Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly

Bourdain is a self-described “misfit”: He explains that he found a home in restaurant kitchens in part because they were often staffed by other individuals like himself, who partied as hard as they worked, struggled to find other kinds of employment, and lived on the margins of society. He admits that there are problems with restaurant culture, but he also wants to provide his readers with a window into the kind of restaurant subculture that thrived during his youth in the world of restaurants. Using a combination of humor, honesty, and humanism, Bourdain explores the contradictions of kitchen work, in which workers use drugs and alcohol but commit completely to the job, and in which slurs and antigay bias are common, but there is widespread camaraderie and support.

When Bourdain enters restaurant kitchen work, he feels instantly for the very same reason that traditional, four-year college is a bad fit for him: Although intelligent and a lover of reading, he is more interested in attending parties than class and finds the atmosphere at Vassar College stifling and tedious. Restaurant kitchens, by contrast, are a fast-paced whirlwind in which everyone works as hard as possible but often do so hungover from the previous night and possibly under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Bourdain says that cooks are the “baddest” of the bad in restaurant kitchens, and he is awestruck by the line cooks at his first dishwashing job. He recalls: “They had style and swagger, and they seemed afraid of nothing. They drank everything in sight, stole whatever wasn’t nailed down, and screwed their way through the floor staff, bar customers, and casual visitors like nothing I’d ever seen or imagined” (21). The swagger that Bourdain finds so appealing in others comes naturally to him, and he soon finds himself drinking (and drugging) his way through his shifts, working doubles with a smile on his face, and adopting the curse-laden patois of kitchen staff. He likens line cooks to “pirates” and notes that much of the magic of working in a restaurant kitchen comes from both the true passion for food that the staff shares and their hard-partying camaraderie.

Bourdain also notes the strange duality of kitchens where staff routinely crack jokes denigrating one another’s race, sexuality, ethnicity, or gender identity, yet easily accept differences and form friendships across cultural lines. Bourdain dedicates several chapters to the foul-mouthed, offensive nature of restaurant slang, even noting how difficult back-of-the-house jobs are for women. He describes “everyday” interactions that would be considered sexual harassment in most other workplaces, even sharing one anecdote in which he stabs a co-worker in the hand for repeatedly grabbing his backside. He notes the heavy use of Spanish slang in restaurant kitchens, detailing the many different ways cooks call one another’s masculinity in question. Yet he also describes a world in which individuals from all walks of life develop lasting, genuine friendships. Many line cooks are Latino, and Bourdain notes how grateful he is to have the opportunity to become close to people whose backgrounds were so very different from his own. He spends decades working with recent immigrants and develops a marked appreciation for the role that immigration plays in both the culture and economy of the United States.

Bourdain also appreciates both the insularity of restaurant subculture as well as its spirit of helpfulness and mutual aid. In a descriptor that nods at the mafiosos for whom he works at one of his restaurants, Bourdain calls working in professional kitchens “this thing of ours” (306). (“Cosa Nostra” is a common name for the Mafia, which translates to “our thing” in English.) Kitchens are, he argues, a tightly knit club that has its own language, set of norms, and common practices. As a chef, he strives to look out for his employees, basing his approach to management on that of several of his mentors. He notes his admiration for chefs who have a cadre of lawyers, doctors, and other professionals they can call should one of their staff require help with their immigration paperwork, rent, legal troubles, or any other issue. He notes that the bond that develops between kitchen staff members does not end with the workday, and they are more like family than co-workers.

Kitchen Confidential is notable for its behind-the-scenes look at restaurant culture. At the time it was first published, in 2000, it was one of the first books to offer a frank look at restaurants, their workers, and their practices. Bourdain gives readers the opportunity to step into the world of restaurant work with a memoir that is both practical and unromantic, and its authenticity confirms him as a source that can be trusted to present the unvarnished truth.