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picked up at a local thrift store yesterday, I have read this before...and love it! Anthony Bourdain is the guy you want to go to a city with, check out all the good food and bars & get drunk with ; )

"Second hand books are wild books, homeless books; they have come together in vast flocks of variegated feather, and have a charm which the domesticated volumes of the library lack." --Virginia Woolf

If you found this book while in the area of San Luis Obispo, CA. feel free to come by and check out Joe Mommas which houses our bookshelf! We also hold our local meetups on the first Tuesday of each month at 5pm there, please come join the fun! The books on the shelf are free to for you to read, enjoy and pass along to another!

Oh how I enjoy Anthony Bourdain...and he isn't too shabby to look at either! Sending this in a lil package of love for my birthday buddy...hope you enjoy the assortment and that you have a fabulous birthday!



"A book is a mysterious object, I said, and once it floats out into the world, anything can happen. All kinds of mischief can be caused, and there's not a damned thing you can do about it. For better or worse, it's completely out of your control."
Paul Auster

Caught in a huge box of other books and assorted birthday treats from my birthday buddy. Thanks again, princess-peapod!! This should be a really interesting read. I love the review from USA Today: "This is the kind of book you read in one sitting, then rush about annoying your coworkers by declaiming whole passages." Going near the top of Mt. TBR!

This really was an entertaining book! I love Anthony Bourdain's personality. Here's a passage I found amusing and pretty telling:

Twelve noon and already customers are pouring in. I get a quick kick in the crotch right away: an order for porc mignon, two boudins, a liver and a pheasant all on one table. The boudins take the longest, so they have to go in the oven right away...(then lots of details on how he cooks the stuff, like calf's liver, pheasant in port sauce, mussels, tomato coulis, a navarin...searing, glazing, reducing, flouring, de-boning, it's very frantic for a whole page or more) ..."Line one for the chef," says the hostess.
I push the blinking green light. It's a salesman, wanting to sell me smoked fish. I answer all sweetness and light, lulling him into the bear trap in the Bigfoot style: "So let me get this straight," I say, after he's jabbered away about his full line of delicacies, me trying to sound a little slow and confused, "you want to sell me food, right?" "Yes!" comes the reply, the salesman sounding encouraged by my interest and apparent stupidity. "And in general, you'd say," I continue, "you have, like, a lot of restaurant accounts -- in fact, you'd probably say that, like, you are in the business of servicing restaurants...and chefs in particular?" "Oh, yes!" says the witless salesman, beginning a litany of the usual prestigious accounts, the names of other chefs who buy his fine smoked sturgeon, salmon, trout, and fish eggs. I have had enough and cut him off cold. "So...WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING CALLING ME IN THE MIDDLE OF THE FUCKING LUNCH RUSH?!" I scream into the phone, smashing it abruptly into the cradle."
I catch the duck just in time, roll it over skin-side down again and pull it out of the oven......

Anyway, and then when he runs out of tomatoes...oh my god!!

Well, very fast paced, obviously full of great food, frantic kitchen antics and emotions, what it is like to be a chef, what it is like to work in different types of restaurant environments. He also talks about what made him decide to become a chef. Fascinating, the parts of the restaurant scene we never see, the culinary underbelly, as the title states.

This was a fun read, thanks princess-peapod!! I'm going to send this book travelling to someone else who will appreciate it.

This book is off by mail to MaryZee in Maryland!

Thanks so much for sending this to me, JudyGreenEyes! I recently read Ruth Reichl's wonderful memoir, Garlic and Sapphires, so now I'm looking forward to another foodie memoir :)

I loved this book! I think the only reason I gave it 9 stars rather than 10 was that it was almost too frenetic. I definitely get the feeling of him being jazzed up on cigarettes and caffeine. I could have done without some of the dope stories, but hey, it was the 80s. He definitely gives you a feel for all his hard work, long days spent in the kitchen, and the craziness of the restaurant biz. Wonderful crazy stories and characters. Now I'll have to look for more of his books.

To the previous readers, thanks for sharing. This is reserved for the non-fiction vbb.

Sadly, MaryZee passed suddenly in September 2012. MaryZee's daughter is now ready to rehome her mom's books and I was willing to collect and redistribute them to keep her literary legacy alive.

In memory of MaryZee, I hope this book will continue to travel and find many eager readers. Thank you, 6of8, for bringing me this and other books Of MaryZee's to share.

Wow! I was blown away by this book. I never really followed the life or the television programs of chef Anthony Bourdain, but rather listened to my husband talk about him. All of a sudden, there was no longer an Anthony Bourdain as he ended his life by suicide. That week, by coincidence this book showed up in my Little Free Library so I thought I'd learn about this man. I was truly taken in by his larger-than-life personality, his history of alcoholism and drug abuse (including heroine abuse), his profane and incredibly funny way of talking. All of this shines through in this book, but even more. His book tells not only of his great love of what he did for a living but how others should conduct themselves if they, too, want to be part of the restaurant scene. My favorite part of the book was near the end when Bourdain takes his first trip to Tokyo, Japan. I loved reading about his experiences there as I've learned much about Tokyo from listening to my own son talk about his own travel experiences in Tokyo. It felt like a familiar stomping ground. The only thing I did not like about this book was the knowledge that I can never get to see the living Bourdain any more, just this author on film. So sad, and too bad. This is great book. Read it. Enjoy it!

I'm turning this book into an unoffical bookray because it's such a good book, and several people I know want to read it.
1. My husband -
2. My daughter -
3. My friend Marc in Kensington, Maryland -
After that, the book is free to go where it wants! :D

6/24/18 - I am now putting this book in my husband's To Be Read pile.

My husband liked this book, but he got tired of reading it. He said for me to give it to someone else who wants to read it after he read about 80% of it. He's now reading a novel by John Grisham instead! :D