# Kitchen Confidential Tags: #literature #cultivate-taste ## Metadata * Author: [Anthony Bourdain](https://www.amazon.comundefined) * ASIN: B002UM5BXW * ISBN: 0747550727 * Reference: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B002UM5BXW * [Kindle link](kindle://book?action=open&asin=B002UM5BXW) Last thing I read by Bourdain was the Nasty Bits. I very much enjoy his style of writing. I love his reverent descriptions of food, his irreverent descriptions of everything else, and his talent for evoking a setting. His love for food leads me to wonder what it’s like to have your profession align with what you love. What it's like to know in your very being, to know without a doubt that you are in the right place, that this is what you were meant to do. I enjoy my work in software but is it *what I was meant to do*? Overall I’m a big fan of Bourdain and his career. I appreciate his passion for food and cooking, but I truly love him as a writer and storyteller. He's brought us stories from all over, from fine Michelin star dining establishments to the farflung local watering holes of the world. It’s something I’d want to emulate, I love writing, I like observing, I like weaving together narratives to tell a story — but I don’t have my *food*. My main thing. My passion. That craft one lives for and can write about in a compelling way. ## Highlights > Like I said before, your body is not a temple, it's an amusement park. Enjoy the ride. — location: [954](kindle://book?action=open&asin=B002UM5BXW&location=954) ^ref-35411 --- Bourdain compares the way the crusaders would buy indulgences from the church prior to embarking on the crusades -- "a secured, pre-paid credit card from heaven" and "Given this sinful agenda, padre, how much is this gonna cost me?" -- to the intimate conversations he imagines chef Adam Real-Last-Name-Unknown, whom he most kindly describes as "a menace to any happy kitchen", in order to bake his divine bread. It's hilarious. > Adam Real-Last-Name-Unknown may be the enemy of polite society, a menace to any happy kitchen, a security risk and a potential serial killer, but the man can bake. He's an idiot-savant with whom God has serious, frequent and intimate conversations. I just can't imagine what He's telling him — or whether the message is getting garbled during transmission. The crusaders of yore, it is said, used to stop off at the local church or monastery before heading off to war; where they were allowed to purchase indulgences. This was sort of like a secured, pre-paid credit card from heaven, I imagine, and negotiations probably went something like this. 'Bless me, father, for I am about to sin. I plan on raping, pillaging and disemboweling my way across Southern Europe and North Africa, taking the Lord's name in vain, committing sodomy with all and sundry, looting the holy places of Islam, killing women and children and animals and leaving them in smoking heaps . . . as well, of course, as getting up to the usual soldierly hijinks of casual eye-gougings, dismemberment, bear-baiting and arson. Given this sinful agenda, padre, how much is this gonna cost me?' 'That'll be a new roof for the vestry, my son, perhaps a few carpets from down there. I understand they make a lovely carpet where you'll be goin'. . . and shall we say fifteen percent off the top, as a tithe?' 'Deal.' 'Go in peace, my son.' Adam gets right with God with every proof rack of sour dough bread he pulls out of the oven: every crispy, crunchy, deliciously blistered pizza. It's God's little joke on all of us. Especially me. — location: [3248](kindle://book?action=open&asin=B002UM5BXW&location=3248) ^ref-19371 --- Bourdain describes how he attempts to get Scott Bryan inebriated to get him to spill any tea about the culinary world's heroes. Bourdain tries leading him to talk shit about Ferran Adria's gastronomy and experimentation with food, but instead he and Bryan find common ground in beef bourguignon, their shared preferred food for the soul. He then closes the chapter on a heartwarming note. "Maybe I'm not wrong about everything. All cooks are sentimental fools. And in the end, maybe it is all about the food." > 'Have you seen this foam guy's shit?' I asked, talking about Ferran Adria's restaurant of the minute, El Bulli, in Spain. 'That foam guy is bogus,' he smirked, 'I ate there, dude — and it's like . . . shock value. I had seawater sorbet!' That was about as much bad-mouthing as I could get out of him. I wanted to know what he likes to eat, 'You know, after hours, you're half in the bag and you get hungry. What do you want to eat?' 'Beef bourguignon, he said right away. I've found common ground. Red wine, beef, some button mushrooms and a few pearled onions, bouquet garni, maybe some broad noodles or a simple boiled potato or two to go with it. A crust of bread to soak up the sauce. Maybe I'm not wrong about everything. All cooks are sentimental fools. And in the end, maybe it is all about the food. — location: [3677](kindle://book?action=open&asin=B002UM5BXW&location=3677) ^ref-2519 --- Bourdain uses the last chapter to tell the story of his career through the scars on his hands. His last few sentences were gutwrenching - Kitchen Confidential was published in 2000, but we know how his story ends in 2018. >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. — location: [4198](kindle://book?action=open&asin=B002UM5BXW&location=4198) ^ref-9805 The world is worse off without him in it. --- Created: November 24, 2023 Last Updated: November 24, 2023