Anthony Bourdain Returns

Some of you have likely read Anthony Bourdain's 2000 bestseller about restaurants, "Kitchen Confidential." That behind-the-scenes description of restaurant kitchens and the restaurant world was funny, snarky, and a bit frightening. His new book, "Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook" (HarperCollins, 2010) is a bit mellower, as Bourdain by his own description has renounced the on-the-edge life he used to live, has settled down with his new family, and has a calmer, more tolerant attitude toward life. He still has a wicked tongue, though, and hasn't given up his racy vocabulary either. This new book is a mixed bag, more like a collection of short pieces than a coherent whole. Some of the pieces are pretty thin, but a few -- especially portraits of specific individual chefs and/or their restaurants -- are fascinating. My favorites -- although I don't always agree with Bourdain's opinions -- are his descriptions of Alice Waters (of the iconic Chez Panisse restaurant in Berkeley), Thomas Keller (of the French Laundry restaurant in the Napa Valley and Per Se in New York), Grant Achatz (and his famous Chicago restaurant, Alinea), Alan Richman (food and restaurant critic/writer), Erik Hopfinger (and the TV show, Top Chef), and David Chang (of the New York City Momofuku restaurants). There is also a riveting description of Justo Thomas,the man in charge of preparing upwards of 700 pounds of fish every day at the New York restaurant, Le Bernadin, considered by many to be the best seafood restaurant in the USA. If you are interested in the restaurant world, you will find much to enjoy in this new Bourdain volume; you can skim over the weaker pieces that seem a bit like "filler." And if you are looking for other books about that world, you may want to look at my 2/4/10 post with its annotated list of some of my favorite books about food, restaurants and chefs.