Kitchen Confidential
You Only Go Around Once
Cooking is a craft, I like to think, and a good cook is a craftsman—not an artist.
Through Kitchen Confidential Anthony Bourdain recounts a deeply anecdotal and profanely authentic tale of culinary craftsmanship, the people who inhabit it, and what it means to live a life of vice and folly with a relentless passion for food.
Few memoirs achieve the same level of candid sobriety and entertaining insights Bourdain delivers in his first exposé that so righteously catapulted him into mainstream stardom. The condescendingly witty and self-deprecating sense of humor with which he boasts and bemoans the decades he spent kneedeep in the culinary trenches is familiar to those who have watched and embraced his travel shows for his contrarian, foul-mouthed demeanor.
It’s a book that opens your eyes to the worlds of fine-dining and not-so-fine-dining alike, the proposterous, stomach-churning absurdities that go on behind the scenes, and one charismatic albeit flawed man’s lifelong journey in making food and all the glories and pitfalls that come with it.
Perhaps the most useful takeaways from the book are the handy eating and cooking advice Bourdain shares in between chapters, which I’ve taken the liberty to summarize and list below.
Tips for Eating Out
- Order seafood from Tuesday to Thursday. Stay away from mussels unless you know the chef personally.
- Do judge a restaurant by its bathroom. Bathrooms are easy to clean; kitchens are not.
- Avoid the following when you eat out: brunch, well-done meats, hollandaise, and chicken.
- Look to the waiter to identify what’s good or bad on the menu. He could save your life with a raised eyebrow or sigh.
- Bourdain’s words to live by: you only go around once, so try everything.
Tips for Cooking
- One good chef’s knife is all you need. For tips on how to handle a knife, check out Jacques Pepin’s La Technique.
- A non-stick saute pan is essential. Never wash it, simply wipe it clean after each use, don’t use metal in it, don’t scratch it.
- Essential ingredients in the kitchen include but are not limited to: shallots, butter, garlic, stock, and demi-glace.
- You should garnish your food, because it takes little effort and zero talent to make your ordinary-looking food look good.
- Good food is most often simple food.
This post was originally published on my blog, where I share what I read and write. Say hello on Twitter @wikichen—you’ll make my day.
