Review - Kitchen Confidential - 8/10

To sum up this book, I really like the summary that was done by the Amazon.com reviewer.

"Most diners believe that their sublime sliver of seared foie gras, topped with an ethereal buckwheat blini and a drizzle of piquant huckleberry sauce, was created by a culinary artist of the highest order, a sensitive, highly refined executive chef. The truth is more brutal. More likely, writes Anthony Bourdain in Kitchen Confidential, that elegant three-star concoction is the collaborative effort of a team of 'wacked-out moral degenerates, dope fiends, refugees, a thuggish assortment of drunks, sneak thieves, sluts, and psychopaths,' in all likelihood pierced or tattooed and incapable of uttering a sentence without an expletive or a foreign phrase."

At one point in my life I really thought I would want to some day own a restaurant.  After watching reality restaurant shows on TV, I was cured of that absurd idea and this book just makes that initial inclination totally laughable.  What was I thinking!

I reviewed other books of Tony Bourdain on this blog and I stated before that I think this guy is a closet intellectual.  The fact that he is such a captivating writer yet, gleaning from this book, a total degenerate druggy is totally amazing.

It just goes to show that you are never too far gone to make something of your life.  Come to think of it, that is great metaphor for Christ's love for us.  No matter how far down the wrong path you go, God can always call you and use you for something special.  Not to say that Tony would agree with all this religious stuff.

There is always room for redemption with God.

I must say though, this book really pushes the limit of what I can stomach in fowl language in a book.  I could never recommend this book to someone without warning them of the totally filthy putrid language presented in this book.  I actually had to skip one chapter which he described in intricate detail the fowl restaurant jargon that is used across America.

A side from the language, this book is a great read.  To me autobiographies are always interesting and when you have such a good writer as Tony, it makes this genre all the better.