"Funny, irreverent, scandalous."---New York Daily News<BR><BR>"Hysterical....In a style partaking of Hunter S. Thompson, Iggy Pop, and a little of Jonathan Swift, Bourdain gleefully rips through the scenery to revel private backstage horrors."---New York Times Book Review<BR><BR>"Utterly riveting, swaggering with stylish machismo and a precise ear for kitchen patois."---New York<BR><BR>"The kind of book you read in one sitting, then rush about annoying your coworkers by declaiming whole passages. Bourdain captures the world of restaurants and professionally cooked food in all its theatrical, demented glory."---USA Today<BR><BR>"A gonzo memoir of what's really going on behind those swinging doors....Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain is unique."---Newsweek<BR><BR>"Bourdain's avalanche of colorful stories results in a goodly number of maxims to eat by; namely, never piss of the chef, lest he do the same on your mussels."---Esquire<BR><BR>In the ten years since his classic Kitchen Confidential first alerted us to the idiosyncrasies and lurking perils of eating out, from Monday fish to the breadbasket conspiracy, much has changed for the subculture of chefs and cooks, for the restaurant business---and for Anthony Bourdain.<BR><BR>Medium Raw explores these changes, moving back and forth from the author's bad old days to the present. Tracking his own strange and unexpected voyage from journeyman cook to globe-traveling professional eater and drinker, and even to fatherhood, Bourdain takes no prisoners as he dissects what he's seen, pausing along the way for a series of confessions, rants, investigations, and interrogations of some of the most controversial figures in food.<BR><BR>Beginning with a secret and highly illegal after-hours gathering of powerful chefs that he compares to a mafia summit, Bourdain pulls back the curtain---but never pulls his punches---on the modern gastronomical revolution, as only he can. Cutting right to the bone, Bourdain sets his sights on some of the biggest names in the foodie world, including David Chang, the young superstar chef who has radicalized the fine-dining landscape; the revered Alice Waters, whom he treats with unapologetic frankness; the Top Chef winners and losers; and many more.<BR><BR>And always he returns to the question "Why cook?" Or the more difficult "Why cook well?" Medium Raw is the deliciously funny and shockingly delectable journey to those answers, sure to delight philistines and gourmands alike.