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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: 596
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:
Good Job Chef! June 13, 2000
7 out of 10 found this review helpful
For anyone who has ever been "on the line" in either the restaurant, hotel or club business, Tony Bourdain's book has got to strike some terribly hilarious, regrettable, passionate, degenerate and, most of all, familiar chords with you. If you haven't been where Tony's been, the world he describes might seem a little outrageous and far-fetched; but the honest truth from one who lived a lot of what Bourdain describes is that the characters he so lovingly talks about in his book are in almost every way, the characters I worked with for over 25 years. I know them all! He tells it just like it is. Bourdain has almost a reverent regard for the the men and women who ply their craft well and without delusions of grandeur,day in day out,on the cooking lines of the world--- regardless of what psychological abnormalities, bad habits,or sexual idiosincracies they might be afflicted with. He also loves food, as is obvious in his passionate description of Scott Bryan's food; and the wonderful cinematic tour of the Tsukiji(Tokyo's central fish market). GOOD JOB CHEF! And try to cut down a little on the booze--- as it will help a with the excrutiating muscular aches in your legs.
 realistic to a tee June 12, 2000
6 out of 8 found this review helpful
I have just finished this book and I loved it.I have been a chef for 20 years and i have seen all this and more in that time.I am still howling about the hidden side towels in the ceiling.How many times have I seen that.This book really discribes what goes on in the heat of battle on a busy night.The feeling of being "weeded"giving the well done steak a "little love"in the microwave.I especilly enjoyed the chapter"a day in the life"that is my day to a tee right down to spinning out the next days prep list in your head as you drift off to sleep after a twelve hour day I will be passing this book onto my line cooks and I am sure that they will enjoy It as much as I did.Im sure that many people will be shocked by the vulgarity and discriptions of "selling the old seefood at brunch"but it is all true.For people who have never been in "dantes inferno"during a busy rush.When the orders are pouring in,when the greese trap backs up,when the saute cook cuts his hand wraps it with duct tape and fires the salmon without missing a beat.The pressure is unbelivable.That is why cooks are so crazy.And dont kid yourself.We are all a little crazy.We have to be to survive.There is a saying in the kitchen."If you dont love it get out now.You will end up hating it"I recomend this book to any cook out there.He or she will enjoy it and see a little bit of themselves in it.By the way I pull hot sizzle pans out of the oven with my bare hands all the time and my cooks love it
 Kitchen Confidential June 11, 2000
20 out of 43 found this review helpful
A self aggrandizing celibration of dysfunctional personal and workplace behavior with little to say about kitchens or cooking and alot to say about the authors supposed coolness. This book is truly a waste of time.
Awesome book if your a cook June 9, 2000
2 out of 6 found this review helpful
This book was a wonderful tale about the culinary arts. This scholar of the cooking world is educated in the business and in the REAL BUSNESS
Oh indeed, the restaurant industry is a beautiful place! June 9, 2000
10 out of 11 found this review helpful
Bourdain writes about the passion of the kitchen (and the passion that happens sometimes inside it). Having been in the industry since I was 15 (but not much behind the line) I have been in the trenches of the restaurant, and seen many a weirder thing in the kitchen. For those who have a passion for life and like a book to be more than what it's cover suggests - you will enjoy reading Bourdain's revealing look at how he got started, his memories of his early childhood of trying, then learning to love the weirdest of foods, that as adults we love to love! There is nothing like a memory to set you straight about why you pursued a career you've grown to love. I own my own restaurant where luckily nothing so tawdry has gone on but still I too have my restaurant and hotel stories. To find other storytellers in the industry writing more about what goes on in the back of the house stirs me, as I am sure it does others. Refreshing it is not to read the frou frou drizzle of certain Celebrity Puppet "Chefs" who could not work behind the line if there life depended on it. I am glad to see someone putting it down so eloquently, yet so drenchingly honest. As an owner (and I always a very honest restaurant employee), I highly recommend the last chapter "So you want to be a Chef." Every restaurateur, chef (and those pursuing chefdom) and consultant should have this book! If you have ever been in the industry and been burned (yes, really burned) by a chef or "broiler boy," you will live in the pages with Bourdain. I have recommended this to every friend I have from the field, as there is a certain kinship that occurs with your fellow garcons, chefs, managers, etc. and Bourdain brings all of those tales to you on a beautiful plate to feast upon. And it by far is the best book on my night table this year. Cheers and Salut!
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