Books

Day 13: Kitchen Confidential

An absolute treasure. I listened to the audiobook this time, read by Bourdain himself, which I strongly recommend.

It popped out of that magical overlap of eras where the artist’s craft has fully matured but the artist’s pathos has not yet been quenched by the validation of great acclaim.

In other words, it’s a masterfully written book with the energy and intensity of youth. He more or less disowned it in his later years, but there’s a good reason why it outperforms his later, more sophisticated, more emotionally mature work.

It works as a coming of age memoir, as industry gossip, as food writing, as travel writing, etc. he could have written about tech, history, interest rates, whatever and I still would have gobbled it up.

If you liked his shows but haven’t read it, it’s mandatory reading. If you just like good writing or eating at restaurants, it’s mandatory reading. It’s mandatory reading.

Five stars.

I recommend his Medium Raw to help with the comedown.

one hour into the audiobook and i’m hooked. the narration is amazing. a few things so far have left a mark.

- story telling 10/10. i’m in awe
- imitation of people in the story 11/10
- cooking is a craft, more than it’s an art. performing the same thing with precision and dedication every single time is more important than once in a while perfection. 
- never eat seafood on sun/mon at restaurants (prob not true any more)
- never eat hollandaise at restaurants (i actually like eggs benedict)

I love him, have not read this book but have seen almost all his documentaries.