Join a book club that is reading Kitchen Confidential Updated Edition: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly (P.S.)!

MAP: Reading Rutabagas

Join Massachusetts Avenue Project’s Book Club, the Reading Rutabagas, to collectively read and discuss books related to our mission. Book topics and themes will include social justice, urban farming, food systems, and the environment. We are a Buffalo West side community book club!

Our mission is to nurture the growth of a diverse, accessible, and equitable local food system, promote economic opportunities, and empower youth through social change education.

The Draughting Table

History, historical fiction, fantasy, and the occasional novel. Casual book conversation in good company, perhaps in a quiet pub.

Kitchen Confidential Updated Edition: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly (P.S.)

An updated and revised edition of Anthony Bourdain's mega-bestselling Kitchen Confidential, with new material from the original edition

Almost two decades ago, the New Yorker published a now infamous article, “Don’t Eat before You Read This,” by then little-known chef Anthony Bourdain. Bourdain spared no one’s appetite as he revealed what happens behind the kitchen door. The article was a sensation, and the book it spawned, the now classic Kitchen Confidential, became an even bigger sensation, a megabestseller with over one million copies in print. Frankly confessional, addictively acerbic, and utterly unsparing, Bourdain pulls no punches in this memoir of his years in the restaurant business.

Fans will love to return to this deliciously funny, delectably shocking banquet of wild-but-true tales of life in the culinary trade from Chef Anthony Bourdain, laying out his more than a quarter-century of drugs, sex, and haute cuisine—this time with never-before-published material.

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Published Jan 9, 2007

312 pages

Average rating: 7.89

222 RATINGS

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Community Reviews

boyleschris
Mar 16, 2025
Lesa's recommendation.
K Olson
Jan 14, 2025
6/10 stars
While there are some interesting chapters the book dragged for me at points.
gregdeadlyheffley
Sep 05, 2025
8/10 stars
This book is rather pretentious, and is all about working as the lowest in a culinary profession. I am pretentious, however I am for the most part unemployed. In spite of my occupational deficiencies, I found this book to be incredibly relatable, sometimes touching and often hilarious. I have stolen many colloquialisms and pieces of slang from this book which I will continue to use for the rest of my life and credit myself with creating. One day I will maybe be exposed, and will be ostracised to working the line in a cheap sea food restaurant in the off season in massachusettes, pretending to be a teenager when i’m actually approaching 47 years old. You can only dream.
QuiteContrary
Aug 13, 2025
9/10 stars
Loved it. Fast paced writing about what makes food delicious and the underbelly of restaurant kitchens.
CRUDDYC
Jun 24, 2025
7/10 stars
A very intriguing take on the experience of an inquisitive individual in the world of culinary arts.

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