kitchen confidential by anthony bourdain

Bourdain’s overarching hypothesis-that political and social inequality could be both better understood and significantly redressed through an investigation of what and how we eat-has become so widely accepted that it can be strange to reflect that just two decades previous these ideas were largely alien. By the time of his death, Bourdain had played a pivotal role in the mainstreaming and democratization of food culture, essentially bulldozing centuries-old elitist notions of fine dining by dint of his fierce advocacy and boundless enthusiasm. In the just over two years since his tragic death, Bourdain has taken on a near-mythic stature as an emissary for food culture, an individual whose far-flung televised travelogues evolved over time from carousing misadventures into full-blown celebrations of genuine cultural exchange. The Tony Bourdain show was headed for television. He was a ready-made star of the book tour circuit with a clear path forward. He was a world-building raconteur, whose handsome visage and wiry 6-foot-4 frame seemed factory-assembled for the biggest stage. All at once, the possibilities were endless, the implications exhilarating and terrifying. Bourdain’s prose was robust, witty, gossipy, outrageous, and informative. Flippant and funny, but vested with a deep reverence for his chosen field, the memoir tapped into a rich vein of industry lore and personal history. Brought forth by the boutique publishing house Ecco Press, Bourdain’s long-gestating, industry-disrupting, love-letter-cum-horror-show-confessional Kitchen Confidential became an immediate sensation. This is what Anthony Bourdain would have had us believe.īut in the spring of 2000, his sublimated literary ambitions suddenly caught up with and then quickly surpassed his cooking. At Les Halles-at last-he had found sustained success and something resembling stability.

He was 43 years old, rode hard and put up wet, a recovering addict with a number of debts and a penchant for finding trouble in failing restaurants across the city. Always a blessing and a curse, Bourdain’s restless mind continuously kicked the tires on other career avenues-Random House had published his Elmore Leonard–style culinary crime novel Bone in the Throat a few years previous-but by no means was he walking away from his calling in the kitchen. As late as 1999, Anthony Bourdain’s principal vocation remained his position as executive chef at the venerable but self-consciously middle-brow steak-frites joint Les Halles, on Park Avenue between 28th and 29th streets in Manhattan.

Kitchen confidential by anthony bourdain