Here’s a chapter from Anthony Bourdain’s book, Kitchen Confidential.
It’s a fun and colorful look at what sort of people end up in restaurant kitchens – I think you’ll enjoy reading it. When you’re reading, think about his descriptions of people interacting in a kitchen — what similar situations does your workplace have?
I personally enjoyed reading this article. The passion that the author shows by describing cooking is inspirational. I like the way he talks about the qualities of a good cooker, and I think that what he says about the people who became good chefs after being able to address all kinds of learning in the kitchen, is absolutely true. Well, I do not have any kitchen experience in that level, but I do know that when somebody learns to do something step by step it provides the person the knowledge of being better .Also, by repeating the task over and over again that person has a chance to become an expert in that field. Overall, I really enjoyed the reading and I think the reader can gain a lot of facts and tips that helps her/him to be diligent about everything she/he does in their life. Actually, the line that I like the most was the last sentence, it is a kind of given the reader a way of relaxation to take responsibilities very serious.
The kitchen seems to like a small society of its own. And Anthony Bourdain is a sociologist in his own right. If anyone has a chance they should watch his show. He travels the world and tries all the local foods. He learns about the food, how it is made as well as the history of it.
Someone mentioned in class food is a large part of any culture and Anthony Bourdain. And his adventures in food are also an opportunity to learn about how different cultures live.
After reading this article, we understand what people really worked in the kitchen. Since when you have dinner in the restaurant, you didn’t how clean your foods are prepared by the chefts. The author wanted to point out that it’s very critical to organize and keep clean all the time you work inside the kitchen, especially it’s helpful when it gets busy. People who work in the kitchen need to integrate well together to get the line smootly. Otherwise, someone made a mistakte, it would stuck the line,As a result, the foods were cooked which were thrown in the garbage. I enjoyed reading the article since I’m concerned about what foods I ate, whether they are prepared cleaned or not. It’s really important, since you don’t want to waste money buying foods which are so dirty.
The reading was hilarious! It is a true reflection of what my experience has been with kitchen staff, being that my professional vocation was in the culinary arts. The environment was very intense, and I changed trades, the first chance I got, as I knew a life in the kitchen was not for me. Although I did enjoy doing “garde mange”, (I think that’s how its spelt) the decoration of food. The reading reflected that the top chef liked to work with people who are very compliant. This plays out in the work place in the same way, as many bosses do not want you to be very creative or too independent, but want you to take their orders and follow through without questioning authority. When you question the status quo, this is sometimes seen as insubordination.
I believe Anthony Bourdain brings up an extremely delicate and very real topic in this reading. Life for workers, other than the head is very restricted way of working. They do not have the authorization to explore and experiment with orders. They have strict orders which they have to follow, much like a robot. This also follows onto many other professions, where other than high ranked employees, employees are not given much room to experiment and innovate.
I was amazed at how tolerant the people who work in this kitchen are to harrasment. It’s such a demeaning behavior – from pornography images to perverted comments and even touching each other – that I find it inconceivable that this type of sexual harrasment is allowed in the work place.
Apart from this and the very rigid, extremely fast paced and strict environment it seems that these people still enjoy it and get the most out of it. They share and have their fun. You must get along with your coworkers really well to deal with these factors daily and in order to have a stable organized working place and to do the job well and efficiently.
Nothing compared to working in an office, where you can’t even look at someone dirty without getting a complaint filed against you, where you may not necessarily get along with everyone and where fun comes in small doses.
I was surprised at how tolerant the people who work in this kitchen are to harrasment. Their behavior is demeaning – from posting pornography images, to perverted comments and even touching each other, I find it hard to believe that this type of sexual harrasment is allowed in the work place. You need to get along really well with your coworkers to tolerate such behavior and also to have a very stable, organized workplace to do your job efficiently.
Even though this is a very fast paced, strict, rigid environment they seem to enjoy it and have their fun. Nothing compared to working in an office where you can’t even look at anyone dirty without getting filed for harrasment, where you may not get along with everyone and fun comes in very small doses.
This is article is very interesting, it reminded of me working in a restaurant long time ago. It was a lot of fun working there with these co-workers. When we got many orders at the same time, I lost my mind, yelling, what the hell its going on today. Hurry up, I was waiting for your food.
I have worked in a kitchen before and this article definitely discusses the truth about kitchen. Where I work, head chief was a woman. She was the only women in the kitchen but she always made sure every guy in there respected her. She was a bit wild at time when you spoke to us. Like Bourdain, she only hired people who she can teach to do things her way. Not a big fan of school-trained workers.
I also recalled the time when I was working in a Mexican restaurant in Singapore. There were only Vietnemese and Burmese waiters and waitresses in the restaurant, and which creats a tension between the two groups. From this article, I realize how interesting it is to discover the kitchen culture in our society.