Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly

Bourdain has often felt out of control during his lifetime and is sure that he will not die with the regret of not having lived enough. By 1999, however, he is sure that the greatest adventures of his life are behind him. He is surprised when his supervisors ask him to fly to Tokyo to help train the chef at Les Halles’s Tokyo location. 

After a difficult journey, he lands in the massive city and is instantly awestruck. He is initially wary of being perceived as rude and aware that in Japan, he stands out, but he braves a tiny noodle shop, orders whatever the guy next to him is having, and has one of the best meals of his life. 

Phillipe, one of Les Halles’s owners, is also in Tokyo for Bourdain’s trip and shows him around. The two share a series of meals that are some of the best in Bourdain’s life. He visits Tokyo’s largest fish market and is amazed. He falls completely and absolutely in love with the city, its food, and the allure of travel in an unfamiliar land. He wishes that he could stay forever.

Bourdain has a few “nuggets of advice” for aspiring cooks and chefs (288). First, he warns that individuals used to 8-hour workdays, weekends and holidays off, and respectful workplace treatment might be shocked by the culinary world of double shifts, working every single weekend, and a workplace culture in which cooks have “no rights.” 

However, for those who want to attempt a career in the restaurant industry, he has a few key pieces of advice. He urges would-be restaurant workers to commit fully to their jobs. He advises them to learn Spanish for ease of communication in the kitchen and to show respect to their fellow workers, many of whom will be native Spanish speakers. He advises those wanting to break into the industry not to steal or make excuses, always arrive for work on time, never call in sick or be lazy, be prepared to witness injustice, be prepared to see the worst in people, but also allow yourself to recognize good qualities in your coworkers. He advises keeping an up-to-date resume, reading as widely as possible about food, cooking, and culinary traditions. Most of all, he argues, would-be cooks should always have a sense of humor.

It is Sunday morning after a long night at Les Halles. Bourdain is philosophical, as he is wont to be on Sunday mornings. He recalls his decades in the restaurant industry with love and pride. He is proud of his scarred hands, the bags under his eyes, and his aching feet. He is proud of the hard work he’s done and the connections he’s made. He still loves well-prepared food and trying new dishes and is still dedicated to producing the best quality dishes he can. He understands other people who love food and recalls feeling a kinship with Japanese strangers based solely on the way that they enjoyed their meals. Many of his favorite colleagues are still going strong in the industry, as he hopes to be for a long time to come.

Bourdain acknowledges that cooking has changed since he wrote this book. Although they irk him, celebrity chefs have changed the perception of both fine dining and restaurant workers. Standards are higher for both food and staff, and the kinds of kitchens Bourdain routinely ran are rarer now. Cooks are more likely to be middle-class graduates of fine culinary programs now, although Latino staff still dominate the industry, and Bourdain is proud of this. Professional cooking is, he argues, a path toward citizenship, higher socio-economic status, and success for many immigrants and their children. 

Things have changed for Bourdain, too. He now travels, writes, and makes television shows about food and travel. He claims that the work is much easier than professional cooking. He’s become friends with Eric Ripert, a French chef and television personality, whom he was once sure would never be his friend. He even admits that perhaps “Ewok” was a harsh nickname for Emeril Lagasse, who he knows now is a decent guy. He admits that he wasn’t as kind as he could’ve been about many of the industry people he wrote about in this book. 

Bourdain says that he would like to apologize to everyone he harmed throughout his career. He is thrilled that the response to this book wasn’t as bad as he feared: Even Jacques Pepin confirmed what he wrote about the widespread practice of recycling bread. He’s heard that a few of the restaurateurs he worked with were amused by his depictions of their interactions, and he’s happy about that. He loves traveling and appreciates doing it full time, but he is still unsure of himself outside of the kitchen. He feels the most relaxed alone, in an airport lounge, with a drink and cigarette in hand, quietly enjoying the atmosphere without saying a word to anyone.