The Nasty Bits
Anthony Bourdain
"I actually started reading "The Nasty Bits" by Anthony Bourdain because I had read "Kitchen Confidential," which was his first book. He has this cranky sarcastic, angry, but hysterically funny voice. And he just manages to tell these stories in such a way where you're just dying laughing.
This one is actually a collection of several pieces that he's written for other publications. But what's really fun about it is that in the back, he goes back and for each piece, you can turn to the back and there's a place where he reflects upon it, sort of. It's like he looking back on what he's written. I like that idea, just so much especially in this current day and age when people, I don't know, when people seem to not want to say when they're wrong about things. It's really refreshing to see someone who will.
I liked a piece called "Via Mexico, Via Ecuador." It is about the Spanish-speaking cooks and busboys in back of the house people that work in restaurants. And he talks about the lives of these working class guys a lot of whom don't speak English, are maybe here illegally, who just really work really hard and are just as much the artists that you expect the chef to be.
Because it is a collection of pieces there are of course, going to be some that are better than others. And it doesn't have the cohesive narrative of something like "Kitchen Confidential." So, if you're looking for a story this isn't really a story. I would probably give this book around three and a half stars, out of five. It was, it's really, really good, but like I said there's some pieces that are better than others. So -"
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