Here are some scraps from my reading of Anthony Bourdain’s very entertaining, insightful and impressive memoir Kitchen Confidential — my most fun read this year. ✝

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  • Impactful moments as a kid — that will shape one’s whole life. (× core desire line (How to Know a Person)) (Anthony Bourdain’s cold soup “wow moment”; AnCo).
  • “Whatever had the most shock value became my meal of choice” — deliberately going for the experimental (music).
  • “He knew, I think, that I had already been humiliated” — nothing more to break; being “broken” by somebody as an curricular experience for a chef.
  • Quoting staggering prices: “the more it cost, the more people wanted it” — “business was suddenly very, very good.”
  • Ingredients: savoir-faire, partners, drugs, opportunities.
  • Dirty toilet, dirty kitchen.
  • “Your body is not a temple. It’s an amusement park. Enjoy the ride.”
  • Pros don’t pivot — redouble efforts on original vision, know how much they’re willing to lose before pulling the plug.
  • Character trumps skills or employment history. “Skills can be taught. Character you either have or don’t have.”
  • Bigfoot — paragon of integrity and values.
  • Hear the same incident from different sources — notice what each source leaves out (and why.)
  • Prepping mentally the day ahead (× Made to Stick).
  • “during the middle of the rush, the pace was positively relaxing — more a seriously focussed waltz than mosh-pit slam-dancing” — × NO&B show-caller, relaxed voice.
    • Different ways of working — hectic & high-energy or relaxed & focussed.
      • “Wow” moments, of insight that things can be done differently (× rels).
      • Quantity vs quality.
      • × “It doesn’t have to be crazy at work.”
  • If you have blemishes, own it. If you steal, have a weakness, or dishonest somewhere — be transparent about it & own it.
  • Always be on time.
  • “Lazy, sloppy and slow are bad. Enterprising, crafty and hyperactive are good” — a work branch’s idioms.
  • “Assume the worst. Be amused by what you see or suspect. “Just because someone you work with is a miserable, treacherous, self-serving, capricious and corrupt asshole shouldn’t prevent you from enjoying his company, working with him or finding him entertaining.”
    • “Have a sense of humour about things.” (British spelling mine)
  • General kitchen tips:
    • Mise en place (× MacOs/Régie pre-show mise — knowing where everything is)
    • A shitload of towels
  • Meta (Elements of Book-Writing) (× Tiny Experiments)
    • Closing credits: the characters now — what has become of the people from the book, X years later, at time of publishing.