Anthony Bourdain's "Don't Eat Before Reading This"
Not really about France, but an essential read for anyone into food
Anthony Bourdain’s “Don’t Eat Before Reading This” is now a classic piece of food writing and one that launched him into lasting fame. It was published nearly 25 years ago.
When it was written, Anthony Bourdain was mostly unknown, with a recently failed restaurant in New York and his published writing was a series of unnoticed, kind of culinary-themed crime novels.
In The New Yorker essay, Bourdain declared himself a “traitor to my profession” and revealed unpalatable truths about the restaurant industry, including disgusting kitchen conditions, a "powerful strain of criminality" among the staff, and the excessive use of butter in dishes. It was a transformative piece of cooking journalism that had almost no comparison except maybe Orwell’s “Down and Out in Paris and London.” It was maybe the first time anyone who did the day-to-day grind of the cooking profession had provided so much detail about the job.
Bourdain’s mother sent the article to the magazine without him knowing. Although unsolicited, it was accepted and published, launching Bourdain to fame with "Kitchen Confidential" becoming a bestseller the following year, eventually leading him to his career in television.
Bourdain’s lasting popularity and his approach to celebrity were rooted in the honesty he displayed, addressing the culinary world and his personal experiences.
He also seemed to have a genuine love for all of the unsavory aspects of the cooking life as well as all of those who worked with food. As he said at the time, “it was the unsavory side of professional cooking” that initially drew him to the industry in the first place.
Bourdain was trained in the French tradition of cooking and brought his own flair to it. His No Reservations episode on France was titled “Why the French Don’t Suck.” It’s worth watching.