Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of cursing, gender discrimination, antigay bias, racism, substance use, death by suicide, and addiction.

Bourdain wakes up, takes an aspirin, and immediately begins thinking about work. It’s Friday, so the weekend orders will be coming in. As he watches television with his wife, Nancy, and heads to work at Les Halles, he finalizes the weekend menu in his head, planning a set of dishes whose less adventurous flavor profiles will appeal to weekend restaurant diners (typically, weekday diners are more adventurous). Weekend diners, on the other hand, might be eating their only meal out that week and prefer classic tastes to innovation. 

Bourdain is the first to arrive at the restaurant, as usual. He runs through a series of daily tasks, ordering food, looking over the books, and troubleshooting any issues that arise. He holds meetings, collects intel about employees and operations at their sister restaurants from various staff members, and answers a few tedious phone calls. 

The lunch rush is busy, they run out of tomatoes, and Bourdain calls the wrong supplier to scream about the missing order. He does a market run with his boss, handles some staff issues, and prepares the family (staff) meal for that night’s dinner service employees.