I, Shane › Shane Adams’ personal weblog

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.

It’s a fitting close to this weekend.

Saturday turned out to be awesome. I woke up at 5 with the rain and lightning and was convinced we wouldn’t be able to golf. However, with some prayers, the weather cleared and by 10:00, the only thing we had to worry about at Royal Meadows was the wind.

Golfing was a lot of fun and then we joined some others for an 18-person poker tournament. But in order to give myself a challenge, I grilled 40+ cheeseburgers so Jake’s Man Day attendants would have something to nosh on.

The rest of Man Day was a blast. I finally had to call it a night at 12:30 shortly after I got everyone to the Brooksider. I hope everyone had fun.

Yesterday was a little more relaxed. We went to church, made lunch and I took a nice long nap. Last night, we spent some time at a friends’ house in their recently redone backyard, which made me insanely jealous to redo our backyard. We lazed around, watched the pilot of Iron Chef America from a few years ago, then turned in early.

It is, after all, Red Meat Day.

We’re going over to my parents’ house today. My dad returned from Dubai on Friday in time to ask me what I wanted to have for lunch today. He went and picked up my requested steak - a ribeye from McGonigals. So I’ll finally get to have what I missed for Jake’s birthday.

Three days left until my self-imposed meat boycott is over.

For those who are new to the game, in January, I challenged my blog readers to raise $500 to buy a dairy cow from Heifer International. The catch was that if the money was all raised by the end of the month that I would swear off all red meat until Memorial Day.

It’s the home stretch. I should have made my boycott until Memorial Day weekend so I could eat it tomorrow, but it’ll be like my last big challenge. And it will be a big challenge because we have a huge weekend planned.

More on that in a bit…

When I was growing up, my mom made homemade granola - the same recipe that my grandmother made for my dad when he was growing up. A couple months ago, my wife did something awesome…she started carrying on the legacy of my mom and grandmother by making me the same granola.

It must be said that I absolutely love this granola, mostly because it is half oats, half a combination of slivered almonds, sunflower seeds, pecans and other nutty awesomeness. Add some sesame seeds, honey, a little canola oil, cinnamon and a little love…GENIUS.

I love that my wife does this for me. She took it upon herself to learn the recipe, added a couple ingredients to make it even healthier without changing the taste…VOILA! Fiber-regularity in a sweet, tasty, nutty snack. It also tastes really good with yogurt.

This is just another reason why my wife is better than yours.

I’ve was in New Orleans Thursday through Saturday for a conference. As we drove back to the airport, I summed up the trip as such:

“I just can’t understand why anyone would want to live in New Orleans. I barely ever want to even visit here.”

And it’s the truth. Sure, the food is great (it really is) and the music is good, but the negatives vastly outweigh the positives there. The town has been very slow to recover from Hurricane Katrina, but frankly, I didn’t think it was that great before the disaster. Any major city that situates itself 2 to 6 meters below sea level isn’t making good decisions, if you ask me.

Add that to the overwhelming smell of sewage, the high violent crime rate (4 times the homicides of Kansas City), and the vast poverty and you’re looking at a city that isn’t really appealing to me.

The food is pretty darn good though.

The first night, we ate at Dickie Brennan’s Bourbon House, an upscale seafood place right on Bourbon Street. I ate raw oysters (teetering on the edge between gross and intriguing) and an absolutely amazing entree of crawfish-crusted Gulf fish (see below). That meal was by far the best I had, although the Shrimp Po-Boy I had at Landry’s for lunch the next day was pretty tasty too.

I’m glad to be home. We flew ExpressJet and had to actually walk out on the Tarmac to get on our plane. To call it small is an understatement. One seat, aisle, two seats. That’s it. The Bose QC2 Noise-Cancelling Headphones made the flight a lot easier. It was weird getting back from the 80 degree weather of Louisiana to the high 30 degree weather in KC. You gotta love the midwest.

Bobby Flay’s show on the Food Network is the wrong thing to watch when you’re hungry and you want to lose weight. We’ve now watched two straight shows and now I’m craving lasagna (episode 1) and sticky buns (episode 2).

My food addiction continues…

In case you didn’t hear me earlier, my favorite reality show on TV - Top Chef - returned tonight.

There were at least 5 occasions where I turned to Alli and said, “I LOVE THIS SHOW!!!!” Here’s why:

1. The first Quickfire Challenge. I totally predicted that it would be a deep-dish pizza challenge. I was shocked at some of the concoctions and kind of surprised that the didn’t pick an actual winner. No immunity for anyone.
2. Andrew. Christian Siriano would call this dude a Big Hot Fierce Mess. He swears. He’s a hothead. He’s the reason they have reality TV. Just an utter train wreck.
3. The Guest Judges. First, you have Rocco DiSpirito. This guy is thinking, “I had a show about a restaurant. It failed because I was a jerk. Now I’m judging these fools who can’t tell a Chicken Piccata from a Chicken Marsala.” Then, you have Anthony Freaking Bourdain. The original rock star chef. I love that guy. These dudes bring credibility to an already awesome show.
4. The Elimination Challenge. LeAnn Wong (of Season One) is now the food producer on the show and it’s her job to come up with all the challenges. She does a terrific job and I thought this challenge was a great one to start off the season. I liked the head-to-head aspect of it, especially, pitting my #2 up against his nemesis from the Quickfire. Loved it. Plus, the simplicity of the challenge really gave them all a chance to shine since they were all focusing on classic dishes.
5. Padma Lunchmeat. One of the best quotes of the night. Nice one, Alli.

Seriously people. Take the Food Network and reality shows. Mash them together and you get Top Chef. You cannot lose here, folks.

A couple months back, a friend of mine at work came to me with a project he’s been working on in his spare time - Kansas City Dining Specials.

What is KCDiningSpecials?

Visit KCDiningSpecials.com daily to discover new restaurants to try for Breakfast, Lunch, Happy Hour, and Dinner. It’s a website created for the Kansas City Metropolitan community to share their favorite local restaurant dining specials.

Kansas City Community - Useful

Visit KCDiningSpecials.com to quickly find dining specials for today, tomorrow, and well… any weekday at any location that is important to you. We hope that you’ll find the specials listed on the site so helpful that you’ll continue to visit, spread the word, and contribute by “Adding” your own favorite specials.

Kansas City Community - Driven

That’s right… YOU can contribute. The idea is that it’s community driven; Kansas City Community Driven. Who knows the best local area restaurant specials? YOU! Quality, taste-tested, patron approved specials can and should be provided by the folks who know.

Bet you didn’t know…

Every time you visit KCDiningSpecials.com you’re presented with the current day’s specials at every named location available. Click the location links on the right side of the page to view only the specials at the locations that are important to you. Create a bookmark once you’ve selected the locations that are relevant. Every time you visit the bookmark you’ll be presented the “today’s” specials at your favorite locations!

Congrats to Luke for his work on this site. I designed the logo for him and gave him web design consultation along the way, but the programming and Ruby on Rails ninjary is all him. I suggest you check out the site. If you know of specials in your area, add them.