Ardge
Senior Cook
Truly astounding.
If ever I get to NY, I am gonna try to shake this man's hand. What a cool cookbook.
I read Anthony's first book, "Kitchen Confidential," before I ever held a saute pan professionally. I read it while riding the train to cooking school and I always thought the majority of his writings were fabricated a bit. "Co'mon, It can't be that bad!?" There is NO WAY that happened!" And so on.... Well, with nearly a year and a half under my belt in the cooking profession, I too can write a book of all the disturbing stuff I've seen and scary people I've met. (Well, maybe not a book yet, but surely a few good chapters.)
As far as I know, this is Mr. Bourdain's third book and first as a true "cookbook." It houses all of the recipes from Les Halles in New York, written in Tony's unique flair for life. It reads as if he's speaking to you while he sips a beer with you at the bar. Even the glossary is written in Tony's own words. I read through them testing my retention of my CUL 101 vocabulary and found myself laughing aloud.
Example #1
Foie Gras - The fattened liver of a goose or duck. Unfortunately, an endangered menu item with the advent of angry, humorless, twisted anticruelty activists who've never had any kind of good sex or laughed heartily at a joke in their whole miserable lives and who are currently threatening and terrorizing chefs and their families to get the stuff banned. Likely to disappear from tables outside of France in our lifetime.
Example #2
Bisque - Yet another term that has been so totally corrupted over time as to become unrecognizable. Originally, bisque was thought to be the original soup: usually shellfish, pounded with rocks or primitive mortar and pestle by our apelike forebears until soupy. Classically, a bisque is a soup of lobster or crab in which the pulverized shells are an element or thickening agent. These days, however, it seems to mean any damn soup you throw into a blender until a rough puree is achieved, e.g., tomato bisque. A pretentious creamed or pureed soup.
Tony tells how it is and I love him for it.
If you like French food, and want to learn from a master, pick up Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles Cookbook.
It's magnificent to say the least.
RJ
If ever I get to NY, I am gonna try to shake this man's hand. What a cool cookbook.
I read Anthony's first book, "Kitchen Confidential," before I ever held a saute pan professionally. I read it while riding the train to cooking school and I always thought the majority of his writings were fabricated a bit. "Co'mon, It can't be that bad!?" There is NO WAY that happened!" And so on.... Well, with nearly a year and a half under my belt in the cooking profession, I too can write a book of all the disturbing stuff I've seen and scary people I've met. (Well, maybe not a book yet, but surely a few good chapters.)
As far as I know, this is Mr. Bourdain's third book and first as a true "cookbook." It houses all of the recipes from Les Halles in New York, written in Tony's unique flair for life. It reads as if he's speaking to you while he sips a beer with you at the bar. Even the glossary is written in Tony's own words. I read through them testing my retention of my CUL 101 vocabulary and found myself laughing aloud.
Example #1
Foie Gras - The fattened liver of a goose or duck. Unfortunately, an endangered menu item with the advent of angry, humorless, twisted anticruelty activists who've never had any kind of good sex or laughed heartily at a joke in their whole miserable lives and who are currently threatening and terrorizing chefs and their families to get the stuff banned. Likely to disappear from tables outside of France in our lifetime.
Example #2
Bisque - Yet another term that has been so totally corrupted over time as to become unrecognizable. Originally, bisque was thought to be the original soup: usually shellfish, pounded with rocks or primitive mortar and pestle by our apelike forebears until soupy. Classically, a bisque is a soup of lobster or crab in which the pulverized shells are an element or thickening agent. These days, however, it seems to mean any damn soup you throw into a blender until a rough puree is achieved, e.g., tomato bisque. A pretentious creamed or pureed soup.
Tony tells how it is and I love him for it.
If you like French food, and want to learn from a master, pick up Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles Cookbook.
It's magnificent to say the least.
RJ
