Bourdain speaks to both part of you that always wanted to be a professional chef, and the part of you that knows better.
|
Shawn Roarke is a freelance writer in Keyport, NJ.
|
|
July 2005
|
|
Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly
By Anthony Bourdain
Bourdain, the executive chef at Les Halles restaurant in New York City, manages to inspire and revolt at the same time with his memoir of more than two decades of as a professional chef. Sure, details about the dirty conditions of many top kitchens, the revelations about the use of sub-standard foods and the litany of vices shared by members of many of the world’s top kitchens will shock—and likely offend—many readers. But behind an obvious and sometimes sophomoric attempt to titillate with the recounting of salacious post-work hijinks and tawdry gossip, is a palpable love affair with the art of cooking. Bourdain’s recollections of falling in love with food -- after trying oysters for the first time on a family trip to Paris, no less—will resonate with anyone who has a passion for good food and its creation. In the end, it is those type of insights from Bourdain that carry the day in the eminently readable offering.
—A favorite book of Shawn Roarke
|
