If you’re at all familiar with Anthony Bourdain, you’ll know what you’re in for when you crack open this book. Biting humor, liberal cursing, and some of the most eloquent food porn I’ve ever read. I haven’t checked out any of his other books yet, so I was going in based on the public persona I’ve seen from TV (The Taste is my show, y’all.). I wasn’t surprised in the least that I loved and devoured this book. I’m never going to be anywhere need a professional level chef, but I love to cook and to eat and to just enjoy food. That, to me, was a lot of what this book was about. There’s an entire chapter just devoted to some of the best food experiences Bourdain has ever had and it left me drooling.

I find Bourdain’s style of writing very refreshing. I think his personality shines through in this book. He’s brutally honest, not just about those he loves and hates, but about himself. He readily admits he’s not a very good cook, just a lucky guy. He’ll tear someone apart and then confess that even if he saw Mario Batalli performing a satanic ritual in his kitchen, he’d never tell because they’re friends. He recognizes that the personality he’s become both limits his ability to be as free in his speech as he’d like, but also encourages him to be brutally honest. His writing comes across as unpretentious and really accessible.

It wasn’t a perfect book, however. The chapters aren’t really linked, or even organized in any way I could tell. He jumps back and forth in time and, for some reason, the version I read had the prologue at the end of things. It wasn’t confusing as much as it just felt a little disjointed and unorganized. There were areas I would have loved to see him go more in depth on. He touches a little on how being a father has changed him, how travel and seeing the world has opened him up to realize that there are some things simply more important than others. I would have loved to see him expand on those topics more, but I realize most people probably come to this book for the food and the critiques. All in all, a very solid read.