• Kitchen Confidential

  • Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly
  • By: Anthony Bourdain
  • Narrated by: Anthony Bourdain
  • Length: 8 hrs and 19 mins
  • 4.8 out of 5 stars (36,210 ratings)

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Kitchen Confidential

By: Anthony Bourdain
Narrated by: Anthony Bourdain
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Editorial review


By Seth Hartman, Audible Editor

WITH KITCHEN CONFIDENTIAL, ANTHONY BOURDAIN SPILLED HIS GUTS AND MADE HISTORY

Drawing from his experience and pedigree as a seasoned chef in New York City, Anthony Bourdain brings an honest, impassioned, and aggressively pretense-free perspective to this seemingly glamorous life. As a lifelong eater and obsessive patron of all types of cooking shows, Kitchen Confidential left a special impact on me.

Rather than providing a "view from the mountaintop," Bourdain meets the listener at eye level, narrating a brutally honest and relentlessly detailed account of life in the kitchen in his own voice. While I am sure he would hate to be described as such, Anthony Bourdain arguably created the punk rock, alternative bad boy aesthetic that has become a popular trope among celebrity chefs. Through this book, he spares no details recounting the long hours, strained relationships, drug abuse, and insomnia that colored his experiences working at some of the finest dining institutions in New York and beyond. While stories like this are more commonly told in today’s media landscape, Bourdain really kicked the doors open for public discourse about restaurant life.

While I love to be in the kitchen and think of myself as a decent cook, I still consider what goes on behind closed doors in a restaurant to be magical. After falling in love with Bourdain as a television personality, I thought I would try to deepen my connection with my burgeoning passion in the kitchen by listening to his memoir. I always loved Anthony Bourdain for his ability to "take off the gloves" when speaking about some of the industry’s best kept secrets. I honestly don’t think I would have the courage to push myself in the kitchen if it wasn’t for his sarcastic yet encouraging voice pushing me along. With his signature dry sense of humor and absolute refusal to muzzle himself, Kitchen Confidential is full of Bourdain’s almost dogmatic "dos and don’ts." For example, he absolutely refuses to eat fish on Mondays in New York City based on of what he knows about fish suppliers and when restaurants tend to buy stock. One of my favorite parts about this book is that it makes you not only a better home chef but a better restaurant-goer as well.

After his tragic demise in 2018, I felt something that I rarely feel from a celebrity death. Anthony Bourdain was a one-of-a-kind soul, an unparalleled talent, and a man who truly brought a never-before-seen look into his craft to the general public. This book encapsulates everything I love and admire about the man. While some people are put off by his blunt, profane, and occasionally jaded point of view, I think these qualities made him the greatest foodie there ever was.

While this memoir is certainly ideal for those wishing to understand more about the inner workings of the restaurant business, it has a very wide appeal. No matter if you are an industry professional, long time hobbyist (like me), or couldn't care less about haute cuisine, Bourdain's wisdom will reach you somehow. His musings on life, passion, addiction, and love are feelings we can all relate to one way or another. If you are looking to make a change in your life or are searching for some kind of creative inspiration, there is a lot of gold to be found here.

Continue reading Seth's review >

Publisher's summary

Recently, The New Yorker published chef Anthony Bourdain's shocking, "Don't Eat Before Reading This." Bourdain spared no one's appetite in this tell-all about what happens behind the kitchen door.

Now, the author uses the same "take-no-prisoners" attitude in his deliciously funny and shockingly delectable audiobook, sure to delight gourmands and philistines alike. From his first oyster in the Gironde, to his lowly position as a dishwasher in a honky-tonk fish restaurant in Provincetown, from the kitchen of the Rainbow Room atop Rockefeller Center, to drug dealers in the East Village, from Tokyo to Paris and back to New York again, Bourdain's tales of the kitchen are as passionate as they are unpredictable.

Kitchen Confidential will make your mouth water while your belly aches with laughter. You'll beg the chef for more, please.

Anthony Bourdain is the author of the novels Bone in the Throat and Gone Bamboo. This is his first work of nonfiction. He is the executive chef at Brasserie Les Halles in New York City.

Hear an exclusive interview with Bourdain.

©51
2000 Anthony Bourdain
(P)2000 Random House, Inc.

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Master Chef and Storyteller

This book in it's printed form was my introduction to Anthony Bourdain. Since then, I have become a loyal watcher of his television shows and exploits. He tells a story the way you want to hear it. It's like you're sitting across from him in person while he tells you and only you the events in his life. I did finish the book many years ago, and decided I needed to hear it from the man himself. I was not disappointed.

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A must for any kitchen geek

To hear Anthony Bourdain talk about food and the restaurant business is pure joy for anyone who ever appreciated a good meal or thought about feeling the rush and exhaustion of working in a kitchen.

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Kitchen Confidential

Humorous, tell it like it is account of the cooking/chef trade. Bourdain is an astute judge of character, who helps the listener really get inside the people who work in this field. Full of salty language, and profound respect for talented people who work hard. Loved every minute of it.

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Entertaining and funny!

Love Anthony's no-BS kitchen and life stories. What a wild life and an agile mind.

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Lots of good humor and great narration!

My husband and I listened together during long drives. it is very intertaining book for one that does not really have a plot :) We love Anthony, and the fact that he is narrating makes it even more fun - he has many talents! I highly recommend!

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Doesn't disappoint

If you could sum up Kitchen Confidential in three words, what would they be?

Classic Caustic Bourdain

What was one of the most memorable moments of Kitchen Confidential?

The description of his summer in the north east and introduction to the culinary world.

What about Anthony Bourdain’s performance did you like?

He stayed true to what you expect if you are a fan of his TV shows.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

I would not

Any additional comments?

If you are a fan of

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Tony is the best.

get back to work. dump the tv show, get ripped on the french side, back to the dutch side and start writting.

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Couldn’t put it down

Excellent in content and performance - only issue being that at the end of some chapters the phrases seem to get cut short/clipped before the following chapter begins abruptly.

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Compelling, irreverent, delicious.

Loved this book. "Ate it up". If you've ever had ANY interest in or experience in, the back of the house in a top restaurant, you'll find this book compelling.

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what a genius he was!

Anthony Bourdain will be missed. Not only he was a great chef and a raconteur, but a wordsmith and an intellect. His irony brings to life, and makes preposterously entertaining, what might have been (in other hands) simply a resume, a series of jobs. So long....you are in our minds and in our hearts.

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