Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly was a good read, but when finished, I was reminded June 8, 2018, was a bad day.
It was the day Anthony Bourdain died.
When I first heard the news, a million moments flashed through my mind, as I had been a fan of Anthony Bourdain through my teen years — being an avid watcher of Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations on the Travel Channel.
In No Reservations, within an episode, Bourdain would whisk you away to a foreign land, delivering truth and anecdotes from life along the way. A rougher, realist man, I think Anthony Bourdain provided a contrast to my virginal, religious Mormon upbringing.
I always craved to see what the other side was like and probably put some influence on Anthony Bourdain for my habit of smoking early in my 20’s. Bourdain made it cool, hip, and a gateway to the other side. I don’t put any blame on Anthony Bourdain for inviting me into the world of smoking — as I will forever have a special place in my heart for the dirty habit, even as a non-smoker.
Leaving no stone unturned, Anthony Bourdain similarly explores the restaurant and culinary worlds and their unexplored sides — in his bestselling book, Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly.
Table of Contents
Getting to Know Anthony Bourdain
Anthony Michael Bourdain lived to be 61 and was known as a bold, honest chef, author, and documentarian who covered travel, cuisine, culture, and humanity as a whole.
Bourdain was born in New York City (1956) and continued to graduate from The Culinary Institute of America, ran NYC kitchens, and first broke into the media world as a magazine writer — eventually releasing Kitchen Confidential in 2000. His other writings include A Cook’s Tour, Les Halles Cookbook, and novels Bone in the Throat and Gone Bamboo.
Anthony Bourdain’s series on Travel Channel, No Reservations, would eventually win multiple Emmys for its cinematography and content and had a run of nine seasons.
Between the Truthful Pages of Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly
Amongst the pages of Kitchen Confidential, you’ll find the confessions of a man who has seen it all. From kitchen disasters to elevated highlights, you’ll even find embedded treasures like the list of items needed for a standard mise-en-place setup, including:
- salt
- black pepper
- bread crumbs
- parsley
- oil
- white wine
- brandy
- chervil tops
- chives
- crushed tomato
- caramelized apple sections
- garlic confit
- chopped garlic
- chopped shallots
- butter
- tools and sauces
You start to see the kitchen world is a whole lot more complicated than one might first realize. I found a newfound reverence for those who prepare food; be prepared to know a lot more about a restaurant’s inner-workings after reading Kitchen Confidential, with your favorite cuisine questions answered.
Quickly averted from recipe notes to the next page, you’ll quickly find yourself in a whole different world.
Bourdain sharing quips and stories from his early beginnings working in restaurants, rawly sharing how drugs and other influences took a grip of his life at different moments. Restaurant work is a hard, enduring effort — and the coping comes in many forms; chaos, the main ingredient. Working in a restaurant; it is not for the faint of heart.
I feel like I know Anthony Bourdain more intimately now — and for that, I’m grateful.
Thank You, Anthony Bourdain
Anthony Bourdain, if there’s one thing I can thank you for, eternally — it would be thanking you for helping me think for myself.
To try the hard things. To explore.
In a world where nothing is perfect, we can find perfection in our beautiful errors, and that’s something beautiful Anthony Boudain left with me. I continue to accept myself and my faults and mend the differences I have with others. I no longer fear the unknown and seeing what I can gain by listening and learning from others.
He says it best when recommending a “give no shit” approach to life and business.
A sumptuous soul has gone too soon — RIP Anthony Bourdain.
