Kitchen Confidential

Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly

By: Anthony Bourdain

Narrated by: Anthony Bourdain

Length: 8 hrs and 19 mins

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.

A master not of writing/cooking but connections.

Bourdain's youthful rebel-outlaw flair and sentimental-in-spite-of-being-cynical outlook are cranked up to his most showman-like best in a Gonzo-inspired romp from his early days as a grunt in a greasy spoon to his flagship battalion at Les Halle. The undercurrent of his autobiographical analysis of the line cook gone chef experience pervades as Tony's desire to emulate the swashbuckling adventures of Tin Tin and and the ruffians at his first fryer job decked out in gold hooped earrings and period-accurate venereal diseases of the mariners of yore is present in his passionate pronouncements on his various lines in the sand. Indeed much of the "point" here is to lambaste, with white-hot truth, the whole ordeal of "making the cut" in the culinary world. His dark and prickly presentation belies a sincere devotion not only to good food, but to his pack. This consisted of the merry band of culinary warriors gunning down hordes of voracious and detestable customers under his command, an allusion to the cohesiveness and camaraderie of a military unit or pirate crew. He seems to have a keen understanding of what makes a food experience matter: human connection. His genuine hatred of nearly every aspect of Adam the master baker/slob is raw and real yet he makes damn sure you understand that when it was worth dealing with, it was REALLY worth dealing with. His appreciation for the networking required between bakers butchers and bartenders formed a loose and dysfunctional expanded family that, despite its quirks, made all the bullshit worth enduring to be a part of that world. A truly entertaining read and valuable insight into a great street philosopher worth pondering! This was my first inspiration for becoming a traveler and writing myself.

Miss this voice.

It's so hard to listen to him tell stories now and yet you find yourself needing a Tony fix now that he's gone. The man was a talent with story telling, descriptive speaking and an amazing chef. The world lost a truly gifted soul.

it's the truth about kitchen life

Anthony Bourdain tells it like it is.

kitchen life is brutal, all the hours and hard work put in the food, some people will never know.

overall 8/10

A wonderful storyteller

No sugar coding, honest, funny and from the heart. This is Tony. He will be miss.

loved it

Anthony Bourdain only gets better at his narration with time. A lovingly dirty bird's eye view into the culinary world.

Unexpected Excellence

A gritty well-written saga of the restaurant industry delightfully narrated by the author. A real gem.

Miss you Tony.

Hearing his voice again brings back a flood of emotions every time I get in the car.

Great, accurate portrayal!

Very funny, entertaining, and educational. Being in the business, I can relate to a lot of it!

Restaurants won’t be the same

After listening to this I can’t help but wonder what is going on in the bowels of a restaurant I am sitting at waiting for my order to arrive anticipating the first bite.. it scares me but also gives me a thrill that in some way I take solace that Anthony has opened my eyes to new food and new experiences... you will be great missed...

He is missed

When I heard the news of death, I went straight to my wish list and hit buy. I wasn’t disappointed. He’s irreverent, disdainful, obnoxious and humble by turns and humanity is a little less for having lost him too soon. Listen to it. You won’t be let down.