"kitchen confidential" news and stories

Can you believe it's already been a decade since Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential was published? The wickedly funny tell-all gave people a peek into what goes on in a restaurant kitchen (generally sex, drugs and a lot of swearing). Now, Bourdain is back with a new book, 'Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook.'

Why did you decide to write this book?
AB: People kept coming up to me and telling me that they weren't eating fish on Mondays because of Kitchen Confidential. It's been ten years and I felt like I had to kind of update and correct the record and talk about how the business has changed and how my life has changed.

How has the business changed?
AB: It's not a loser profession anymore. There's a certain amount of prestige attached to it. A real future. It's smarter, more professional, and cleaner. A lot of the stuff I talk about in Kitchen Confidential would be unacceptable in kitchens these days.

More with Anthony Bourdain after the jump.

A few of the best links on the Web this week:

• Italy's asparagus season has begun!
• Looking to occupy some free time this weekend? Try snarky Food Writer Bingo.
• Two new food reality shows from the folks behind the Jersey Shore are looking for cast members.
• If you're planning to cook lamb for Easter, don't do it without reading this guide first.
• Ten years after Kitchen Confidential, chefs can no longer afford to be bad boys.

You might already know this is you've clicked on any of the No Reservations ads on our site, but I just found out myself that Anthony Bourdain has a new blog. It's over at the Travel Channel site.

Bourdain has kept blogs before. He's been writing about Top Chef and has entries at other food blogs once in a while, but if I'm not mistaken this is the first permanent blog that he's had. Hopefully he'll keep it up even after the season of No Reservations is over. If the first few entries are any indication, it might be fun.

A lot of people know Anthony Bourdain either as a chef or "that guy on the TV shows who travels a lot and eats funky things." Sure, he's both of those things, but he also happens to be a very good writer. Not just his books that look behind the scenes of the restaurant biz (like Kitchen Confidential, a must read for anyone in the food service industry), but also his mystery books. Bone in the Throat, Gone Bamboo, and The Bobby Gold Stories are all terrific reads. The guy can write, period.

Now he's back with The Nasty Bits, a collection of articles he's written for several publications, including Gourmet, Chow, Esquire, Best Life, Blackbook, The L.A. Times, Town and Country, and others. Nicole picked it as the Cookbook of the Day last week, and I think this might be one of his best books yet.