Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

The weirdest cookbook I have ever read. More like 2.5 stars, okay? I really, truly enjoy watching Anthony Bourdain, and reading his other books, but I call baloney on this cookbook. It's totally disjointed. I am a huge fan of his show, a huge fan of Italy (been twice) and a huge fan of eating and cooking really great food. I am a pho addict, and I will also go to great lengths to make a perfect sourdough bread, including spending two weeks creating a starter from scratch. I want to be moved by a cookbook to try new things, but this one doesn't inspire me at all. I was so disappointed. It doesn't make any sense to have this cookbook, other than to have another book to add to the Anthony Bourdain collection. This is a collection of recipes of food that he likes, and it thererfore includes his many opinions on how regular food should be served (I agree with a lot of it). Yet Bourdain has not cultivated anything original here, and I did not get excited enough to try the more complicated recipes. A non-fan might not know what this cookbook even stands for. Is this book for a housewife who doesn't know how to cook an egg or make tuna salad, or an aspiring gourmet (who probably already knows how to make bone stock)? Does anyone really need to be told what goes on a hamburger, how to serve crudites or how to make a deviled egg? I can Google that stuff, or better yet, buy a church fundraising cookbook. My mom does potato salad better than the recipe offered here. Seriously? National reviews are calling Bourdain "accessible", but in reality it goes from 0-120 mph with nonsensical, weird stuff in between (i.e. "Fight!"): Readers will get a recipe for scrambling an egg (I refuse to scramble an egg in a nonstick pan with a fork. Metal will ruin a good pan, no matter what J. Pepin does. I won't follow stupidity to the grave.) to extremely complicated Asian soups. Yes, I'm sure they are delicious, but no, I am not going to acquire all of those exotic ingredients, and yes, they are inaccessible and a bit pretentious no matter what you say. I love those soups, too, and I will leave that to the street vendors. There is no desert section because Bourdain prefers Stilton cheese and a good postprandial port wine. A.B.'s publishing house is making bank on this book, not food. Not really. That's for sure. Buy this cookbook for your A.B. book collection, anyway. Anthony Bourdain's schtick is that he is non-pretentious, edgy. The truth is that he IS pretentious, and the fact that he simply doesn't care what we think is what makes him punk. Now that it is his "thing" it is getting kind of lame. The book just isn't that great, and it is kind of a slap in the face to those cooks who actually spend a lot more time painstakingly cultivating recipes for us to enjoy at home.