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| Kitchen Confidential Updated Ed: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly (P.S.) | 
 enlarge | Author: Anthony Bourdain
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Category: Book
List Price: $15.95
Buy Used: $6.70
You Save: $9.25 (58%)
New (36) Used (46) Collectible (1) from $6.70
Avg. Customer Rating:  584 reviews
Sales Rank: 583
Media: Paperback
Edition: Updated
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 352
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.9
ISBN: 0060899220
Dewey Decimal Number: 641.5092
EAN: 9780060899226
ASIN: 0060899220
Publication Date: January 9, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
Laugh Out Loud and Hold Your Breath Aghast All Mixed Togethe June 16, 2000
12 out of 13 found this review helpful
I really liked this book. At times I was laughing out loud, atother times I was holding my breath aghast with what I wasreading. Overall it's creative and insightful, and unlike anything you've read before. It's divided into four sections: Appetizer, First Course, Second Course, Third Course, Dessert, and a Cigarette. Each is thematically a bit different. Think of it less as a novel or book as a colleciton of essays. Essays discuss diffferent aspects of Bourdain's life: from drug addiction and first sexual/culinary experiences to his (self-)education in cooking, it's all there. One essay talks about the lingo cooks use, hilarious, another essay is about his trip to Tokyo to adapt a French menu to Japanese tastes and expectations. Another talks about his first experience eating an oyster--analogous to a first sexual experience, by all accounts. One thing that's a bit disturbing is his apparent tolerance of a great deal of homophobia and mysogyny that seems to be replete in the cooking world (of New York, at least). He kind of hems and haws about this, half defending it in a way, without accepting it necessarily. I find that kind of lukewarmness a bit troubling [. . .] But it *does* all make good reading. Always provocative and educational, its entertaining at every step. (Note to publisher: hire a copyeditor to eliminate all those typographical errors next time.)
 Overrated and overdone June 16, 2000
16 out of 23 found this review helpful
So we know he is manaical. How many stories about his drinking and drugging do we have to endure. This book would have made a much better short story, very short. It is not anything like what I expected. So I know he won't eat mussels in someone elses kitchen. I was expecting an "expose" on behind the scenes action. Silly me, I wanted more dirt on whether uneaten bread and chips go back in the basket for the next customer, not page after page of the foul words used in his kitchen. The only thing I think I can say that's positive, is that I have a real appreciation for the orchestration of the meals for a twelve-top. Sorry, I waited for this book for two weeks, and am amazed that I finished it.
Buy this book if you can't find a copy to steal June 15, 2000
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
....Most of the 31 reviews I just scanned are accurate whetherthey loved or hated the book. I am not a food professional but Iam a restaurant aficionado who apprenticed in NYC in the 60s and movedon. I also am a committed reader of creative non-fiction. Before I bought the book I was impressed by the author's appearance on Cooking Live Primetime (even though he trashtalks some of the Food Network personalities in the book he was a VERY good guest chef). And, also, by a piece in the New Yorker that is included with less editing in this book. I like reading good writers write about food --- yes, even Orwell --- whether they like it or are raking mud. This guy has style as well as attitude, and he likes food. The fact that he recommends Howard Mitcham (look him up on amazon.com)is a big plus. BUT this is a messy book. The chapters are reasonably well organized but they were obviously written as separate pieces. The tone, style, taste, whatever you want to call it, varies quite a bit. Some chapters do not even use bad words. My advice to a reader who likes foodtalk is to "take what you need and leave the rest" as Levon said a long time ago. To those (like me) who would criticize A.B. as a memoirist for not tellng us ANYTHING about his parents, sibling(s?) or wife except that they exist: it takes thousands of pages of M.F.K. Fisher's works to learn enough to piece together a story of her life. Give the guy time (he already has enough rope) and another ZipDisk.
 The Kitchen, With Love, by fermed June 13, 2000
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Anthony Bourdain probably had a great deal of fun writing this book: it is, at different levels, a Catholic confession, an expose of the restaurant industry, several psychological case studies, a twelve-step self criticism session, a truly picaresque tale, a how-to book, a how-not-to manual, a tract on God and the nature of man, and a book of prayer. I cannot know how competent a chef Mr. Bourdain is, but I do know, from reading his prose, that he is a very fine writer and a humorist of the first order. Yes, he makes you smile through the tears. He makes you laugh while in pain. The reviews that this book has elicited from Amazon readers have been bi-polar, love-hate. Those who don't like the author call him a narcissist and a phony; a drug-addled fool, and an ignoramus. He is called a "New Yorker" in its pejorative sense; and a traitor. Some say the book is not worth its price. Hah! There is a short chapter (less than ten pages long) called "How to Cook Like a Pro" which alone justifies the price of the book. Bourdain gives far more than he takes. Tucked away in his chronicle of food adventures are dozens of slivers of profound wisdom, tiny truffle particles of divine knowledge that will enrich the life and the productions of anyone entering the kitchen with creative intents. Good reading. Practical advice. A useful pleasure - therefore a rarity.
Anthony Bourdain is my god June 13, 2000
7 out of 17 found this review helpful
Being a line cook in a dump for a year has taught me a thing or two about life in the resturaunt biz bourdain has taught me the rest. some say his book is an autobiography, i can see were one would say such athing, but if your not a cook then you wouldn't know what 30 tables of 4tops can do to a persons ego and mental status, most of all physical being. If you take a second look at the life of bourdain, you will see a man who is telling you the way of how it is, not just his life story but that of all chef's. The insain world of culinary arts is just that an art and he is teaching that fact to you and me. Bourdian has shown me what i can expect as i go to school this fall for C.A. and what will happen in the years to fallow. I have know the same pains as him, emotional and physical, scars never to go away, and friendships that will last forever, but at the end of each day were a little stronger in our self's. belivng more, and craving the next days aggonys. anthony bourdian is my best teacher, and a close friend (not personaly) in the fact that he'll has told me the way i should go with my life. and let me tell you, i can't wait thank you MR Bourdain Ethan Kalar St. Cloud, MN ekalar@yahoo.com
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