Anthony Bourdain got famous when his book Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly (2000) became a big hit. It’s what led to talks, to television, and to movies based on his stories. In the penultimate chapter of that book, he offers advice for anyone who wants to be a chef. Point 13 out of 14 is “Read!” In addition to cookbooks and trade magazines and stuff from the classic chefs (like Escoffier), he recommends a few other books:
George Orwell, Down and Out in Paris and London (1933)
We often think of Orwell exclusively as a political writer, fixating on 1984 and Animal Farm. This book has political implications, but Down and Out is a firsthand account of living in poverty in Paris and London, sometimes while working in a kitchen. It’s eye-opening and exhausting and a real “how the other half lives” look at things.
Nicholas Freeling, The Kitchen (1970)
This book is subtitled, “A Delicious Account of the Author’s Years as a Grand Hotel Cook.” It’s about life as an apprentice cook in a European hotel, told with the same eye that made Freeling a great author of crime fiction.
David Blum, Flash in the Pan: The Life and Death of an American Restaurant (1992)
This is a book by a reporter, looking at the lifecycle of The Falls, a Manhattan restaurant that was a hit in the 1980s. From beginning to end, Blum examines where the restaurant came from and how it didn’t last forever. It should make you reconsider your fantasy of becoming a restauranteur.
Michael and Ariane Batterberry, On the Town in New York (1973, 1998 2nd ed.)
This book is subtitled “The Landmark History of Eating, Drinking, and Entertainments from the American Revolution to the Food Revolution.” This is a historical tour of American food by the founders of Food & Wine.
Joseph Mitchell, Up in the Old Hotel (1992)
This one is a collection of short stories Mitchell wrote for the New Yorker from the 1940s-1960s. They are all about the characters and curious personalities on the margins of the city. Mitchell was himself a curious personality, famous not only for his writing, but for not writing in the last 30 years of his career at the New Yorker—or at least not publishing despite going to the office and working away. As Tim Adams, a fan of Up in the Old Hotel, explained about Mitchell in The Guardian, “So revered was he on the paper, that this long pause went unchallenged and unexplained – the enduring belief was that, if it ever arrived, the next story would be another masterpiece, but it never did.”
Each of these books is known for good writing, but all also draw attention to the ways in which the world of restaurants and kitchens exists at the fringes of society and draws in all kinds of fringe characters.
