Kitchen Confidential

i listened to the audiobook which is read by anthony bourdain so i think that added to my overall enjoyment of it but there's also a lot of aspects of it that i take issue with, also understanding that this was released in 2007

i don't know if his opinions on this changed over the course of his life but i was a little shocked at how proudly he seemed feel about running a kitchen on stress & shit talking & chaos, but that may be a product of the environment of professional kitchens. it also sat weird with me how he approached women in the kitchen, overall looking down on any genuine emotion & praising women that can “hang with the guys” aka put on a front of being okay with or comfortable with the sexual harassment that can occur, which again, product of the environment, but still feels very weird

as a home chef, i don't have the time, energy, freezer space, or budget to do things like make & freeze my own stock & only use fresh herbs. again, maybe his opinions changed later on but at this point he was not immune to the asshole bro chef ideology

i did really enjoy listening to his experiences though, he clearly knew his way around a kitchen & if you're interested in cooking, this may be worth the read/listen, but if you're not, you could go without