Anthony Bourdain and His Chef's Confession: How One Cynic Changed the Culinary WorldIn 1999, no one knew who Anthony Bourdain was. He was an ordinary chef at the New York restaurant Brasserie Les Halles, who, as he himself said, "was experiencing both the best and worst of times." But when his essay was published in The New Yorker, and then his book "Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly," he literally blew the lid off the perception of what professional kitchens were like. Bourdain didn't write about sauces and foie gras like his colleagues. He wrote about drugs, brutal sous chefs, the smell and dirt, and that on the kitchen you don't live — you survive. His confession became a manifesto for an entire generation of chefs, and he himself turned from an anonymous worker into the voice of the culinary underworld.Who Was Bourdain Before FameAnthony Michael Bourdain was born in 1956 in New Jersey. He didn't dream of being a chef — he dreamed of being a writer. But after college, he ended up in a culinary school because "there was something to do." The 1980s and 1990s he spent on the fringes of the New York restaurant scene, working in the most diverse establishments: from cheap diners to trendy bistros. There he learned the dark side of the profession: harmful habits, wild parties that were followed by exhausting shifts at the stove. Bourdain was part of this system and he both hated and loved it at the same time.By the age of 40, he was already a chef, but felt stuck. He started writing — first articles for non-specialized magazines, then a novel that no one wanted to publish. And one day The New Yorker published his essay "Don't Read This If You Have a Weak Stomach" — an honest account of what happens in the kitchen when guests can't see. This essay attracted the attention of publishers, and thus the book was born."Kitchen Confidential": The Book That Changed EverythingThe book was published in 2000 and became a bestseller. Bourdain wrote with in ... Read more