Bourdain: Hot. And saucy too.



Taste his style: Look inside...

So many culinary puns, so little time.

Instead, try this quick quiz:

Do you dig Bourdain's snarky wit on No Reservations?
You're gonna love the R rated version in Kitchen Confidential.

Or does Tony's TV persona test your patience, plus you wish he'd tone it down with the cursing, already?
Take a pass on this one.

Not sure whether you'd take a cotton to him one way or the other?
Well then, let me put a few more questions to you:

* Always drooled over the "dangerous" guys in high school?
* Not afraid to get your hands dirty or to sully your mind vicariously, if only for a moment or two?
* Savor most things culinary and most people so inclined?
* Find yourself laughing at the bawdiest of good jokes and also the Oscar Wilde's and Jane Austen's of the literary landscape?

If you answered yes to the four plum-ish questions above, or if you're already a Bourdain-o-phile, then score yourself some herbs de Provence, a loaf of gloriously fresh-baked artisanal bread, and perhaps a freshly butchered rabbit or a hunk of grassfed beef plus the best of your seasonal, local, organic veggies, take a quick detour to your library or locally-owned bookshop for a copy of Kitchen Confidential, and then head back home to get that fabulous food braising in the oven while you settle in for a latte and a diverting monologue from the world's most semi-reluctant celebrity chef.

I did.  And, as you might surmise, this puppy gets you fired up to cook!  So...

Action Jump Starts
Creativity: Cook a simple (or complicated) French dish. OR buy a few of the chef-favored cooking implements Tony recommends, and then practice with 'em until you're an ace. (I keep using the diminutive 'Tony' like I know the guy. He'd surely smirk disdainfully at this overfamiliarity.)
Online Inquiry and Connection: Search out the very best of world cuisines in your town - perhaps the restaurants low on atmosphere but high on real homestyle cooking of the region.  Eat there.

Me?  I'm doing BOTH. 
And I'm morphing the latter with a twist that allows me to delude myself that breaking my "Choose. One. Thing." rule is a perfectly acceptable flip-flop:  I'm researching the best take-out joints and local chow near the hotels I'll be staying in on my BIG TRIP TO NYC!!!  This will save me scads of cash, partially offset staying in a more unique/upscale hotel (fingers crossed), and offer me the best of the best cuisine in the Best City On Earth.

Get the book. (Again, I'm not an affiliate so I don't get $ when you buy through these links. I just want to make purchasing it while supporting local, sustainable, literate living easier.)

MFB,
L


Just the Jist
Title: Kitchen Confidential
Author: Anthony Bourdain
Genre: Culinary memoir
Publication Date: 2001, 2007
# of Pages: 312
Author's Website: http://blog.travelchannel.com/anthony-bourdain/ (his blog w/link to the No Reservations site)

 p.s. I was oh-so-late to the party on this one, and Bourdain's a hopped-up work-a-holic, so he's got at least six additional books in print since Kitchen Confidential.  I can't vouch for those books, but you can bet they're on my TBR list.