"Kitchen Confidential", "A Cook's Tour": Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly & A Cook's Tour: In Search of the Perfect Meal (Anthony Bourdain Omnibus)

A phenomenal book that is phenomenally written. It shows great insight into the world of cooking with a gonzo-esque style of journalism. It's seductive with a little bit of rock and roll thrown in. For anyone who loves to cook and has a bit of an edge to them, this is the book for you.

Must reads for anyone who loves food, lanky NY chefs or drugs

a good read

Thoroughly well written and evocative insight into the blood sweat and tears required to achieve 'super stardom' in the cooking industry and as for the Cook's Tour is just a wonderment at how far one man will go for his art, braver than me......not sure eating a beating Cobra heart would be my first choice on a menu! written and easy on the eye, thoroughly recommended *****

Once again, another gem of a book by Mr Bourdain. Arrived very fast and in excellent condition. I am really enjoying this great read. Thank you.

Not sure when or how fast it arrived (I was on vacation, though I was hoping it would arrive before then) but it came with nary a scratch. Brand new. Will order from them again

Some of it is seriously interesting. Think you have to like the man before you get overwhelmed with his commentary along the way!

Great book and very well written. Anthony Bourdain exposures some very naughty restaurant secrets.

Anthony Bourdain's books and TV programs have forever changed my life for the better, often with the gentle subtlety of a tire iron applied to the brain stem. His prose can rip down walls built over a lifetime of prejudices regarding how we relate to food, which forms are acceptable and which or not, and how cultures other than our own little reality tunnels have related to it for hundreds and sometimes thousands of years. He taught me that often things that look so wrong due to our programming in reality are wonderful, delicate and enlightening. Kitchen Confidential will open your eyes to what really goes on in the places you eat, from the cheapest to the most opulent; A Cook's Tour reveals that the street food you can buy for almost nothing in a third world country is often every bit as good and enlightening as meals costing hundreds of dollars at places considered to be the best on the planet. He relates a very touching description of his first raw oyster as a child, eaten straight from the water; I had a similar experience much later in life when I worked up the nerve to eat my first whole shrimp with shell and head intact. Expecting the worst, the head was like a wonderful dessert, the outside crumbling like a filo pastry and the filling a sweet, salty liquid like a warm, comforting custard. His skill as a writer is quite extraordinary.

Having been to culinary school, Bourdain speaks in a language I can comprehend. His stories are filled with detail leaving nothing for the reader to try to piece together. I'm not typically a reader of books, but am a huge fan of all things food, restaurants, and learning what it takes to survive in the restaurant industry. I am not dissapointed I bought this book. It's really fun to read - can't wait to get to the next page sort of thing. I've chuckled out loud a few times, and I'm sure you will, too.

Very entertaining.......great writing and very informational. The chapter about what 'NOT' to eat very good. I highly recommend this book.

This book has madcap humor, tons of fun facts about food, both appetizing and NOT, a wealth of action and surprising revelations, a breezily ironic writing style, and the somehow charming bluntness of The Man himself. What's not to like? This long volume whisks you along like a Tokyo Bullet-train of strange characters, heroes and villains, intense confrontations, bitter truths and sweet lies BOTH, fully-revealed, in copious quantity. It reads FAST. What really goes on behind the closed doors of trendy, top-end restaurant kitchens is only a slice of the book's appeal. Seeing the writer's painful, but inevitable growth is heartening, and his freely-admitted flaws and excesses are never lost-in-the-sauce of this twisting, wild-mouse journey of a book. It's like a jumpy roller-coaster roaring thru the cavernous, Hieronymous Bosch-like kitchen of a man's life. Anthony Bourdain's life.

reminded me of my short time at Market restaurant nyc i bull s***ed my way in ( multiplied receips from a cook book by twenty ) then had to deal with culinary institute trainees zests of lemons cleanning brusel sprouts and caring for sabetier knives none of which i knew anything about. It w as on bottom of world trade center i was supposed to be the vegtable chef i lasted 2 weeks