Day 108: Kitchen Confidential
I recently picked up Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential and it a great read. Bourdain has a very unique voice and is an excellent natural writer. He has an eye for detail, and seems to know what to include, and what to skip over. I’m a little pissed that a guy I can never catch up to in a kitchen, is miles ahead of me in writing as well. What a prick.
The book is entertaining, gregarious, and guarantees that I will never again get fish on a Monday, order anything well-done, or participate in a brunch ever again. The book seems like an assault on the restaurant industry to some, but even the bad experiences and psychotic employees are remembered fondly, if not a little too accurately for the subjects of the stories. The stories themselves and essays on restaurant culture come from the sort of warmth that comes from the pride of being a member of a secret tribe unknown to polite society that is full of the thugs, sluts, addicts, and malcontents that could never function in the 9 to 5 world. There’s sex, drugs, punk rock, knife fights, and language so salty even a Bubbler might blush.
There are few things in this world more interesting than reading, watching, or talking with someone who is very proud and very good at what they do, and this book is a perfect example of that. It’s equal parts story, how-to, and state of the union address all rolled into one, and I highly recommend it.
Matt