About the Author

Chef and author Anthony Bourdain wrote the New York Times bestselling memoirs Kitchen Confidential, Medium Raw, and A Cook's Tour; the collection The Nasty Bits; the novels Bone in the Throat, The Bobby Gold Stories, and Gone Bamboo; the biography Typhoid Mary; and the cookbooks Appetites and Les Halles Cookbook.

Bourdain was the host of the Emmy and Peabody Award-winning docuseries Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown on CNN, and prior to that hosted the Emmy Award-winning No Reservations and The Layover on the Travel Channel and The Taste on ABC.

Reviews

"High- and low-lights from the culinary world by the delightfully jaded chef." --People "His writing is at its most savory in passages about the joys of sharing food with people who love it. His words are not always gentlemanly, but they vividly convey how, say, sitting on the plastic-covered kitchen floor of an Inuit family's house and joining in as they eagerly tear into the raw liver, brain and blubber of a freshly killed seal can be, as Mr. Bourdain says, a moment of rare intimacy, pleasure and indeed beauty." --Wall Street Journal "Lovable rogue chef and author of Kitchen Confidential describes stomach-roiling feasts in exotic lands and snipes at celebrity chefs in this entertaining tome." --Chicago Tribune "A vivid and witty writer...[Bourdain's] greatest gift is his ability to convey his passion for professional cooking...In Bourdain's telling this is inspiring, band-of-brothers stuff, a tale of the trenches where ends almost always justify means." --New York Times Book Review "[An] informed and unvarnished view from the kitchen...[Bourdain's] best writing can make food lovers quiver like raw fish." --Cleveland Plain Dealer

Bourdain does not suffer fools, airplane food, or pretension wisely. His latest non-cookbook-an essay collection divided into the flavors of salty, sweet, bitter, sour, and umami-makes for highly entertaining and sometimes shocking reading. Readers, in turn, will encounter a range of thoughts, from a challenging description of a seal being butchered for food to musings on Brazilian street food and the unsung French bistro classics like Rongons de Veau Dijonnaise and Tripes a la Mode de Caen and other old-fashioned dishes that some might feel are the "nasty bits" indeed. Lovers of adventurous culinary experiences will find much to whet their appetites here, and those who loathe the celebrity chef phenomena will find a friend in Bourdain. At the book's close are commentaries on the essays (many were previously published), which give the author the opportunity to revisit some strongly expressed opinions. His passion for food, pungent writing, and knowledge of the culinary world make this an excellent purchase for most public libraries.-Shelley Brown, Richmond P.L., Vancouver, B.C. Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

"High- and low-lights from the culinary world by the delightfully jaded chef." --People "His writing is at its most savory in passages about the joys of sharing food with people who love it. His words are not always gentlemanly, but they vividly convey how, say, sitting on the plastic-covered kitchen floor of an Inuit family's house and joining in as they eagerly tear into the raw liver, brain and blubber of a freshly killed seal can be, as Mr. Bourdain says, a moment of rare intimacy, pleasure and indeed beauty." --Wall Street Journal "Lovable rogue chef and author of Kitchen Confidential describes stomach-roiling feasts in exotic lands and snipes at celebrity chefs in this entertaining tome." --Chicago Tribune "A vivid and witty writer...[Bourdain's] greatest gift is his ability to convey his passion for professional cooking...In Bourdain's telling this is inspiring, band-of-brothers stuff, a tale of the trenches where ends almost always justify means." --New York Times Book Review "[An] informed and unvarnished view from the kitchen...[Bourdain's] best writing can make food lovers quiver like raw fish." --Cleveland Plain Dealer