Bourdain, Anthony - Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly

[oyceter]

Given the new foreward to the paperback, Bourdain wasn't at all expecting the popularity of this book. After I read the foreward, I was expecting a whole lot of blustering, possibly even an expose.

While Bourdain is a bit of a character, and while he does expose some of the nastier sides of the restaurant business, he enjoys what he does and he loves food. The things that he gives advice on (don't order fish over the weekend, get better food on weekdays) aren't things that he seems to want to change. He's been in the business for a while, he knows the ropes, and he's just letting us in on some of what he knows.

I keep almost not liking Bourdain, given his rather stupid decisions at times, but he likes food so much! And not just fancy restaurant food, but oily fish and brains and all sorts of innards. It also makes me realize that the things I eat are probably things that he doesn't quite consider good food, like fancy salads. He's not big on plating or presentation, while I have to admit, I sort of like seeing things drizzled around.

But it reminds me of waitressing back in college, hanging around the kitchens, the industrial-sized fridge, the gas ranges and cooktops. I loved reading about the cooks' meez (mise-en-place) and their secrets (squeeze bottles and metal rings to stack things). I love seeing the behind-the-scenes of the places I eat (well, more like the places my dad eats).

Bourdain seems very conservative; he doesn't much like what he thinks of as "froo-froo." He remarks on the lack of women in the culinary world, the machismo atmosphere. He mentions that some of the best help in the kitchen are Ecuadorians and Guatemalans, but he never really talks about how the top echelon of chefs are still white males.

Still, I like reading about kitchens and restaurants and how they're run, and Bourdain has a very good narrative voice.

Comments

[ponygirl2000.livejournal.com]

FYI there's a collection of posts here (http://offthebroiler.wordpress.com/2006/07/14/no-reservations-the-shwarma-and-shrapnel-episode/) detailing Bourdain's recent escape from Beirut.

I really enjoyed the book and I'm curious now to see his cooking shows. From the book it seemed like he was very much a product of the '70s so it'd be interesting to see if all the travel has changed his views. I did think though that he seemed very aware of how the atmosphere of the kitchens led to the prevalence of white male chefs in N. America that you talk about, but that he enjoyed it too much to condemn or try to change it.

The thing I really came away with though was how ripped off we were by that Kitchen Confidential sitcom. If they had put that on cable so that the language was authentic and actually given us the insights that Bourdain did it could have been such a fun show!

[deadsoul820.livejournal.com]

I 100% x 10 recommend his current show, No Reservations. Not cooking per se but traveling and eating any and everything the locals eat. See my response to Oyce for more about the show.

[ponygirl2000.livejournal.com]

100% x 10? Why that's 1000% and that's a lot! I really must up my cable again, I swear I only miss it in the summer.

You made me do math. Damn you.

[oyceter]

There was a Kitchen Confidential sitcom?! Weird!

I think he came off as sort of being aware of the atmosphere, but also that he didn't think of it as that much of a problem. Um. Yeah, what you said!

Thanks for the link!

[sienamystic.livejournal.com]

Bourdain is rather fascinating, isn't he! I walk along that same love-him-hate-him line, because he's really quite horrible, but he's having such a good time and, as you say, he clearly loves food with all his heart. I've watched a few of his shows on the Food Network, and the same thing applies. I also have, floating around somewhere, a long and really interesting New Yorker article about Mario Batali, who seems to have had a very similar history to Bourdain with the whole "snorting coke off the prep counter" thing.

I only saw one episode of the sitcom, and enjoyed it a bunch - and then it disappeared before I even had the chance to figure out what night it was on.

[oyceter]

He's very interesting! I'm looking forward to reading Cook's Tour when I get my hand on it, just to see what he thinks going around Vietnam and etc. I didn't even realize that he had programs on the Food Network; I may check them out.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

He loved Vietnam, so much that it wouldn't surprise me if he ended up living there part-time. But I think my favorite chapter is the one set in France, which is different from the rest; you'll see how when you read it.

[oyceter]

Oh, is that the incidence with the pig's face thing?

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

There is that, but I was thinking more about the stuff about his father.

[deadsoul820.livejournal.com]

I liked AB (no, not that AB) well enough from watching A Cook's Tour, but I didn't fall in love with him until watching his show on the Travel Channel, No Reservations. But then, I'm an old curmudgeon, too. Just not the traveling kind. I keep reminding myself to read his books, then forgetting whenever I'm actually buying books.

On NR, although, he's not an unremitting cynic - when he's honestly impressed, awed, or otherwise moved, he expresses it so eloquently, yet unsentimentally.

[oyceter]

Huh, I didn't even know he was on TV! I get the sense that he isn't the unremitting cynic in his book as well. He tries to be, and often is, but then things like a simple plate of pasta will get to him.

[deevalish.livejournal.com]

That's so strange that he doesn't much like froo-froo. I think he can appreciate the froo-froo when it's all a part of something really excellent. I've watched him, when he was doing A Cook's Tour on the Food Network, eat at a couple of top notch restaurants (mostly known for their very good but very froo-froo food) and he just didn't comment on it. He even sometimes admired the plating of something. I guess he doesn't like to bother with plating in his own cooking but can appreciate it.

I just love his observations. A strange mix of passion and gruffness with just a bit of wonder. I haven't even checked out his new show yet, No Reservations.

[oyceter]

In the book, it feels like he thinks plating is more a trick than anything else. He's got this great chapter on how to make home-cooked food look/taste more like restaurant food, which includes simple things like putting sauces in squeeze bottles and using shallots and etc.

I don't think he's against plating per se, but more amused at how it impresses diners so much.

He's got a great voice; I'm really looking forward to his other books.

[jinian.livejournal.com]

I can't remember whether you've read Brite's Liquor, but wanted to mention it; it has some of the chef-geeking of Bourdain with more likable characters.

("foreword")

[radiotelescope.livejournal.com]

One of the recent "No Reservations" shows was devoted to Ferran Adria, who is (I had never heard of him) apparently considered the crazy-froo-froo master of post-modern cuisine. (El Bulli is the name of the restaurant.) Bourdain said he liked it.

[trinker.livejournal.com]

But...El Bulli isn't about froufrou plating, it's about taking food to strange places. Really, really strange places. If it were the same old shit with prettier presentation, I get the impression that Bourdain would rain all over that parade.

[oyceter]

Huh, is that the place that does things like flash freeze food or reduce steak to a sauce using some sort of complex science and/or technology?

[trinker.livejournal.com]

Yep! "caviar" made by sticking stuff into some sort of chemical solution via a syringe, crazy stunts like that.

[oyceter]

Doh! Thanks for the catch!

I haven't read any Brite at all, I shall put that on the list!

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

I love Liquor! I'm surprised I haven't recommended it to you already.

In addition to being very funny and full of food details, it's also a lovely, low-key romance between a couple who are already solidly committed to each other when the book begins.

[oyceter]

You probably have, but I probably forgot!

Oooo, committed couples, that does sound nice.

re: bourdain in beirut

[toastykitten.livejournal.com]

Hi! Hope you don't mind my adding a comment - I've been reading your livejournal for a bit and thought you might like to read this Q&A session with him after he left Beirut: Bourdain in Beirut (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2006/07/25/DI2006072501108.html?sub=AR).

He's actually changed quite a bit since that last foreword - he's more thoughtful now, but he still doesn't think past the surface of things, which might be what's driving you nuts. It drives me crazy, too.

Anyway, definitely watch No Reservations if you can. (They're on DVD now; maybe you can get them on Netflix?) My favorites are the ones where he goes to Korea and China.

Re: re: bourdain in beirut

[oyceter]

I don't mind comments at all, as long as people aren't being randomly anti-Semitic or racist or otherwise offensive.

Thank you for the link! I'm really interested in reading his later books -- he seems to be an interesting character, if nothing else ;).

He goes to China? That's awesome!