I had a very vague idea about who Anthony Bourdain was before I picked up his first book Kitchen Confidential. I'm always on the lookout for something to read about restaurants or food production, and I remembered hearing that Bourdain first established himself as a writer before going on to star on television, so picking up this bargain bin paperback was an obvious choice. Kitchen Confidential originally came out in 2000 and how things have changed! My version included useful notations, forewords and afterwords that expanded on Bourdain's original work and made an effort to modernize some of the original work's idiosyncrasies. Bourdain's own handwriting lined the margins (from the grave no less) to inform me that squeegee bottles are no longer popular or that Madeira is not a required component of a sophisticated mise en place anymore.
Kitchen Confidential follows the beginning of Bourdain's career in New York City. He temps at a popular vacation destination restaurant and ends up studying at the Culinary Institute of America (the ambitiously abbreviated CIA). He works for every and any restaurant that offers him money and the status of chef: mob joints, doomed brasseries, huge chains and his own eccentric restaurant. Drugs are used, waitresses are mistreated and owners ridiculed. Les Halles - a traditional French restaurant in New York that has since closed - eventually offers him a permanent position as head chef. In a sober afterword, Bourdain reflects on a life of culinary adventures.
Kitchen Confidential was a big success in its day and catapulted Bourdain into a career in television, and it's no wonder. It's packed with hilarious anecdotes ("What do you know about meat?"), colourful personalities and an abundance of sex, drugs and rock and roll. Bourdain's band of crooks work the backroom kitchens of great and not that great restaurants, their irreverence and antics in contrast to the buzzing but dignified atmosphere of the restaurants themselves. Bourdain has to cope with a smashing hangover, missing produce deliveries, stealing waiters, wise guys and desperate owners on a daily basis. He makes restaurant work sound exciting and terrifying at the same time. Luckily, he's quick to dissuade hopefuls that kitchens are miserable places that pay poorly and rob you of your health and free time.
As said, Kitchen Confidential shows its age. Bourdain advises chef hopefuls that calling in sick is out of the question, no matter how high your fever. That sounds bonkers, especially now. He also quietly disparages women from working in restaurants (other than as waiters), because they supposedly can't cope with the daily debauchery and abuse. That view must have already been on its way out in 2000. Today, it sounds positively medieval. Despite its deficiencies, Kitchen Confidential manages to entertain. Bourdain is an able guide to the hospitality world. Just remember to take everything with a grain of salt.