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Anthony Bourdain

Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly Audio CD – Unabridged, October 11, 2005

by Anthony Bourdain (Author, Reader)

10,776 ratings

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When Chef Anthony Bourdain wrote "Don't Eat Before You Read This" in The New Yorker, he spared no one's appetite, revealing what goes on behind the kitchen door. In Kitchen Confidential, he expanded the appetizer into a deliciously funny, delectably shocking banquet that lays out his twenty-five years of sex, drugs, and haute cuisine.

From his first oyster in Gironda to the kitchen of the Rainbow Room atop Rockefeller Center, from the restaurants of Tokyo to the drug dealers of the East Village, from the mobsters to the rats, Bourdain's brilliantly written and wonderfully read, wild-but-true tales make the belly ache with laughter.

Print length

7 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Random House Audio
Publication date

October 11, 2005
Dimensions

5.05 x 1.13 x 5.83 inches
ISBN-10

073933235X
ISBN-13

978-0739332351
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From the Inside Flap

Six cassettes, 9 hrs.
Read by the author
When Chef Anthony Bourdain wrote "Don't Eat Before You Read This" in The New Yorker, he spared no one's appetite, revealing what goes on behind the kitchen door. In KITCHEN CONFIDENTIAL, he expanded the appetizer into a deliciously funny, delectably shocking banquet that lays out his twenty-five years of sex, drugs, and haute cuisine.
From his first oyster in Gironda to the kitchen of the Rainbow Room atop Rockefeller Center, from the restaurants of Tokyo to the drug dealers of the East Village, from the mobsters to the rats, Bourdain's brilliantly written and wonderfully read, wild-but-true tales make the belly ache with laughter.

About the Author

ANTHONY BOURDAIN is the author of the novels BONE IN THE THROAT and GONE BAMBOO. He is the executive chef at Brasserie Les Halles in New York City.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Random House Audio; Unabridged edition (October 11, 2005)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Audio CD ‏ : ‎ 7 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 073933235X
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0739332351
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 8.2 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.05 x 1.13 x 5.83 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,398,671 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,435 in Gastronomy Essays (Books)
- #1,560 in Culinary Biographies & Memoirs
- #43,395 in Memoirs (Books)

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10,776 ratings

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Anthony Bourdain

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Chef, author, and raconteur Anthony Bourdain is best known for traveling the globe on his TV show Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown. Somewhat notoriously, he has established himself as a professional gadfly, bête noir, advocate, social critic, and pork enthusiast, recognized for his caustic sense of humor worldwide. He is as unsparing of those things he hates, as he is evangelical about his passions.

Bourdain is the author of the New York Times bestselling Kitchen Confidential and Medium Raw; A Cook’s Tour; the collection The Nasty Bits; the novels Bone in the Throat and Gone Bamboo; the biography Typhoid Mary: An Urban Historical; two graphic novels, Get Jiro! and Get Jiro!: Blood and Sushi and his latest New York Times bestselling cookbook Appetites. He has written for The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Times of London, Bon Appetit, Gourmet, Vanity Fair, Lucky Peach and many other publications. In 2013, Bourdain launched his own publishing line with Ecco, Anthony Bourdain Books, an imprint of HarperCollins. He is the host of the Emmy and Peabody Award-winning docuseries Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown on CNN, and before that hosted Emmy award-winning No Reservations and The Layover on Travel Channel, and The Taste on ABC.

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5

10,776 global ratings

5 star		74%
4 star		19%
3 star		5%
2 star		1%
1 star		1%

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Ines Niemeyer Smrz

Great read. Read it first twenty years ago, just finished reading it again.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 28, 2023

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Loved it because it showed me what goes on in the kitchens of restaurants.
I highly recommend Anthony Bourdain’s book and feel sad when remembering that he hanged himself.

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Amygirl

Anthony Bourdain is an insane genius walking amongst us regular folk!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 3, 2023

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Just got the book a few days ago and Anthony Bourdains mind, expressiveness for his craft and his pure genius kitchen skills..keep you on the line! This book is a raw look into the underbelly of "kitchens and kitchen staff all around the world" You wont regret reading this book. After watching his documentary of his life..you realize this troubled soul was a pure genius inside and out of the kitchen!

One person found this helpful

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Engrossing memoir from an author, traveler, and chef

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 22, 2018

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Kitchen Confidential is Anthony Bourdain’s break-out book and memoir of his twenty-five years working in the restaurant business, mostly in New York City. Published before his second career as a TV personality and world traveler (most notably on the Travel Channel’s No Reservations) it is a candid depiction of one man’s life following his passion, and his desires. It is a gritty, grubby, way-honest, depiction of life as a restaurant worker that tells of sex, drugs, and cooking, at a level of which many of us would not dream. At least, most of us wouldn’t imagine that the life in restaurant kitchens is really the way this book describes it. It is evident, though, that what the book depicts is restaurant life as Mr. Bourdain experienced it. He makes no bones about his own biases and proclivities for walking on the wild side that color his story. Such honesty and introspection make this far more than a book about cooking.

Kitchen Confidential is well written and it maintained my interest even though I’m not into cooking. Anyone who is will certainly get much from it, but I was drawn mostly from having watched Mr. Bourdain on TV and connecting with his love of travel and of good food. Because his book is more about the larger issues of life than cooking, it touched me on an existential level much as a movie about baseball would that is about more than baseball (e.g., Field of Dreams).

Mr. Bourdain begins his story by recounting his encounters with good food as a child. Tasting vichyssoise and a raw oyster for the first time, struck him as experiences beyond just eating. They were examples of highs that could be reached by an ardent thrill-seeker. They also laid the groundwork that made his landing a job as restaurant dishwasher an inciting incident that he pursued to eventually become a line cook and later a chef.

I was really struck with the level of testosterone-driven, debauchery and near-criminality he describes in the restaurant kitchen. It’s more like what I would expect on a construction site. Actually, there may be similarities.

Several of the book’s chapters are devoted to characters Mr. Bourdain encountered in his restaurant career. These tended to be drug addicts, thieves, hedonists, and criminals, though many had a passion, or just the sheer aptitude, for either cooking or working in a professional kitchen. As contradictory as that sounds, it seems as if such environments are persistently common in the restaurant world. At least that’s what Mr. Bourdain avers and I take him as an authority.

This kitchen “underbelly” was attractive to Mr. Bourdain, and he describes it as one he understood and in which he thrived. It led him to some bad decisions and some bad addictions. He is very candid about the loose lifestyle that left him with a heroin addiction. Even so, it is clear that his love of the culinary arts kept him going, and that it drives many of those workers who might skip out on rent payments but are able to produce the most divine of, say, baked breads.

Indeed, in describing his life when he had reached the level of chef and kitchen commander, Mr. Bourdain gives us a compelling and intense vision of what that life is like. In fact, he almost goes too far in describing a typical day for him. Basically, he worked from before-sunup to after midnight to keep his kitchen running. He describes mind-numbing activity, dealing with the problems and personnel threatening his mission to get good food to customers, juggling a thousand variables. His description carries long (”A Day in the Life”), but being the good author he was, his description served to highlight points he makes later.

Seeing things, even his own life, from a higher perspective, he was able to appreciate and admire someone who did things differently from him and still achieve success (”The Life of Bryan”). Also, towards the end of the book, he further nails his love of sensation and travel—experiencing the exotic— that led to his second, televised, career (”Mission to Tokyo”).

Anthony Bourdain’s literary and video work is not for everyone, but for many, including me, he remains an inspiration. In Kitchen Confidential we see, not only his love for culinary art, but his love for creativity (he often said that he considered himself a storyteller).

Despite all the debauchery, bad attitudes, bad decisions, and chasing highs, he was a lover of life and squeezed every sensational drop from it. An excellent writer, he was able to step back from his own life and observe it, pulling lessons from its episodes. Kitchen Confidential was the watershed of Mr. Bourdain’s life, marking the end of his chef career and the beginning of his traveler-personality career. At the book’s close, though, he didn’t seem to anticipating that second act. It is to our good fortune and inspiration that there was one.

8 people found this helpful

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JDH

Great insight to who’s cooking our meals

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 21, 2023

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Great writing good insight on who’s cooking our food he’s a great storyteller ps miss him

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David M. Orbach

A Window on the Business and A Window into the Man

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 30, 2022

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I knew AB from his television shows and, of course, he was the coolest person I had ever seen on TV. Funny. Intelligent. Daring. Flawed. Quirky. Human. What I didn't know of course was his journey and his amazing skill set and vast knowledge. The fact that he can display all facets of his life with with such self-deprecating humor and machine guy "here's the unvarnished truth" delivery is a joy. The overlay of course is his passing and the fact it was at his own hand makes me shake my head in disbelief. I love this book and have laughed out loud more times than I can remember. I learned so much from this book about restaurants, business, the human condition and a better understanding of AB. The best parts. Thank you, AB.

2 people found this helpful

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Michael D.

His best and most popular book

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 27, 2022

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I had written a review of this book, and before I had a chance to post it he died from his own hand. I deleted the review simply because I hate the entire knee-jerk adoration of the recently dead, esp. in relation to famous people. This book has a lot of gravitas, sway, and swagger. It does explain a lot about the author. I became interested in this book because the author was interviewed and name dropped The Cramps, Hunter S. Thompson and Jim Carroll Band. So, I thought okay if he's into those three things he can't be a douche bag. I love the book. People. Alcohol is a depressant. Depression or Depressive states get amplified by alcohol. Anthony searched around the world for happiness and never found it anywhere. Don't weep about this guy. Learn from his mistakes, he would shout that to you from another world. don't search the internet to blame someone/anyone for his sad end. Read the book. and listen for his message. It's in this book if you pay attention.

7 people found this helpful

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D. Vick

Great Book, Not-So-Great Version

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 30, 2022

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Anthony Bourdain was an excellent author, and Kitchen Confidential is a tour de force. Unfortunately, this Kindle version doesn’t live up to the high standard. The e-book is full of typos and typesetting errors that don’t exist in the actual printed versions. It’s as if the Kindle version was transcribed by someone who doesn’t actually speak English, or has at best only a rudimentary understanding of proper typesetting and written English syntax.

3 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

abookandadram

Kitchen Confidential is the undisputed king of the tell-all culinary autobiography.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on March 8, 2021

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Written by Anthony Bourdain in 2000, Kitchen Confidential was the catalyst that set Bourdain on his way to food journalism royalty.

Set out in menu terms, we are taken on a journey from starter to desserts and coffee through the life of a child who discovers a love for food to a seasoned chef in the heart of New York City. There is nothing too indecent to be described by Bourdain, whether it’s why not to eat a Monday fish special in a restaurant, to the drug-addled life of a mercenary chef. This is a large part of the appeal. We are not seeing the dreamy make-believe world of TV cooking here, we are being shown a glimpse behind the curtain of what it really means to earn your stripes in a professional kitchen.

The only real fault I could find is that there is a fair bit of jumping around on the ‘menu’. What starts as a fairly easy to follow chronological tale of becoming a chef suddenly and without warning starts to take detours. Now I’m not saying the detours are unwelcome but they certainly feel out of place. Things like a day in the life of a chef and the equipment that is worth buying for a home cook are spotted in the middle of otherwise fairly anecdotal parts of the book, but I can’t help but feel may have been more cleverly grouped together or served more as a palate cleanser between menu items.

This is essential reading for those who love an episode of Kitchen Nightmares or who work in the profession, even just for those who love a good tale of debauchery told through neo-gonzo journalism. If you want a true, honest account of what it’s like to work in the world of professional cuisine, you really need look no further than Kitchen Confidential.

12 people found this helpful

Ben

Culinary Adventures

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on July 22, 2020

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Mr Bourdain comes across as something of a tortured soul totally at odds with most aspects of being a regular functioning human being, this in itself is why I love this book soo much. He has a gift for story telling and self effacing behavior that I find very appealing in a writer and for that matter a person. Very true to himself.

The book fires along at great pace through his life starting from a brief look at his childhood and some of his formulative inspirations, interspersed with foodie bits, all the way through his early cooking years in Provincetown and what became a very chequered career filled with full on substance fuelled misadventures. Dealing with life on the fringes he stumbles from one mad job\situation to the next as he struggles with his inner demons and various addictions. Carving up a reputation as a force to be reckoned with he crashes his way through the new york culinary scene leaving a trail of destruction in his wake think Fear And Loathing and your on the right tracks.

What I find most appealing about this book is how he comes across as having a lot of depth of personality and is able throughout to be reflective, understanding on a deeper level his potential, regularly defacing his own bad behaviour showing growth and understanding of his flaws despite being hopelessly bound by them as many of us are, (speaking personally). He is great at describing time and place making this reader feel and sense the energy of the life. He meets some fascinating, darkly charming characters with lots of funny, wicked moments and tales. Even though I have no doubht he made a lot of mistakes and upset a few people on route. I didnt have him down as a bad or malicious person at any stage, he did what was necessary to survive in a difficult business and survive he did with gusto! This versatility is perhaps one of his greatest strengths, his ability to adapt and keep rolling on. I found him also to show a deeper understanding of the human condition, what makes us all tick or motivations and drives, out of this awareness comes a kindness and sense of humility that I found appealing in his character. All in all a very entertaining book!

6 people found this helpful

Paul Shaw

Not the version of the book actually shown.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on March 30, 2019

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I feel a bit mean giving 3 stars but, as a matter of principle, I think it's important that the product received is what the customer reasonably thinks they have ordered. Apart from the photo on the front cover, as advertised on Amazon, is a good one, the newer book I actually received, as it turned out, is the "Insider's Edition". Unusually this means the author had literally scribbled over some of the pages in felt tip and these markings had been retained for the print. I got used to it but given the choice I'd rather have had the unadulterated version.

We need to know what we are buying based on seller information.

16 people found this helpful

last year's girl

The soul of the man fizzes out of the pages

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on June 23, 2019

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“Your body is not a temple – it’s an amusement park.” The book that launched a man from jobbing chef to beloved TV personality pulls no punches about life in the trenches of a professional kitchen – and while the language and behaviours that Bourdain swears do not discriminate should be a turn-off, his very soul fizzes up out of the pages of this book in a way that will stick with you. The passages I highlighted: a very practical one about shopping for pans (go for the heaviest ones); and one on writing (“writing anything is a treason of sorts”) which shows up my chosen profession for the nonsense that it is and brought tears to my eyes. Be warned: the “Department of Human Resources” chapter should come with a note for its frank, dispassionate discussion of suicide, which shook me to my toes after a recent loss, and given how Bourdain’s own story ended.

8 people found this helpful

Amazon Customer

Left us too soon! Fantastic book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on July 18, 2022

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Fantastic book. If you love food and cooking then you will truly enjoy this book. It’s probably one of the most entertaining and well written books I’ve read in a long time. It does have some strong vocabulary but I thought it was brilliantly written.
I absolutely love it. Such a shame he left us so soon. He was an incredibly resilient individual full of life and energy!

3 people found this helpful

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Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly Audio CD – Unabridged, October 11, 2005

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