Medium Raw
A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook
by Anthony Bourdain · first published 2010
60% recommend40% neutral
The long-awaited follow-up to the megabestseller Kitchen ConfidentialIn the ten years since his classic Kitchen Confidential first alerted us to the idiosyncrasies and lurking perils of eating out, from Monday fish to the breadbasket conspiracy, much has changed for the subculture of chefs and cooks, for the restaurant business—and for Anthony Bourdain.Medium Raw explores these changes, moving back and forth from the author's bad old days to the present. Tracking his own strange and unexpected voyage from journeyman cook to globe-traveling professional eater and drinker, and even to fatherhood
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Things you can easily read on the beach: A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again by David Foster Wallace. The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov. Medium Raw by Anthony Bourdain (but read Kitchen Confidential first if you haven't already). Also recommend FiveBooks.com, which does interviews with various academics and "thinkers" each recommending 5 books on…
on “Ask HN: Summer Reading Recommendations?” ↗Along the theme of "unexpectedly resonant books for startup entrepreneurs", can I submit "Kitchen Confidential" by Anthony Bourdain? (Medium Raw, a 2010 book, was also pretty good --- although probably only if you're into the high-end restaurant scene).
on “Ask HN: Best book you read in 2010 and briefly why” ↗…Anthony, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33313.Kitchen_Confidenti... - Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother's Will to Survive by Land, Stephanie, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39218350-maid - Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook by Bourdain, Anthony, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40409969-medium-raw - Confessions of a Tax Collector: One Man's Tour of Duty…
on “Ask HN: Best books you've read in 2019?” ↗…Anthony, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33313.Kitchen_Confidenti.... - Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother's Will to Survive by Land, Stephanie, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39218350-maid - Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook by Bourdain, Anthony, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40409969-medium-raw - Confessions of a Tax Collector: One Man's Tour of Duty…
on “Ask HN: Favorite Nonfiction Books of 2019?” ↗Yeah different vibe but also his narrator voice wasn't developed at all yet with Kitchen Confidential. I found it fascinating comparing the two readings. Also Chapter 3 of Medium Raw - where he eviscerates the idle rich - is maybe the funniest thing I've ever read in my life. http://subwayreads.org/book/medium-raw/
on “A haunting new documentary about Anthony Bourdain” ↗…kindle or iPad, I don't particularly (the Kindle is "OK"). > Ebooks are lighter than their equivalent books It depends on the book TBH. A lot will be heavier, many won't. The book I'm currently reading ("Medium Raw" by Anthony Bourdain) is 49g heavier than a kindle (the cheapest in the UK), which for me is effectively the same as 0g in terms of wether I will notice. I am a relatively strong man, throwing a book…
on “When Microsoft's eBook store closes, your books disappear too” ↗…channel those feelings, appropriately, into a demand that I do a shot of tequila with him. Or two. Which is a relatively friendly and diplomatic solution to an awkward situation." - Anthony Bourdain, "Medium Raw" (I opened to a random page) Another great artist lost to suicide. Anthony Bourdain reinvented food writing with his book "Kitchen Confidential", injecting a brutal honesty and punk rock ethos into the…
on “Anthony Bourdain has died” ↗…you can pay $100 more to go from 14 to 18 courses, but, as someone who's eaten at Alinea before, I wouldn't recommend that. Anthony Bourdain has a whole chapter about the $800-meal phenomenon in NYC in Medium Raw, and, long story short, those people are getting rolled.
on “You Crashed a $3M Bugatti. Now What?” ↗The difference between his reading of Kitchen Confidential and Medium Raw is like night and day.
on “A haunting new documentary about Anthony Bourdain” ↗