I am an Anthony Bourdain fangirl. From the minute I picked up Kitchen Confidential, I can’t get enough of his snarky humor and irreverence in an industry that too often seems to take itself way too seriously. I watch, riveted, every episode of No Reservations I come across, and love his guest judge appearances on Top Chef. I firmly believe that the only way to redeem the tragedy that is Jersey Shore is to give him and chef Eric Ripert their own reality/sitcom/travel show. So when I saw he had a new book out, I waited maybe five minutes before grabbing it off the shelf, desperate to get my fix.
That being said, this is not the Bourdain of Kitchen Confidential. Not to say he’s lost his edge, but the book is filled with valuable insights and glimpses into the restaurant biz that aren’t so much spiteful as fascinating. The Bourdain of Confidential was a train wreck–you were reading to see how many more drugs he could score, women he could sleep with, restaurants he could scandalize. Medium Raw is, conversely, a series of thoughtful vignettes about the evolution and growing popularity of the food world.
First of all, what we have here is more of a collection of essays than a cohesive story: a format that lends itself in an excellent way to Bourdain’s rambling storytelling style. He’ll spend a chapter on the devious ways in which he tries to get his daughter to hate McDonalds (leaving a moldy sponge in a cheeseburger, anyone?), only to follow that up with a comprehensive list of who are the true heroes and villains of the industry today. An analysis of David Chang’s personality and career (someone at the forefront of the trendy food movement) is followed by a day in the life of Justo Thomas (a less- but certainly not un-known fish butcher at Le Bernardin).
Bourdain has by no means lost his sense of humor, irreverance, vulgarity, or crude imagination. Reading this book, for me, was an experience in bipolarity. One minute I was laughing out loud as he called [GQ food writer] Alan Richman a douchebag, the next reflecting on his point that both men and women should once again be taught to cook in school. He has no qualms about naming names and his no-holds-barred attitude gives us, the outsiders, an inside look at the intentions and art of the chef rather than the sometimes crusty practices of the cook.
All in all, this book was a riot. Bourdain has managed to hit all the right notes between hilarity and seriousness, respect and irreverence, familiarity and wide-eyed wonderment. In Kitchen Confidential, we saw a man who had gotten into the restaurant business almost by accident–in Medium Raw, we see a man who is eager to share what is a true love of food and its artists.
