Kitchen Confidential

In case you have not read this masterful expose on the restaurant business you really must: Kitchen Confidential.
Author/Chef Anthony Bourdain writes on the real backside of the food service industry. All the grit and grease. He tells you what goes on before the doors open... and after. He tells you, in hilarious detail, the deviant personalities that run mostly every kitchen and even how almost all the food is created start-to-finish by Mexican and Ecuadorian cooks that will best culinary school graduates every time. He tells you just how hit-and-miss the business is and how near stupid it is to think you might want your own restaurant someday.

I used to repair restaurant point-of-sale and expediting systems. I have seen many of these kitchens. Many of the big, trendy restaurant chains are quite disgusting. Filthy is being kind. (Oddly, many of the fast-food chain kitchens (In-and-Out, Burger King) are spotless. Go figure.) The mostly college age staff come and go weekly, much of the food is pre-prepared off-site and simply finished or heated in the restaurant and put on your plate. The whole endeavor smacks of Disneyland-like make-believe. What, you think Olive Garden really makes that eggplant parmesan from scratch??? Tortellini? Guess again.

Anthony describes the sexual tension between the male cooks and the female waitstaff, about corrupt purveyors, desperate (if genius) bread bakers, pathetically inept owners... He writes about it all. It should be called Fear and Loathing in the Kitchen.

Go to the library or buy it in paperback, you will be enthralled, you will be in stitches. I've read it three times.