Anthony Bourdain has become like the fine wine he has enjoyed with countless delicacies around the world: better with age. Earlier this year Bourdain published the latest tale in his tell-all saga of an angry cook trying to make sense of it all, “Medium Raw.”
This book proves to be a new number one to the loyal fans and a read worth while to the unfamiliar desiring a real, no fluff story with a few stabs throughout that will have the reader laughing out loud.
In his first book, “Kitchen Confidential,” the young Bourdain gives us a rebellious and angry cook criticizing the sell-outs of modern pop cooking television and advertisement. In “Medium Raw,” Bourdain finds himself a bit wiser and more reflective and to an extent a critic on his own life.
The story truly comes from the heart. He writes as he speaks – a stylized trail of thought that can only be recognized as Anthony Bourdain. With the sarcastic swagger of Tony Stark and the reckless bravery of Steve Irwin, Bourdain takes the reader on a trip from the lowest points to the greatest successes in his life, filled with everything in between.
His exposition tells of his troubles with drugs, women and his love-hate relationship with the food service industry. Tragedy strikes in the dire straits and hilarity ensues as he encounters the individuals he harshly criticized in his earlier books. The story is not so much a coming-of-age as it is journey of maturity, making him a wise elder of the industry. He creates a kinship with those of whom he spoke badly of in the past.
This is not a book for the aspiring delicatessen. This book is not even the cup of tea for diehard culinary television per se. Rather, I feel he is trying to establish the opposite. This book is for the individual who is going through rough and dynamic times in his or her life. The reader will enjoy Bourdain’s climb to the top, riddled with failures and dumb luck, but nevertheless, a deeply relatable story to accompany any student or person going through a series of life choices.
Bourdain’s underlying themes of experimentation, tenacity and endurance play out readily throughout our lives at major turning points in humans’ lives.
Coining this story as “happy” or “successful” is simplistically ignorant. “Medium Raw” is by no means the next Pulitzer Prize winning literary masterpiece. Instead its sacrifice for propriety is made up for in a voice and eloquence that makes the reader not a reader but rather as though having a conversation with Mr. Bourdain.
The story, most of all, is real, gritty and hilarious, and its content leaves the reader with a sense of completion and a self indulging warm-heartedness. As you follow witty wise-crack to sexual innuendo to matter of fact statement, any reader who has ever encountered a problem in his or her life will be able to take a page out of the mind of Anthony Bourdain.