REVIEW 67
Confessions of a cook If you enjoy eating food, cooking food or need food to survive, Kitchen Confiden- tial: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly by Anthony Bourdain is the book for you. If you’re looking for tips on wowing your dinner guests, however, or getting your roast spuds crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside, perhaps you should look elsewhere. to the point where his work was merely a means to finance his dependence. Bourdain ultimately reflects on over- coming addiction and offers advice to readers with a desire to prepare food ‘like the pros’.
Humour, often dark, is a constant throughout; explanations as to what hap- pens to a steak that’s ordered well done and why one should never order fish on a Monday, as well as a string of anecdotes about the kind of debasing behaviour that passes for camaraderie in the ‘culinary underbelly’ Bourdain describes so vividly. Bourdain would later express his regret, however, in light of the #MeToo move- ment, that KitchenConfidential “celebrated or prolonged a culture that allowed the kind of grotesque behaviours we’re hearing about all too frequently”. In that sense this book is of its time but the story, and the style and panache with which it’s told, is truly sustaining. – Max Ryan Kitchen Confidential. Published by Bloomsbury Publishing RRP €13.99. ISBN: 9781408845042
Through the prism of his tumultuous career, the late Bourdain opens up about his mental health issues, his struggle with addiction and his eventual rise to culi- nary infamy, first as a line cook at various doomed-to-fail dives along the east coast of the US and later, as head chef at some of New York City’s busiest establishments. Bourdain describes falling in love with ‘good’ food as a child while on holiday in France. He recounts the ‘wilderness years’ of his career and introduces the reader to the variety of vagrant sous chefs, dish- washers, porters and ‘fry guys’ with whom he shared a kitchen over the years. For a time the Bourdain was a carefree wunderkind whose ambition, manifested
in a healthy chef’s pay cheque, led to a life of excess. Where before his taste for class A narcotics was simply a way of getting through particularly gruelling shifts, his addiction quickly became all encompassing
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Crossword
Across 1 Eyesight disorder resulting from the vista of large measures of spirits? (6,6) 7 Choose? There’s no point! (3) 9 Bet made before cards are dealt (4) 10 Feed for animals (6) 11 Plant used in the making of linen (4) 14 Is in need of (5) 15 Paddle this in either direction (5) 16 Mexican filled pancake (4) 18 Untouched by the censor (5) 21 Given medicine in part of a Barbados edifice (5) 22 Concerning the kidneys (5) 23 Brushed leather (5) 24 Glimpse the eastern agent (4) 25 Poisonous (5) 26 Dangerous physical reaction - to southern German wine? (5) 29 Make whiffs of smoke; swell up (4) 33 Dodged (6) 34 Large water jug (4)
Down 1 The professor starts debates on neutrality (3) 2 Availed of (4) 3 Attic (4) 4 Spirit associated with Russia, Poland etc (5) 5 & 9d A diet peaked? Skinny adapts to such nourishment (5,3,6,3) 6 Name which means ‘Christmas’ (4) 8 May a revenue official extol Colt car transformation? (3,9) 9 See 5 down 12 Blue-floweredmintyherb found inaposy?Sh! (6) 13 Slides out of control (5) 14 Mature nit (5) 17 Wing that has been added to a building (6)
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September crossword solution Across: 1 Cos 3 Articulated lorry 8 Tunnel 9 Counting sheep 10 Alice 11 Robes 13 Fades 15 Leopard 16 Pork pie hat 21 Franc 24 Halloumi 25 Came to 26 Taxidermist 27 Ska Down:1 Cottage loaf 2 San Diego 3 Abele 4 Include 5 Loner 6 Trilby 7 Dog 12 Sleep apnoea 13 Feral 14 Story 17 Pyrenees 18 Uranium 19 Hallux 22 Crowd 23 Start
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19 Brook (5) 20 Banal (5) 27 Wretched dwelling (5) 28 The trainee officer acted strangely (5)
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The winner of the September crossword is: Catherine Gunn Listowel, Co Kerry
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36 30 Number represented by Roman numeral IV (4) 31 Heavy hand tool used for dressing or shaping wood (4) 32 Deceased (4) 35 Cathedral city in Cambridgeshire where lye is distributed (3) You can now email your entry to us at nursing@medmedia.ie by taking a photo of the completed crossword with your details included. Closing date: Monday, October 21, 2019 If preferred you can post your entry to: Crossword Competition, WIN, MedMedia Publications, 17 Adelaide Street, Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin, A96E096 36 Large, flightless bird of Australia (3) 37 Important date of a communist postal communication? (3,6,3)
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