# Kitchen Confidential Tags: #literature ## 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) ## 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 --- 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 --- '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 --- 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 ---