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A CHEF’S STORY Kitchen Confidential
Some publicity for Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly might lead you to think he's written the catering equivalent of Julia Phillips's Hollywood exposé You’ll Never Eat Lunch In This Town Again. Certainly he divulges some trade secrets, from the mundane - un-eaten bread is frequently re- served at different tables (shock! horror!) - to the grotesque - three-foot parasitic worms infest swordfish. His frank tales are also littered with an array of debauched kitchen characters, a composite of which would be a foul-mouthed, testosterone-filled masturbating drug abuser who probably shouldn’t be trusted in a military mess hall let alone a two-star restaurant.
Indeed, after 25 years in the business Bourdain has seen a lot and may never cook lunch professionally again - but not because of a few damning revelations in Kitchen Confidential. No, the massive success of the memoir has led to a multi-book contract, bidding wars for foreign rights and what he terms a ’whopping’ movie deal. The executive chef of Manhattan’s Les Halles brasserie can afford not to return to his kitchen station.
'Everything is different,’ Bourdain says during a stop in Glasgow. 'People are now sending me around the world paying for my hotels and my beers. I feel like a passenger in a stolen car. I fully expect to see the police in the rear view mirror any minute now . . . or my publisher to call up and say "Sorry Tony, there’s been a terrible mistake. It’s not your book that's on the best-seller list, it’s that Hasselhoff bio". '
A salt-and-pepper shock of hair, nicotine- stained teeth, and a New Yorker's proclivity towards free-flowing talk, he is chuffed with the new-found attention — particularly as two early novels failed commercially. In fact, Bourdain’s stab at non-fiction is not as good as his last book, A Bone In The Throat, which was finally published in the UK this year by Canongate. Bone cleverly incorporated his knowledge of the seamy side of the business into a tidy tale of Mafiosi and murder. Given that it is now being reissued in the States with the full PR push, we can expect Bourdain to become the gourmet world's John Grisham.
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RUMBLEDETHUMP
KITCHEN
ADVENTURES
IN THE CUIINARY UNDERBELLY
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'I feel like a passenger in a stolen car. I fully expect to see the police in
the rear view mirror any minute now . . .'
For all the sex, drugs and rock ’n’ dinner rolls of Bourdain's early professional years, eventually he went straight. Kitchen Confidential reminds readers that running a first—class restaurant takes long hours, hard work and, above all, discipline. Ultimately Bourdain has done the industry a service - not by exposing practises that might shock the public and upset peers but by extolling high standards of preparation, staffing, and service. (Barry Shelby) in thcnen Confidential: Adventures In the Culinary Underbelly Bloomsbury, £76.99.
Scots Cooking
Scots
cooking
100 THE lIST 7—21 56;) 2000
W to Mastercnef repoaec: y ‘ac "g the Cnoo by the BBC, Sue Laurence s one of the ten vv-Me's o‘ the once mass ve y watched T\" snov. who's gone on to greater 9 o'y A st “2 as rec be \".'.'l:er ‘or The Sunday Tunes as wel‘ as cont.r Oct “9 to malo' magaz "es SuC" as Cotrntr/ szrng "ave elevated Dundee-born Laurence above amateur status Nov. he“ egbt" ooo< nas been OoO seed by Heao he Scots Cooking; The best tradltzonal 8'70 contemporary Scott/5n recroes
Her entroouctoc oac<y acknowledges the ca enges o‘ chamoonrng Scott‘s" coo< "ete "g a Fred lvlacAo ay go<e about ea: co 0 ch os as 'saao’ the "ex: oay She ooes 0 rec: batt e aga nst the percent t"a'. deep-‘reo tbs or t"a°., chased v. t" a bot: e o‘ tep 0 Ir“ Bro, exemoi ‘ es Scott sh corsrr‘e. MUC" as Eng. s" ‘a'e was better DGiO'P the 19th century
advent o‘ 00 r‘g every:n “g to beat", the Scott 5" 0 et ore-oeeo "yers was scrro’S<ng?y' averse. Better ‘0’ the "c" but even pro es maoe the oes‘. o‘ "esp O'OGUCG soc" as oysters and crabs: oe‘ore they became oxares ‘Pemaos/ sne \v' tes, ‘we can. return to the "ones: mgred ents ra sec and grown on 0..r so 8"O treat them wt" the "espect they were {once} accorceo . . .'
Her rec oes rahge t'rom soup to Meat and game d shes, ‘ 5b to sweets, nc‘uo ng evocatve‘y ntanned traotma ‘a'e — rambleoetburno, c aos"o:, craooa ne 0, and co'len SK n< For the tai< 0‘ fresh o'oooce, noueye', the use 0‘ oneo’ rmarrow'a: peas " "e' b g peas and ang tattes rec be may core as a o: o‘ a suro'se Bo: toolnts to 3‘8 bract ca. and unpretentoos s oe o‘ t" s DOO<' recipes \vzth read y ava- ab e rvagredlents. lBarry She'by‘
I! Scots Cooking, Head/me, £78 99.
Spit or swallow
It’s all done in the best possible taste 'Ollllm a COIIIdEr dnnker,’ went the song, dOll'lg no favours to cider when rt came to berng taken seriously. It’s either drunk by bumpkrns or by under- age teenagers. Thrngs are changrng though, and tradrtronai crders are making a comeback, even If the market rs Silll awash wrth so-called ’strOng whrte’ ciders, \Vthh are lrghtly appley and make you go blrnd half way down the bottle.
Strongbow
(5.3% 500ml can, 69p-99p, widely available)
This Surely needs no lflUOdUCIIOfl, but It’ll get one anyway. One of the most famous white Crders, thrs Is really lrgnt golden m colour and brewed for mass appeal. As such It’s very Lght; faint baked apple aromas on the nose and ourte a light, dr ute flavour, Ice cold, It’s not a bad thrrst quencher.
Scrumpy Jack
(6% 500ml can, 99p, Peckham's)
Thrs Is very different. Tne colour rs gOIden wrth a tnge of red, and the smell of fgpe red apples leaps out the glass, The palate rs Sur?_”s‘”9’y Ilghias _ PREMIUM weir. brg app-e ’Iav0urs tram,“ am but \Vltl". a ..ght flnrsh. L.ke so many c:ders, It ,
ls deceptwely strong. -~ ‘ Weston's In Bottle Conditioned (6% 500ml bottle, £1.49, Oddbins) The ‘rs: of the SDECIal'iy cders. ere " some bottled real ales, thrs :s a 'llve' brew, In that ;t's bottled mth :ve yeasts, addrng some complexty and the abr:.ty to develop over acne. Surprrszngiy ':ght In c0lour, and \v'th extremely fresh aople arorhas, tnrs really comes :nto rts own wth tne t’avow. Incredlbly complex faye's of f’lavow \v th an amazing smoky bacon a‘tertaste
Weston's Organic
(6% 500ml bottle, £1.69, Oddbins) Deep anaber an “(Shiv colow, this éoo+<s cOrnprete y d tiered: to the rest Concentrated apple aromas brg, blU‘SeC red hlaCklntosl‘. apples It's very ‘ul- pooled and has a touch 0" sweetness — not over the {OD — and rt is extremely \yeii balanced. Try thrs even If you thank yOu don’t Irke crder. Eye openrng. (Gordon Haggarty‘