Review: Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly

Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly by Anthony Bourdain
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Anthony Bourdain is a no holds barred kinda guy. He is extremely candid and unapologetic in life and that attitude comes across loudly in Kitchen Confidential. The man could be an ass and he admits it. He has been around the block a few times, been chewed up, and spit out. That is what you call experience and when it comes to the culinary world, he has that in spades. This book is Bourdain laid out raw from his youth traveling to France with his family and discovering what food should really taste and look like to being a well known culinary personality known worldwide. The art of eating is about using all the senses and Bourdain gained this understanding at an early age. As a young man, he went on to be a mediocre sous chef before going on to school at the Culinary Institute of America. He worked his way up to be an Executive Chef at Les Halles in New York and finally as a journalist and television host of shows like No Reservations and Parts Unknown. This man knows food, how to cook it, how to eat it, how to savor it.

I have seen Bourdain's shows off and on over the years. I was never very fond of him because of the way he would bash other chefs in the media, but then I saw him on The Taste, a short-lived cooking competition that seemed to try to copy cat The Voice. I had more respect for him after watching him on there. He was less "loud" and more compassionate and I could see the respect he had for culinary arts. I was saddened to hear of his passing in 2018. The man was extreme and likely dealt with a lot that did not come out to the public. I had planned to read this book for some time. It's sad to see how full of life he was when he wrote this book. He was a person that never considered giving up but would cut his losses at one job to go on to something that would be better and build on his skills. Something got lost somewhere along the way, I suspect. He definitely had a heart and was compassionate of people, at least those he was close with, outside of work. All of these aspects of his personality come out in this book.

I will say that after reading this book if I ever had an inclination to go into the restaurant business, this has killed that desire. I appreciate restauranteurs and others that work in the business more than ever. It's a hard job and takes a lot of work and planning. I much prefer to enjoy the end result, something that Bourdain often did himself. It's what made him an icon in the culinary world.

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Review: In Cold Blood

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

On November 15, 1959, in a quiet town in western Kansas, a family of four were sound asleep resting up for another day on the prairie. It would be their last night alive. During the night two men, Dick Hickock and Perry Smith broke into the home of Herbert Clutter with the expectation to rob the family of the tens of thousands of dollars apparently sitting in a home office safe. There was no safe and there was only $40 total in the house. The men planned to leave no witnesses, executing the four members of the Clutter family still living at home. The murderers and would-be thieves left quietly in the night and thought they were scot-free.

Truman Capote follows the movement of the Clutters and Hickock and Perry through the days leading up to the murders, the night of the murder, and the aftermath including the eventual arrest and trial of the criminals. The reader also learns their eventual fate. Capote's work is based on facts and interviews of the case but reads like a novel. Written in 1965, this book is an early example of true crime stories and is still a best selling book.

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Review: Scone Cold Dead

Scone Cold Dead by Karen MacInerney
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

In Karen MacInerney's 9th edition to the Gray Whale Inn mystery series, Natalie Barnes, owner of the Gray Whale Inn Bed and Breakfast on the little Maine community of Cranberry Island, is hosting a number of guest in town teaching and attending classes at the new art guild. As it turns out, a couple of the guests seem to know each other from a prior time in their lives and the reunion is less than amicable. Meanwhile, the men of the local lobster coalition are up in arms over a strange incident of boats being cut loose during the night. There are rumors of illegal fishing and selling of lobsters, causing in-fighting within the group. To add to the island's hullabaloo, one of Natalie's B&B guests turns up dead and the killer could be any one of a number of locals and guests.

I thoroughly enjoy Karen MacInerney's cozy mystery series. The characters in this series have become so well developed over time that reading the stories feel like you're reading about great friends and family. There are bonus recipes at the end of the book of all of the food mentioned in the story. As always, I look forward to new books in all of Karen's series.

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Review: Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom

Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom by David W. Blight
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book is the culmination of a career's worth of work and research by David W. Blight on Frederick Douglass' life. From Douglass' first memories as a slave on the Auld plantation through his death, Blight tells the story of the African-American abolitionist that worked tirelessly to help free people of bondage, advocate for the end of slavery, and work toward civil rights and franchisement of African-Americans.

Douglass could not remember much about his mother or his family, he never knew his father or his true birth date. He was tortured as a slave and eventually became a fugitive on the loose. He met and married Anna and began his own family as he began to advocate for emancipation through lectures and writings. To avoid recapture, Douglass left his family behind to run the lecture circuit in Europe until his freedom could be bought. He sparked a professional friendship with President Abraham Lincoln, to influence his understanding of slavery and civil rights for African-Americans. He watched his sons go off to war in the fight against slavery and continued on the lecture circuit during Reconstruction to argue for the right to vote for all men regardless of color.

Throughout his married life, Douglass became the patriarch of a large family who would forever burden him financially, causing Douglass to never retire. His life seemed to have constant ups and downs riddled with death and monetary woes. As much as he was admired for his work in the abolition movement, he was also hated by his enemies who fought against civil rights. His words and works live on and still resonant today as racial issues are still at the forefront of our nation's mind.

This book is very well researched and Douglass' life is meticulously chronicled by Blight. It is easy to understand why this book earned the Pulitzer Prize.

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