Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

As a (retired) chef I am not shocked nor scandalized as so manyreviewers apparently are about the inner workings of professionalkitchens. If that is why you want to read the book, you will receive a little titillation and learn that, yes, some kitchens are dirty and that, yes, some restaurants sell bad food at high prices to people who do not know any better. This book is, however, not particularly well-written nor well organized. The too few chapters which actually deal with cooking and behind the scene restaurant matters are fine, if a bit overwraught with expletives and sexual themes. There are a few words on knives and kitchen equipment and what it can be like cooking three hundred meals a night. The remainder - which unfortunately for me felt like the bulk - of the book concerns the author's involvement with drugs and a few sketches of people he worked with, some anonymously described. Mr. Bourdain may be a fine chef. He could have benefited from an editor who could help him tell his tale, and perhaps also caught the several typos sprinkled throughout the text.