Mid-Atlantic States Cooking, Cooking Essays, Famous Cooks, Cooking - Biography

Confesiones de un chef / Kitchen Confidential

Name: Confesiones de un chef / Kitchen Confidential
Author: Anthony Bourdain
ISBN: 9788492966189

by Anthony Bourdain

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Overview

Escritor y cocinero, Bourdain no tiene pelos en la lengua a la hora de explicar todo lo que pasa tras la puerta de la cocina. En este libro delicioso y divertido el autor es fiel a su premisa de que "para mí, la comida siempre ha sido una aventura", y acompaña el lector a través de una vida llena de anécdotas: desde sus modestos inicios trabajando como lavaplatos en un bar de Provincetown hasta la cocina del Rainbow Room en el Rockefeller Center o los traficantes de droga del East Village. En un tono desenfadado, de colega a colega, desgrana las oscuras y recónditas entrañas de un restaurante, un mundo que constituye su hábitat natural. Sus vivencias, experiencias y anécdotas, tanto con cocineros como con clientes, se relatan con acierto en este libro no exento de un cierto aire de provocación. Consignas para comer fuera Fácil: de martes a sábado. Sitios concurridos. Movimiento. Rotación. Martes y jueves suelen ser los mejores días para pedir pescado (en Nueva York y casi en cualquier otra gran ciudad). Las provisiones que entran los martes son frescas, los preparados-base están recién hechos, el chef viene descansado y de buen humor luego de la relativa serenidad del domingo y el lunes. Los viernes y los sábados las provisiones también son frescas, pero hay mucho ajetreo, de modo que ni el chef ni los cocineros pueden prestarle a tu pedido la atención que ellos -y tú- quieren. El martes por la noche el chef quiere estar contento. Los sábados, por el contrario, sólo piensa en cerrar, poner las mesas patas arriba y perderse en una noche de feliz autodestrucción.

About the Author, Anthony Bourdain

Anthony Bourdain

Executive chef Anthony Bourdain grabbed the attention of diners everywhere with his revealing look at the restaurant biz, Kitchen Confidential. Along with hosting popular food shows on the Discovery Channel and the Food Network, Bourdain has also written several novels that have earned him a reputation as "a new master of the wiseass crime comedy" (Publishers Weekly).

Biography

Like all great chefs, Anthony Bourdain is a true jack-of-all-trades. Just as a truly skilled chef would not limit himself to, say, cooking risotto, Bourdain has approached his writing career in much the same way. His repertoire consists of comedic crime novels, autobiographical travelogues, exposes, and historical explorations -- not to mention a collection of tasty recipes.

Bourdain's career has been characterized by more unexpected twists and turns than one would find in one of his novels. After the native New Yorker graduated from the Culinary Institute of America, he opened his own classic French Bistro, Brasserie Les Halles. However, never satisfied with simply traveling a single avenue, Bourdain tried his hand at penning a novel. The results were wholly unexpected: A witty, gritty mob tale set in the Little Italy section of Manhattan, Bone in the Throat was published in 1995. Bourdain's second novel, Gone Bamboo, followed two years later, and once again the writer's innate knack for black humor was on full display. Publishers Weekly confidently christened him "a new master of the wiseass crime comedy."

Of course, by the time the public had placed Bourdain in a specific literary niche, he was already on to bigger game. In 1999, The New Yorker published "Don't Eat Before Reading This," his scathing exposé of conditions within certain New York restaurants. The article, which garnered wide attention, would ultimately evolve into the critically lauded full-length book Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly. Bourdain brought the same cutting humor and confident swagger that marked his novels to his first nonfiction work, establishing a distinct voice that followed him from genre to genre. Jumping from memoir (The Nasty Bits) to biography (Typhoid Mary: An Urban Historical) to culinary how-to (Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles Cookbook), Bourdain served up his smartypants prose with the same skill he brought to his celebrated cuisine.

In the end, even as Bourdain continues to wear many hats -- master chef, restaurant entrepreneur, novelist, essayist, TV star -- his heart still lies in the kitchen. "When you've been a cook and chef for twenty-eight years, as I have, you never really look at the world from any other perspective," he told PreviewPort.com in 2002. "In many ways that's helpful with all the nonsense -- as one tends to have low expectations. For the time being -- I'm making it up as I go along and trying to enjoy the ride while it lasts."

Good To Know

When PreviewPort.com asked Bourdain who he would invite to "the ultimate dinner party," he responded with his typical deadpan flair, "Graham Greene, Iggy Pop, Kim Philby, Louise Brooks, Hede Massing" and would host it in "the squalid back room of the Siberia Bar in NYC."

You can add sitcom creator to Bourdain's long list of accomplishments. In 2005, FOX TV produced a comedy series based on his book Kitchen Confidential only to unceremoniously cancel the series before it even aired.

Bourdain can currently be seen traveling the world in search of the ultimate eating experience in his very own series Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations on the Discovery Channel.