Search advanced search
 
Books
Search:
x dismiss this message

Did you know you can edit this page?

Kitchen Confidential
  • Rated 0 stars
Read Kitchen Confidential

Kitchen Confidential (2000) (edit title/settings)

Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly

by Anthony Bourdain (Author) (edit contributors)

Share this book on:
see page history

Description edit see section history

The story of Anthony Bourdain's discovery of food and subsequent life long love affair with the culinary arts. Bourdain relates his own experiences in the kitchen on the way to becoming a chef in New York City restaurants.

Summary edit see section history

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... read more (warning: may contain spoilers)

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.

People edit see section history

Show all 61 characters
Popular Covers

Loading covers…

Choose your book’s cover

Quotes edit see section history

  • “If you're willing to risk some slight lower GI distress for one of those Italian sweet sausages at the street fair, or for a slice of pizza you just know has been sitting on the board for an hour or two, why not take a chance on the good stuff.”
  • “Like I said before, your body is not a temple, it's an amusement park.”
  • “Wipe yourself down with antiseptic towelettes every time you pass a restaurant.”
  • “I often use the hypothetical out-of-control ice-cream truck. What would happen if you were walking across the street and were suddenly hit by a careening Mister Softee truck? As you lie there, in your last few moments of consciousness, what kind of final regrets flash through your mind? 'I should have had a last cigarette!' might be one. Or, 'I should have dropped acid with everybody else back in '74!' Maybe: 'I should have done that hostess after all!' Something along the lines of: 'I should have had more fun in my life! I should have relaxed a little more, enjoyed myself a little more..'That was never my problem. When they're yanking a fender out my chest cavity, I will decidedly not be regretting missed opportunities for a good time. My regrets will be more along the lines of a sad list of people hurt, people let down, assets wasted and advantages squandered. - p. 272”
  • “Vegetarians, and their Hezbollah-like splinter faction, the vegans ... are the enemy of everything good and decent in the human spirit.”
  • ““If you're willing to risk some slight lower GI distress for one of those Italian sweet sausages at the street fair, or for a slice of pizza you just know has been sitting on the board for an hour or two, why not take a chance on the good stuff.””
  • “Orwell's Down and Out in Paris and London is invaluable. As is Nicolas Freleng's The Kitchen, David Blum's Flash in the Pan, the Batterberrys' fine account of American restaurant history, On the Town in New York, and Joseph Mitchell's Up in the Old Hotel. Read the old masters: Escoffier, Bocuse et al as well as the Young Turks: Keller, Marco-Pierre White, and more recent generations of innovators and craftsmen.”
  • Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers
  • Global knives, a very good Japanese product which has — in addition to its many other fine qualities — the added attraction of looking really cool.
    Highlighted by 257 Kindle customers
  • Vegetarians are the enemy of everything good and decent in the human spirit, an affront to all I stand for, the pure enjoyment of food.
    Highlighted by 201 Kindle customers
  • If you need instruction on how to handle a knife without lopping off a finger, I recommend Jacques Pepin's La Technique.
    Highlighted by 164 Kindle customers
  • The Provincetown Seafood Cookbook and Creole, Gumbo and All That Jazz
    Highlighted by 147 Kindle customers
  • offset serrated knife. It's basically a serrated knife set into an ergonomic handle; it looks like a 'Z' that's been pulled out and elongated.
    Highlighted by 142 Kindle customers
  • Demi-glace. There are a lot of ways to make demi-glace, but I recommend you simply take your already reduced meat stock, add some red wine, toss in some shallots and fresh thyme and a bay leaf and peppercorns, and slowly, slowly simmer it and reduce it again until it coats a spoon. Strain. Freeze this stuff in an ice-cube tray, pop out a cube or two as needed, and you are in business — you can rule the world. And remember, when making a sauce with demi-glace, don't forget to monter au beurre.
    Highlighted by 128 Kindle customers
  • Orwell's Down and Out in Paris and London is invaluable. As is Nicolas Freleng's The Kitchen, David Blum's Flash in the Pan, the Batterberrys' fine account of American restaurant history, On the Town in New York, and Joseph Mitchell's Up in the Old Hotel. Read the old masters: Escoffier, Bocuse et al as well as the Young Turks: Keller, Marco-Pierre White, and more recent generations of innovators and craftsmen.
    Highlighted by 128 Kindle customers
  • Vegetarians, and their Hezbollah-like splinter-faction, the vegans, are a persistent irritant to any chef worth a damn.
    Highlighted by 126 Kindle customers
  • Like I said before, your body is not a temple, it's an amusement park. Enjoy the ride.
    Highlighted by 123 Kindle customers
  • F. Dick makes a good one for about twenty-five bucks. It's stainless steel, but since it's serrated it doesn't really matter; after a couple of years of use, if the teeth start to wear down, you just buy yourself another one.
    Highlighted by 59 Kindle customers
Show all 17 quotes from this book

Setting & Locations edit see section history

  • Vienne: A small town in Normandy where Anthony vacations with his family and experiences his first oyster.
  • New York, NY
  • Provincetown, Cape Cod: Where Anthony spends a summer working as a busboy in the kitchen of the Dreadnaught, a seafood restaurant.
  • Vassar College: Anthony attends Vassar College in the 1970's.

Organizations edit see section history

First Sentence edit see section history

Don't get me wrong: I love the restaurant business.

Table of Contents edit see section history

Acknowledgments
Preface

Appetizer
-A Note from the Chef

First Course
-Food is Good
-Food is Sex
-Food is Pain
-Inside the CIA
-The Return of Mel Carne

Second Course
-Who Cooks?
-From Our Kitchen to Your Table
-How to Cook Like the Pros
-Owner's Syndrome and Other Medical Anomalies
-Bigfoot

Third Course
-I Make My Bones
-The Happy Time
-Chef of the Future!
-Apocalypse Now
-The Wilderness Years
-What I Know About Meat
-Pino Noir: Tuscan Interlude

Dessert
-A Day in the Life
-Sous-Chef
-The Level of Discourse
-Other Bodies
-Adam Real-Last-Name-Unknown
-Department of Human Resources

Coffee And A Cigarette
-The Life of Bryan
-Mission to Tokyo
-So You Want to Be a Chef? A Commencement Address
-Kitchen's Closed

Glossary edit see section history

Series & Lists edit see section history

This book is in True Culinary Tales. (community list)

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

  1. Anthony Bourdain (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Original Language: English
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA
Country: USA
Publication Date: 2000
ISBN: 158234082X
Page Count: 288

Classification edit see section history

  • Library of Congress: TX649.B680 A3 2000
  • Dewey: 641.5092

Notes for Parents edit see section history

Reading Level: Adults

Adult language, drug use and sexual content.

Links to Supplemental Material edit see section history

Movie Connections edit see section history

More Books Like This edit see section history

   
  • Down and Out in Paris and London
  • A Cook's Tour
  • The Last Days of Haute Cuisine
  • Fast Food Nation
  • The Omnivore's Dilemma
  • No Reservations
  • A Cook's Tour
  • Heat
  • The Making of a Chef
  • Soul of a Chef
  • The Sorcerer's Apprentices: A Season in the Kitchen at Ferran Adrià's El Bulli

We’re hiding the errata, books with additional background information, books that influenced this book, books influenced by this book, books that cite this book and books cited by this book sections. If you would like to add content to them, you must first make them visible.

melissa f

You were just viewing this book on melissa f’s shelf.
(see review)

 

© 2006-2013 Shelfari | Terms & Conditions | Privacy Policy | Copyright Policy

Close