I haven't read Kitchen Confidential, which I'm thinking I should pick up now. Someone quoted something from this book (which I can't even remember now), which made me want to read it. This is scathing to say the least, he really names names and tells us how he really feels. The descriptions of food are next level, to the point of making me a little ill as a second gen vegetarian who still cooks meat for the family. Tiny bird bones breaking and gushing steaming fat explosions are not on my list of must try food experiences. I will never get the allure of working in this industry, my anxiety could never. At one point he says he never said taking drugs was a good idea so he wasn't sure why so many of his fans did it to emulate him, but he also doesn't make the industry seem that appealing to begin with, was the fast-paced, grueling service industry supposed to seem like the good idea? That's obviously my own bias, but I'm thinking cocaine is the only way I'd get through a day on that job any way. ( )

Meh, parts were good, others not so much. I largely skimmed it, interested in his travels in Vietnam, his thoughts of fatherhood, his funny rant about Alice Waters. Many chapters seemed like filler. ( )

Nick and I listened to this audiobook as we drove from San Francisco to Los Angeles. Over dinner that night we talked about the book, and both of us were very reluctant to say the truth: we didn't really like it. We danced around it a bit, but in the end it had to be said. Both of us had a big problem with the narrative - it jumped all over the place with no notable pattern to keep it together. Judging from some of the reviews, it's actually a collection of essays rather than a narrative book, which I did not realize. Perhaps this would have been obvious if I was reading it instead of listening, but in the audio format the essay style just comes off as messy.

My other criticism is that it was so negative and complainy (is that a word?). Yes, I know this is Anthony Bourdain. I loved "No Reservations", "Kitchen Confidential", and he's one of my favorite guest judges on Top Chef - I am very aware that snide and complainy is what he does. But this was just so over the top, it felt like someone doing a caricature of Anthony Bourdain. It was exhausting and annoying, which isn't good for a 6 hour drive.

The good: there is one part where he goes into food porn mode, giving sizzling glimpses of food encounters that are great individually but layer together to make something magical (like eating figs, then eating them with prosciutto). Far and away the best part of the book. Be careful though, because hearing this section when you are surrounded by Wendy's and Subways and Pizza Hut To-Gos might just make you crazy. ( )

First things first, if you are new to the Cult of Bourdain, I strongly suggest watching an episode of one of his many television programs before committing to reading Medium Raw or any of his other books.

Moving on. When I am considering reading a book that is more than two or three years old (which admittedly doesn’t happen often), I, like most readers, investigate the reviews on Goodreads and other blogs, and then choose whether to listen to, or disregard, their sentiments. I also hope that is what you, dear readers, do with my book review entries here – please don’t take what I have to say be the end-all-be-all of your decision whether or not to read a book. That being said, I am always surprised when reviews or reviewers write a review that seems to indicate they had absolutely no background knowledge of the book or author they are reviewing.

It amazed me how many people gave Medium Raw less than stellar reviews because it somehow wasn’t what they were expecting. Medium Raw is exactly what I expected – 110% Anthony Bourdain, but you are also now knowingly reading a review by an avid Bourdainite. If you’ve ever listened to the man for five minutes, you would know exactly what he writes about, and the synopsis is fair warning enough if you are not familiar with his extensive body of television and written work. The man behind the writing and in front of the camera swears like a sailor, is occasionally crude, and is absolutely hysterical.

The collection of essays in Medium Raw runs the gamut from rant to informal interview and his admiration for the chefs he respects is very evident. He will be the first to point out how lucky he is to be living the life he now lives, and also to admit that he wouldn’t be able to make the cut in the great kitchens of American today. His arguments against particular eaters (vegetarians) and other chefs are well reasoned, and definitely well seasoned. While I agree with him most readily on just about every position he takes, I can only hope that those who disagree don’t write off his opinions without taking a moment to thoroughly understand them.

While he may be crass and admittedly, a bit harsh on certain others in the food world, he is a talented writer and his prose reads like he speaks – I even heard his voice in my head while reading and realized that I might as well listen to the audiobook for the last few essays, which he reads himself. I highly recommend both book and audiobook, and I hope that if you do decide to read his work, you’ll take it all with a pinch of salt. ( )

Here's another book that I'm a prime candidate for, because two of my favorite things are food and gossip, and here, Anthony Bourdain doesn't hold back on either. When he describes food, he really gives it his all, something I'm starving for in a food book. Exhibit A is the opening description of eating ortolan, traditionally with a napkin over his head–recognizable from season 1 of Succession–including the bird bones drawing blood from the inside of his mouth while eating. Plus, whereas in Kitchen Confidential everyone he was giving a rundown of were kind of nameless, faceless characters who were generic to the restaurant scenes in different parts of the country, in order to draw back the curtain on things that were universal to the world of restaurants, or New York, or New York restaurants, in this book, they're people with instantly recognizable names and faces, and he's classifying them all as either heroes or villains, and I can't get enough. This book is like a very slow, very laborious, drawn-out version of a tabloid or my favorite Instagram celebrity gossip account, Deuxmoi. He's always judicious about it, though. I'm curious about why he didn't have anything to say about Toby Wolf. Even though I'm beyond disappointed to hear him re-use the phrase "like Marilyn Manson and Betty Crocker had a love-child" after he said it in an episode of Top Chef he guest-judged on–it's...not even that funny; maybe he forgot–I seriously love the way he talks, thinks, and writes about food...and the people who cook it. I feel like he was an actual food philosopher; he spends almost all of his time wrestling with what's good and what's evil about food, and I don't think I realized that until he was gone. Of course there are some things he's really off about, but he also seems like he was capable of recognizing when that was the case and changing course. ( )