Anthony Bourdain’s Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook book soon
There’s something special on the menu for fans of Anthony Bourdain this summer. The author of the bestselling Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly book and the three-time Emmy-nominated host of No Reservations is coming out with a new book in June 2010.
Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook is said to be follow-up to his 2000 book Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly, a witty and no-holds-barred exposé of the darker side of the culinary world.
Ten years after he shot to fame as a foodie superstar by alerting people to the lurking dangers of eating out, Anthony Bourdain takes aim with Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook – a book that seesaws between the author’s past and the present.
Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook tracks Anthony Bourdain’s journey from being a cook to a globe-traveling professional eater and ultimately to fatherhood.
The book will be released on June 8, 2010.
Opening with a secret after-hours meeting of powerful chefs that he compares to a mafia summit, Anthony Bourdain dishes out the dirt on the modern gastronomical revolution in Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook book. He minces no words whatsoever.
Some of the biggest names in the foodie world, including David Chang, the young superstar chef who has revolutionalized fine dining, the respected Alice Waters, the Top Chef winners and losers, and many others come in for a tongue lashing.
The questions that have always been on the celebrity chef’s mind – ‘Why cook?’ and ‘Why cook well?’ – are raked up again.
Anthony Bourdain shot into the spotlight with his New York Times bestselling book Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly.
Kitchen Confidential is a mix of Anthony Bourdain’s professional memoirs and a behind-the-scenes look at restaurant kitchens. Describes in great detail the ins and outs of the restaurant trade, Kitchen Confidential was responsible for deglamorizing the professional culinary industry. Describing the commercial kitchen as an intense, unlikable and at times risky place of work staffed by “misfits,” Bourdain said this was no place for hobbyists.
Written as a narrative and an industry commentary, Anthony Bourdain reveals the tricks restaurants play. He advises customers to avoid ordering fish on a Monday as the fish would most likely be left over from the weekend. Similarly, avoid beef well done in a restaurant – the meat won’t be top grade as the flavor is masked by overcooking.
Kitchen Confidential‘s success got Anthony Bourdain an offer to host his own food and world travel show. He started off with A Cook’s Tour on the Food Network in 2002. In 2005, came Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations on the Travel Channel. No Reservations sealed Bourdain’s reputation as a celeb chef and passionate eater.
Anthony Bourdain penned two more New York Times bestselling nonfiction books – A Cook’s Tour (2001), an account of his food and travel exploits across the world, written along with his first television series; and The Nasty Bits (2006), a collection of anecdotes and essays mainly centered on food.
Anthony Bourdain’s articles and essays have appeared in many publications, including The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Observer, Gourmet, Maxim, Esquire (UK), Scotland on Sunday, The Face, Food Arts, The Independent, Financial Times, and Town & Country.
Anthony Bourdain, currently honorary Chef-at-Large of Brasserie Les Halles, lives in Manhattan with his wife, Ottavia, and 3-year-old daughter, Ariane, when he’s not traveling.