Book Review: Kitchen Confidential
by Anthony Bourdain
This is chef Bourdain’s autobiography as it relates to food. It should appeal to people who are interested in food, cooking or restaurants.
Tony first became aware that food is important as a child when his family spent a summer visiting relatives in France. Later in life, as a teenager he worked in a kitchen at a seaside resort town in New England. This is where he decided upon a life as a cook. Tony dropped out of college and entered the Culinary Institute of America (CIA).
After graduating from the CIA, Tony returned to the seaside resort town and worked in a restaurant and did catering on the side with a friend who was a pastry chef. Tony then continued to chase the dollars which led him to New York City, where he cooked in a number of places, including a large union shop high atop a sky scrapper (that Frank Sinatra frequented), a smaller Italian restaurant owned by a very organized Italian family (ya’ know what I mean), and a restaurant near Broadway owned by a gay couple. Tony and his cohorts even tried opening their own restaurant in the city. Notice I said ‘tried,’ it flopped.
Then Tony realized that the food had to come first and he became the executive chef at Les Halles, the restaurant in Manhattan that he is most associated with and which he gained some notoriety. The book’s final section deals with a typical day for Tony at Les Halles. Tony also compares his career with another chef who put food first his entire career and there is a trip to Tokyo to instruct French chefs before the opening of a Les Halles restaurant in that city. All along the way there are a number of colorful characters, my favorite is Adam Last-Name-Unknown. The book ends with a commencement speech Tony gave to a graduating class of culinary students.
When it was first published, Kitchen Confidential caused a bit of a stir for Tony’s recommendations for restaurant diners. He suggests the best days of the week to eat at restaurants and which day that it might be best to avoid the seafood. If you like your steak well-done then you may want to change your mind after reading Kitchen Confidential.
For home cooks, Tony recommends making your own stock and demi-glace. He also gives a few tips about kitchen knives.
I really like this book and I read it in a weekend, however some people are turned off by Tony’s personality. His style is not of a fancy-pants chef who visits the Met to watch opera with his free time. Tony is a straight talker with the odd curse word thrown in here and there. His music taste is for 1970s US punk - Ramones, Dead Boys and Television. Think sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll rather than wine, women and song. Whether you like him or loath him, Tony gives you a look into the kitchen of the restaurant business.