Editors Reads Verdict
The more honest and more complicated of Bourdain's two major memoirs — he has enough distance from Kitchen Confidential's persona to examine it critically, and enough experience to have stronger opinions on everything he was still figuring out in 2000.
What We Loved
- Bourdain is harder on himself here than in Kitchen Confidential — it is a more mature and honest book
- The essays on specific figures in food — Fergus Henderson, Eric Ripert, Alan Richman — are extraordinary
- The writing is, if anything, better than in Kitchen Confidential
Minor Drawbacks
- Requires Kitchen Confidential as context — some of the self-examination makes less sense without the first book
- The score-settling with certain critics feels petty in ways Bourdain probably regretted
Key Takeaways
- → Fame changes the food world relationship you had — the kitchens you loved become harder to access honestly
- → The best chefs are defined by what they care about, not by what they charge for it
- → Self-mythology, once established, is difficult to outrun
| Author | Anthony Bourdain |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Ecco |
| Pages | 281 |
| Published | June 8, 2010 |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Memoir, Cooking, Biography |
| Difficulty | Beginner |
| Best For | Readers of Kitchen Confidential who want to follow Bourdain into his more reflective, more complicated second act. |
A Decade Later
When Kitchen Confidential was published in 2000, Anthony Bourdain was an executive chef at a mid-range New York restaurant with a drug habit and a cult following. By 2010 he was one of the most recognisable food personalities in the world — television shows, travel, a different kind of access to the food world he had described from the inside.
Medium Raw is written from that new position, and its dominant register is ambivalence. Bourdain is harder on himself than in Kitchen Confidential, harder on the food world that has made him famous, and more honest about the distance between the bohemian kitchen culture he romanticised in his first book and the celebrity food economy it has become.
The Essays
The book is structured as a series of essays rather than a continuous memoir — some about specific people (a devastating portrait of the food critic Alan Richman; a generous account of Fergus Henderson), some about broader topics (the industrialisation of the food supply, the specific culture of late-night restaurant workers). The essay on what he owes to the Ecuadorian and Mexican cooks who actually ran the kitchens he was nominally in charge of is as good as anything Bourdain wrote.
The self-awareness is new and earned: he knows his Kitchen Confidential persona created expectations he cannot now avoid disappointing, and he is intelligent enough to find this funny and uncomfortable in roughly equal measure.
Our rating: 4.2/5 — More honest and more considered than Kitchen Confidential. The book of a man who has outrun his mythology and is not entirely sure whether he misses it.
Reading Guides
Frequently Asked Questions
What is "Medium Raw" about?
Bourdain's follow-up to Kitchen Confidential — a decade later, more famous, more conflicted, and harder on the food world and on himself.
Who should read "Medium Raw"?
Readers of Kitchen Confidential who want to follow Bourdain into his more reflective, more complicated second act.
What are the key takeaways from "Medium Raw"?
Fame changes the food world relationship you had — the kitchens you loved become harder to access honestly The best chefs are defined by what they care about, not by what they charge for it Self-mythology, once established, is difficult to outrun
Is "Medium Raw" worth reading?
The more honest and more complicated of Bourdain's two major memoirs — he has enough distance from Kitchen Confidential's persona to examine it critically, and enough experience to have stronger opinions on everything he was still figuring out in 2000.
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