In the ten years since his classic Kitchen Confidential first alerted us to the idiosyncrasies and lurking perils of eating out, from Monday fish to the breadbasket conspiracy, much has changed for the subculture of chefs and cooks, for the restaurant business—and for Anthony Bourdain.Medium Raw explores these changes, moving back and forth from the author's bad old days to the present. Tracking his own strange and unexpected voyage from journeyman cook to globe-traveling professional eater and drinker, and even to fatherhood, Bourdain takes no prisoners as he dissects what he's seen, pausing along the way for a series of confessions, rants, investigations, and interrogations of some of the most controversial figures in food.
And always he returns to the question "Why cook?" Or the more difficult "Why cook well?" Medium Raw is the deliciously funny and shockingly delectable journey to those answers, sure to delight philistines and gourmands alike.
I enjoyed Kitchen Confidential but found the writing uneven. Some great chapters followed by some boring ones. Not in this book though.
It is a thoroughly enjoyable read from start to finish.
He talks very candidly about celebrity chefs, working for the Food Network, who he admires, who he hates and never does he hold back. Some of the writing looks like Bourdain is a bit of an ADD personality, but hey it works.
I'm looking forward to my next Anthony Bourdain book.
I did find one downfall of reading a Kobo book borrowed from the library, when I read this one. The borrower only has three weeks to read the book or it lacks up and has to be booked out again. I did not start reading it right away and was surprised one day to find the book locked up on my Kobo. I still had 75 pages to go! So when I booked it out again, found I had to wait for 10 days before being able to download it.
Oh well, I finished another book on my Kobo during my wait.
No comments:
Post a Comment