Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly by Anthony Bourdain ISBN: 0-06-093491-3 Publisher: Ecco Pub. Date: 08 May, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.09 (390 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: It's all true
Comment: I work as a sous chef in a three star restuarant(name withheld) in downtown Chicago, and let me just tell you that Tony knows what he's talking about. From the disgust of being demoted to cooking brunch to the fact that a fish special on Monday means you're eating at least five day old fish, Mr. Bourdain lets his reader into the sometimes scary glimpses of what professional kitchen life is really like.
Mr. Bourdain also allows the non-professional to see what actually goes into cooking lunch for a hundred plus guest and then turning around and doing two hundred for dinner (don't forget they're different menus). The amount of prep and the realization that at one time or another you will be in the weeds, especially if your mise is out of sorts, is felt in this read. And though some want to romanticize about the Chef's life, Mr. Bourdain has been doing this for twenty-five years and he's still cutting his own shallots and doing inventory every week.
Bourdain also takes a good look at the people who work in this industry. From the "actor" servers to the great line cooks from just south of the border(that's you, Juve), the amusing and different people you'll find are quite astonishing. The life is really for the people who could never do the nine to five but who aren't afraid to put in a twelve hour day. Bourdain describes us characters as sociopaths or anti-social, and he might just be right. The production that the kitchen goes through daily has to be ran by people who truly love food or just people who can make risotto taste the same way fifty times a day, otherwise it just won't work. Don't forget there's always the ever present barracho somewhere in upper managment.
For anyone who is serious about getting into the industry, this book is worth while to see what you're getting yourself into. Did I mention that I've worked over forty hours the last three days, thirty hours split between Christmas Eve and Christmas day. It's the life and you either love it or hate it and Bourdain makes a strong commentary for both.
The read is also very friendly and if you have a good reading spot it might only take one sitting.
Rating: 4
Summary: Not what it claims to be, but great anyway
Comment: I'm one of those people who loves to cook and has occasionally been told "You should open a restaurant!", so I read this book with great interest -- also in part because one of my sisters is a professional cook. I read the book in one sitting and found it enormously entertaining. In no real sense does "Kitchen Confidential" meet its advertising claims -- that it's going to be shocking and dismaying to professionals in the industry who are going to see their secrets revealed. I don't think so. I'm not sure I really wanted to know that this particular chef used to engage in blood-squirting contests with his fellow cooks, true, but I didn't see anything in the book, including information about older foodstuffs in the freezer, that I hadn't suspected as a frequent diner or, for that matter, seen while I was a waiter during college. Rather, I found this book entertaining as the autobiography of a scoundrel who clawed his way back up to the top, and -- what was particularly interesting and touching -- demonstrating great loyalty to his friends and supporters all along the way. The look which Bourdain gives into restaurant kitchens was intriguing but secondary to me. I can agree with other reviewers that the book could have used considerably tighter editing in some places, and the most screaming shortcoming as far as I'm concerned is the lack of photographs. I'm sure I was not the only one who REALLY wanted to see what the crazed guy who is the world's best bread baker looks like. Be that as it may, I was hooked on this character when he swallowed his first raw oyster at the age of nine, and I stayed hooked all the way through the book. It's great!
Rating: 3
Summary: those crazy cooks
Comment: I just finished this book and really couldn't put it down, but at the same time I thought the author came off as really pompous: 'I've had the most interesting life and I just feel like talking about myself.'
I've worked in restaurants before and to tell you the truth, I really wasn't all that shocked by the behavior of his degenerate kitchen staff. Guess what? Kitchens all over the world are plagued by these oddball screw-ups, so tell me something I don't know! And it was rather annoying how the author kept throwing out names all over the place. I got the feeling he was trying to make me feel inadequate because I have never heard of some of the famous chefs he refered to. Well, mission accomplished. I wonder who this book is directed at? It obviously is an ode to the restaurant industry. But I think people who haven't worked in the industry will no doubt pick it up and be lost at sea.
At times I could not ignore the Lou Reed-ishness of this guy: A bad, don't-mess-with-me attitude but at the same time he's hoping people will read his book and propel him to greatness... but it was well-written and interesting, just like any Lou Reed song.
A pet peeve: Pay a good editor to weed some of your commas out; there are only so many of them in the earth's atmosphere.
 |
Title: A Cook's Tour : Global Adventures in Extreme Cuisines by Anthony Bourdain ISBN: 0060012781 Publisher: Ecco Pub. Date: 05 November, 2002 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
 |
Title: Bone in the Throat by Anthony Bourdain ISBN: 1582341028 Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Pub. Date: September, 2000 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
 |
Title: The Making of a Chef : Mastering Heat at the Culinary Institute of America by Michael Ruhlman ISBN: 0805061738 Publisher: Owl Books Pub. Date: 15 October, 1999 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
 |
Title: The Soul of a Chef: The Journey Toward Perfection by Michael Ruhlman ISBN: 0141001895 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: 31 July, 2001 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
 |
Title: Typhoid Mary: An Urban Historical by Anthony Bourdain ISBN: 1582341338 Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Pub. Date: May, 2001 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
