Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly
by Anthony Bourdain
RATING: 8 out of 10

Anthony Bourdain is chef-cool for a lot of reasons. He gets mad respect in the community of chefdom, although many may only recognize him from his excursions on the Travel Channel. The truth is, back in the day, he was a chef at Brassiere Les Halles in New York City, the culmination of a food career that is so degenerate and depraved that it would make some sailors blush.

This middle-class-to-well-off lad “with the French name” has held every job in the kitchen, from dishwasher to line cook all the way up to executive chef and now, “Chef-at-large” (whatever that means). Along the way, mistakes were made, mostly due to excessive cocaine and heroin use, but Bourdain somehow managed to come out alive.

Kitchen Confidential is - at its core - the autobiography of one fantastically interesting character. However, along the way, Bourdain manages to skewer, slice, dice and whatever-other-cooking-euphemism-you-prefer the restaurant business, exposing what has been his experience up to 2000 (when the book was originally published). He pulls no punches (divulging the secret to never order fish on Monday and doesn’t like Emeril all that much) and writes lovingly of the debauched behavior of kitchen staffers (sex, drugs, etc.).

People like Anthony Bourdain are truly amazing. Here is a guy who is well-respected as a chef (although he would admit he can’t hang with the Eric Riperts and the Tom Colicchio) yet manages to tell a story that not only totally compelling, but also brilliantly written. You can hear the sounds (usually curse words in Spanish) in Bourdain’s ears, smells the aromas of his kitchen; it’s written so well that you can almost taste the food.

There was a time in my life where I wanted to be a chef. I think it’s one of the most amazing crafts and that great chefs are truly artists of the highest kind because they have the ability to touch every single one of your senses. After reading Kitchen Confidential, I don’t. What a life these guys lead…

I really liked the book a lot. If you like Bourdain or you watch Top Chef (my favorite reality show) or a lot of Food Network programming, I suggest you pick up the book.

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I have a new reality TV obsession. I bow to thee, Top Chef, O King of Reality TV.

Here’s the deal. I never wanted to be THAT GUY. You know THAT GUY…he’s the one who watches all sorts of bad reality television and can’t help but spout off about it on a regular basis. But I am THAT GUY.

The truth is…the only mainstream reality that I watch is the new Season of The Apprentice. The rest of the reality TV that I watch resides on that station in the middle of the numbers called BRAVO. Owned by NBC, Bravo came to recognition originally with interesting shows like Inside the Actor’s Studio with James Lipton (brilliantly lampooned by Will Ferrell years back on SNL). Then came Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. That show was kind of the Tipping Point for the network, which followed it by Heidi Klum’s Project Runway (a show I can’t watch, but that Alli absolutely loves). As the Project Runway season came to a close, they began advertising a show “from the producers of Project Runway” called Top Chef.

Now, I LIKE cooking shows…I don’t love them, but I like them enough to sit and watch Boy Meets Grill with Bobby Flay in about 3 hour blocks if they are running a marathon of shows and there is nothing else on. But Top Chef intrigued me.

Then, Bravo embraced the awesomeness that is the iTunes Music Store and offered the Pilot episode for download through their video store. I thought that was a brilliant move on their part (one that NBC subsequently copied with its show Conviction, a show I downloaded, but never watched). I downloaded the initial episode and I was totally hooked.

What makes Top Chef so completely genius is what makes reality television so popular. THE CHARACTERS. Depsite the fact that they are “real people”, they aren’t exactly what one would call “normal”. There are some of the largest egos and biggest train wrecks ever on that show and I love it for that.

And it is a really interesting show, too. There are some extremely talented (albeit very eccentric) chefs on the show and I have already found myself rooting for my favorite (Harold) and rooting against the “villain” (Steven). It’s just really compelling television.

As much as I hate to admit it.

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