Michele Decoteau
micheledecoteau@verizon.net
Book Review
Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain
When I was selecting a book for November’s Newsletter, I wanted to choose a book that was food related. I was thinking about something along the complex and richly textured Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel or the funny and sweet The Bride Wore Chocolate by Shirley Jump. Each of these books starts chapters with a recipe to set the stage for the coming action. What I ended up with was Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential. Both memoir and expose, it is a great non-fiction read and will cure you of any thoughts you ever had of being a professional chef!
In Kitchen Confidential he exposes the underbelly of the restaurant business and the colorful stories of his own experiences as he becomes one of American’s most widely recognized chefs. This book is not for the faint of heart or for anyone who eats out often! Never eat fish on Monday – is but one pithy piece of advice he offers and he holds nothing back explaining why you should never eat the chef’s special or eat lunch at a dinner restaurant. He tells stories of drugs, sex, sexual harassment, employee theft, and bribery. He distains vegetarians, prudes, crooks, and celebrity chefs.
This book is also about life and his hopefully not unique attitude he sums up with: “The body is not a temple: it is an amusement park.” His love of food and cooking is evident on every page and never so well described as when he, after many years as a chef, learns how to cook pasta. When done well, with the freshest of ingredients and careful attention to detail, you can create a thing of beauty and sublime taste. Kinda like life.
##
This originally appeared in the Mom Matters November 2007 newsletter.
