Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain

What a fun read! And it’s made all the better by Bourdain being the narrator for the audiobook.

I absolutely adore deep dives into careers and fields that I know next to nothing about. There’s something so powerful about learning the jargon, the day-to-day, the inner thoughts of someone doing something I would never (could never) do. This book is an illuminating experience that I’d compare to Adam Kay’s This is Going to Hurt.

And while all of that is true, this book is also profoundly sad because of Bourdain’s suicide. Many times while I was listening I found myself more fascinated with Bourdain as a man than as a chef – how he operated and how his brain worked.

One thing I’m certain of is that we lost an incredible figure with Bourdain’s death. But I’m happy that he was able to share so much with us before he left. It’s something I aspire towards and I can only hope that I leave the kind of mark he did.