and confined and extremely heated space
surrounded with extremely sharp weapons conveniently located within easy reach,
being a control freak is actually a mandatory requirement for a chef or a
manager.
Also, all
female cooks (there are very few of them because cooking is testosterone-driven
occupation and all the kitchens are running like a military bootcamp) are
mentally/physically tougher than any of their male co-workers. Just think about
that.
Most people
who works in Kitchen have shady backgrounds and they don’t ask too many
questions around as long as you are doing what you are supposed to do, right.
There are a
few names that actually matters to the author. Here are some.
Bigfoot. A manager who runs several best restaurant in
NY and the person who shapes the professional chef out of Anthony Bourdain.
He is a tyrant
who runs his shop with fear and respect. He has vast knowledge of food, knows
everything and demands everything from everyone. Naturally, his restaurant is
the best place to eat and also the best place to start your courier as a cook
because after while, his routine is inputted into your brain and THAT is worth
more than anything you can learn from school.
Even, Anthony
respects him with honor.
Steven. An evil twin of Anthony.
He is one of those guy you need in your kitchen who knows everything out there
to run a smooth kitchen. He is a great cook, fixes everything, always gets job
done no matter what.
Also, he can
talk to anyone regardless of sex, age, race, social blanket and every one of
them just loves him. But he is also, kind of crazy.
Adam Real Last Name Unknown. He is a
walking disaster, security risk and possibly a serial killer. But he can BAKE
the most amazing bread anyone ever taste or see. So even if he is a crazy son of a bitch, his skill is on demand everywhere he goes.
Adam is God’s little joke on all of us, according to Anthony.
Adam is God’s little joke on all of us, according to Anthony.
There are also names of demi gods, sort of
like league of legend thing. Name such as Eric Ripert, Grey Kunz, Bouley,
Palladin who apparently revolutionize the cooking business which unfortunately
means absolutely nothing to me.
P
|
lace. –France where everything
starts. Boston where he gets his first taste of cooking. Than NY where he is
still based on. Tokyo for a week for his extraordinary adventure of eating
everything in sight.
P
|
lot. – This is a
biography of one of the most exciting chef out there. At least that’s what it
says on the cover. (Honestly, I am not an eater and have no interest in cooking
at all. Therefore, initially, I don’t recognize his name, not to mention any names in this
book, at all)
However I’ll
say this with 100% conviction: either you like cooking or not, this book is the
one of the most exciting biography you will ever read.
All the up and
down of his life is chronicled here with incredible rush with brutal honesty (and
black humor), you are guaranteed to have amazing reading experience filled with
comedy, drama, and even some actions.
Also, he gives
away lots of tips of how to find the great restaurant, how to cook like chef
with little or no effort, what to buy for your dish and even, how to equip your
kitchen like pro with as little money as possible.
And at the
end, he gives away a manifesto of becoming a great chef which is, like
everything else he says here, serious and hilarious at the same time.
V
|
erdict. So you want to be a chef? Here is an excellent advice for you. Read this
book!! Anthony Bourdain guides you into the maze of cooking hell with all the humor
and knowledge of hell’s angel who literary has been there forever, it seemd,
and done that hundred times!!
This book will discourage people eating out because what’s behind the
kitchen is like his book title says “confidential” because inside kitchen
beyond that revolving door lies a burning hell where psychos and brilliant
cooks (often they are the same) creates masterpieces with God knows what. Well,
not exactly but you get the feeling.
Anthony Bourdain in this book is real. He is truly intense and crazy guy
just like he describes himself in this book. I know this for a fact. I have a
friend who is also cook, a good line cook, who also just happened to go see him
in book signing in local bookstore with couple of his cook buddies. When it
became their turn to see him, instead of signing the book, he checks his watch
and sees its mid-afternoon then starts screaming at his friends for leaving
their kitchens and not doing their job even if it’s obvious that they are
enjoying their day off. To his mind, any cooks worth dime should never take
their time off during the busy weekdays. That’s how intense and crazy he is.
This book is up there with Hunter S. Thompson’s works for its pure
entertainment, brutal honesty and all the craziness.
Cooking is never this exciting and probably never will be.
Another reason
to collect this book.
