COVER STORY

Medium Raw by Anthony Bourdain

For When: You're feeling hangry

by Hadley Assail

Published: Jun 16, 2010


(CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VERSION)

Her commentary may be controversial, writes Anthony Bourdain of a peer, but she "rarely if ever commits the first and most common sin of food writing — being boring." The same might be said of him: Whether you find the chef turned celebrity author obnoxious, endearing or both, you can't accuse Bourdain of being uninteresting.

By that standard, Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook doesn't disappoint. Part personal memoir, part anecdotal exposé, the book reads as a highly engaging account of food culture by someone who's spent most of his life immersed in it. Bourdain is as funny in Medium Raw as he was in Kitchen Confidential (see the chapter on his "Black Propaganda"-style campaign to turn his 2-year-old daughter off McDonald's); if you have any sense of humor at all — well, don't read with your mouth full.

Three highly publicized books into his stint as celebrity author, Bourdain has his recipe down pat, and his simmering blend of audacity, take-it-or-leave-it opinion and often-nuanced insight amounts to a pretty delicious meal. But the main ingredient is the chef himself, hovered over the pot in total control, inviting, provoking us to taste — and winning us over, in his inimitable way, one bite at a time.

Ecco, 304 pp., $26.99, June 8

Comments

Be the first to comment on this article.



Also In This Week's Cover Story Section

Throwing the Books at You
by Carolyn Huckabay
City Paper's Summer 2010 Book Quarterly

Imperial Bedrooms by Bret Easton Ellis
by Sam Kaplan
For When: You just can't say goodbye

Hitch 22: A Memoir by Christopher Hitchens
by Natalie Hope McDonald
For When: You're getting crucified

Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter by Tom Bissell
by Jakob Dorof
For When: You're on a killing spree

Anthropology of an American Girl by Hilary Thayer Hamann
by Emily Currier
For When: You're having girl problems

Packing For Mars by Mary Roach
by Shaun Brady
For When: Youíre finding your zero-G spot

At Least in the City Someone Would Hear Me Scream by Wade Rouse
by Josh Middleton
For When: You gotta be out in the country

Hollywood Hellraisers by Robert Sellers
by Janet Anderson
For When: The sheriff gon' come for you

The Hundred-Foot Journey by Richard C. Morais
by Gary M. Kramer
For When: You're all over the map

The Philadelphia Phillies: An Extraordinary Tradition edited by Scott Gummer
by Andrew Milner
For when: You realize you peaked in 2008

Kraken by China Miéville
by Mark Cofta
For When: You've got ocean madness

The Lonely Polygamist by Brady Udall
by Molly Eichel
For When: Your wandering days aren't over

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender
by Katherine Hill
For When: You've eaten your feelings

Zift by Vladislav Todorov translated by Joseph Benatov
by Matt Jakubowski
For When: The reds want you dead

Mr. Peanut by Adam Ross
by Char Vandermeer
For When: Your wife is driving you nuts

Made By Hand by Mark Frauenfelder
by Brian Howard
For When: You need just one fix

Talking to Girls About Duran Duran by Rob Sheffield
by Julia West
For When: You're hungry like the wolf

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell
by Justin Bauer
For When: You've fallen and you can't get up

The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains by Nicholas Carr
by Andrew Thompson
For When: A tangled web you weave

A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
by Rodney Anonymous
For when: Your rebel yell goes hoarse

 
 
ADVERTISEMENT