Anthony Bourdain's "Kitchen Confidential."
"I'll be right here. Until they drag me off the line.
I'm not going anywhere.
I hope.
It's been an adventure.
We took some casualties over the years.
Things got broken. Things got lost.
But I wouldn't have missed it for the world."
Thus is the conclusion of Anthony
Bourdain's "Kitchen Confidential."
Though now a household name, Anthony Bourdain
did not achieve mainstream notoriety
until he was almost 50 years old. A
career chef whose resume included stints
at some of the most acclaimed
restaurants in New York City, he was a
man respected among his peers for his
deep reverence for the culinary arts as
well as his acerbic, biting criticisms of
the foodie and celebrity chef craze
that rose to prominence in the 1990s
thanks to the likes of figures including
Emeril Lagasse and Bobby Flay.
Now before you double check to make sure you're
watching the correct channel, yes this
video will still examine a written work.
That work is Bourdain's 2000 memoir,
"Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly."
Please sit back and
enjoy today's edition of Lit Tips.
In 1998 Anthony Bourdain was named
executive chef at the Manhattan-based
French restaurant Brasserie Les Halle.
He had already published two works of fiction:
1995's "Bone in the Throat"
and 1997's "Gone Bamboo."
Both were heavily inspired by the pulp and noir novels of
the post war years
and neither received much attention.
His non-fiction piece
"Don't Eat Before Reading This"
was published in "The New Yorker" in April, 1999.
It explored the seedy underside of the restaurant business
and would serve as the thematic and stylistic template for "Kitchen Confidential."
Bourdain portrays the culinary world as
a rich counterculture with an
unmistakable allure.
His propulsive, stream-of-consciousness prose as he
shares anecdotes, observations, commentary,
musings, and his always right-to-the-point
opinions gives the reader a sense of
being right there on the line during the
dinner rush.
"Kitchen Confidential" marked a radical shift in the public's perception of gourmet dining.
Not one to mince words,
Bourdain shatters the refined, illusory
facade high-end establishments present
to their customers.
Taking inspiration from George Orwell's 1933 memoir,
"Down and Out in Paris and London"
with its portrayal of Parisian kitchen staffers
and travelogue descriptions of metropolitan life.
Bourdain strikes an impressive balance
between his almost religious
dedication to good food and the often
profane nature of the individuals behind
its preparation.
No matter how illustrious, chic, or distinguished a
restaurant appears from the dining room,
Bourdain gleefully reveals, it may as
well be taken as an absolute certainty
that behind the kitchen doors is a ragtag
assembly of
ex-cons, junkies, sex fiends, drunks, freaks, and con men
preparing your
meal.
And should you choose to join one of these modern pirate crews,
prove yourself able to put up with the early
weeks, months, years of abuse, insults, long
hours and low pay.
If you hold your resolve and come out the other side
accepted as one of them,
Bourdain insists these are some of the greatest people
you'll ever have the pleasure of knowing.
"Assume the worst. About everybody.
But don't let this poisoned outlook affect
your job performance. Let it all roll off
your back. Ignore it.
Be amused by what you see and suspect.
Just because someone you work with is a
miserable, treacherous, self-serving,
capricious and corrupt asshole shouldn't
prevent you from enjoying their company,
working with them or finding them entertaining.
Now is this to suggest that
all these descriptors apply to "all"
members of the restaurant business?
Of course not.
But taking in the book's
catalogue of the decades of Bourdain's own
subjective experience, it is a safe bet
that there is no shortage of these
sordid but lovable types involved.
Yet "Kitchen Confidential" would not be worthy
of such praise were it merely a
celebration of debauchery and
recklessness.
For all the wild stories, and there are plenty:
Bourdain and his
sous-chef kicking off each workday by
pouring oil over a kitchen counter
before tossing a match onto it while
blasting at "The End" by The Doors in homage to "Apocalypse Now,"
a hopeless addict astoundingly blessed with the ability
to bake the best bread Bourdain says he's ever tasted,
Bourdain sardonic jabs at naive restaurant owners
who think they can
treat their business as a hobby,
there is always an undercurrent of
genuine enthusiasm and passion
for the craft of cooking.
With the overnight
success of "Kitchen Confidential,"
Bourdain took full advantage of his
newfound fame.
Until his tragic death in 2018, he dedicated himself to
bringing his interests in food and culture to a
wide audience through his television
shows "A Cook's Tour," "No Reservations,"
"The Layover," and "Parts Unknown."
A follow-up to
"Kitchen Confidential," "Medium Raw" was
published in 2010 and found Bourdain
reflecting on how his life and career
had changed in the decade following his
breakthrough work.
He even dabbled in graphic novels,
collaborating with DC
Comics artists to create
the "Get Jiro!" series in 2012 and again in 2015.
Perhaps Bourdain's most significant legacy
is that he introduced the concept of
cooking as an art form to a general
populace that had never stopped to think
of it as such.
By not just pulling back, but ripping
down and shredding to pieces the veil of
pretence and formality that separated
restaurant staff from diners, and by
actively dismantling the manufactured,
vanilla persona of the typical celebrity chef,
he showed that food can and should
be appreciated by everybody, not
exclusively those who can regularly
afford to dine in Michelin approved eateries.
Bourdain's enthusiasm for soaking
up culture from lands near and far was
infectiously conveyed through his books
and television shows.
Trying another culture's food is one of the least
burdensome ways of stepping outside of
one's comfort zone. It's a gateway, the
first step in developing a better sense
of that culture's way of life. Going down
this path will lead to an enhanced
appreciation of its language, its music,
its customs and, yes, its literature.
It's all there for the taking.
I'll leave you with one more quote from the man himself:
"Do we really want to
travel in hermetically-sealed
popemobiles to the rural provinces of
France, Mexico, and the Far East, eating
only in Hard Rock Cafes and McDonald's?
Or do we want to eat without fear, tearing into the local stew,
the humble taqueria's mystery meat, the sincerely offered gift of a lightly-grilled fish head?
I know what I want. I want it all.
I want to try everything once."
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