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Medium Raw

A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook

Anthony Bourdain

288 pages

A profane, passionate, and surprisingly tender late-night rant about the soul of the culinary world and the messy business of growing up.

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What it feels like

Reading this feels like pulling up a barstool next to a brilliant, foul-mouthed friend after a grueling kitchen shift. It is a brisk, intoxicating ride through the underbelly and the glittering heights of the modern food world, fueled by equal parts righteous anger and deep, abiding love for the craft. The prose is visceral and unapologetic, slicing through culinary pretension with a razor-sharp wit, yet beneath the signature bravado lies a surprisingly tender undercurrent. As the narrative shifts from wild, drug-fueled memories to the sobering realities of aging and fatherhood, the atmosphere mellows from chaotic to reflective. It will absolutely delight industry veterans, passionate gourmands, and anyone who craves a brutally honest, deeply human memoir served with a side of biting cultural critique.

Mood
  • gritty
  • intoxicating
  • nostalgic
  • unapologetic
Tone
  • irreverent
  • passionate
  • cynical
  • confessional
  • sharp-tongued
Pace
brisk
Themes
culinary evolution · aging and maturation · art versus commerce · the dark side of fame · finding meaning in craft
The writing
Visceral, profane, and highly conversational, reading like a brilliant, late-night bar rant.
The arc
Moves from fiery, rebellious cynicism to a surprisingly tender, reflective acceptance of change and fatherhood.
Who it's for
Food lovers, industry veterans, and anyone who appreciates a brutally honest, no-bullshit cultural critique mixed with memoir.
Content notes
  • profanity
  • substance abuse references
  • crude humor
  • animal slaughter

About the book

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, Bourdain takes no prisoners as he dissects what he's seen, pausing along the way for a series of confessions, rants, investigations, and interrogations of some of the most controversial figures in food.Beginning with a secret and highly illegal after-hours gathering of powerful chefs that he compares to a mafia summit, Bourdain pulls back the curtain—but never pulls his punches—on the modern gastronomical revolution, as only he can. Cutting right to the bone, Bourdain sets his sights on some of the biggest names in the foodie world, including David Chang, the young superstar chef who has radicalized the fine-dining landscape; the revered Alice Waters, whom he treats with unapologetic frankness; the Top Chef winners and losers; and many more.And always he returns to the question "Why cook?" Or the more difficult "Why cook well?" Medium Raw is the deliciously funny and shockingly delectable journey to those answers, sure to delight philistines and gourmands alike.

Description from Open Library.

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