Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of substance use, addiction, mental illness, and sexual harassment.

Fresh out of the CIA with two summers in Provincetown and an additional restaurant job on his resume, Bourdain lands a job at the prestigious Rainbow Room atop Rockefeller Center. The restaurant is large, busy, and well known. Bourdain is confident that he can work well on a line at this point in his career, but he knows he will have to work hard. The kitchen is small compared to the restaurant’s size, and its ventilation system is poor. Cooks routinely pass out on the line. 

In addition, the restaurant has a banquet room, and so there are times when the entire kitchen must reorganize to churn out banquet orders. There is a jocularity among the kitchen staff that, although common in all kitchens, is on overdrive at the Rainbow Room. One of the cooks harasses Bourdain so much, repeatedly grabbing his backside, that Bourdain stabs him with a fork. After that, he feels he has earned his coworkers’ respect, and no one bothers him anymore.

Bourdain works long hours, arriving at 7:00 am and often staying past midnight. He becomes adept at turning uneaten banquet food into creative buffet items the next day.