Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly

Content Warning: This section of the guide contains discussion of cursing, sexual content, substance use, and death by suicide.

The author’s preface details the impact the book’s publication had on his life. Although he was at the time a harsh critic of the burgeoning celebrity chef culture, he instantly became a part of it. He spent less time in the kitchen at his restaurant, Brasserie Les Halles, and more time giving interviews, traveling, and exploring the new opportunities his fame afforded him.

Bourdain loves the restaurant business for good and for ill: He has many fond memories of his career, but he does admit that restaurant work is its own sort of subculture and that not all its norms are positive. Although there will be some “screaming” chefs and tough-love bits of advice for diners who order their steaks well done and fish on Mondays, with this book, he also hopes to display restaurant workers’ work ethic and dedication to their jobs. He is aware that chefs get all the glory and that the rise of the celebrity chef, including the “Ewok-like Emeril Lagasse” (5), has shone an even brighter spotlight on those in charge. However, he intends this book to be about “street-level” cooking and to honor the hardworking line cooks, dishwashers, and other kitchen staff who are just as dedicated to good food and hard work as their bosses are.