Anthony Bourdain is the temptation angel of our better natures, an unblinking guide to the deep pleasures of seared flesh, cooked muscle, boiled intestines, fried brains, and sauteed livers. Written with the no-holds-barred ethos of his beloved series, No Reservations and Parts Unknown, the celebrity chef and culinary explorer’s first cookbook in more than ten years—a collection of recipes for the home cook. I'm just going to start with a disclaimer: I am not the target audience for this cookbook. I love reading books about food, but full disclosure: I am vegan, so I'm never going to make most of these recipes. Many of the recipes that could be easily made vegan contain huge amounts of oil (seriously, there are recipes that call for CUPS of oil!). Ugh. I've heard complaints that some recipes were so simple it insulted ones intelligence and some so out there who would make that? And I can only think, so Bourdain.

Anthony Bourdain is a man of many appetites. And for many years, first as a chef, later as a world-traveling chronicler of food and culture on his CNN series Parts Unknown, he has made a profession of understanding the appetites of others. These days, however, if he’s cooking, it’s for family and friends. Each and every word is informed by his years in the industry and a life dedicated to food. This is a man who has declared the club sandwich as America's Enemy and wants you to understand the principles of Bad Sandwich Theory. He has distilled his views on dessert to this- it should always be Stilton. Actually, this is a book I need to buy. It’s one of those book you get out of the library just so you can look through it and decide whether or not it’s something you really need on your shelf. Anthony Bourdain is man of many appetites. And for many years, first as a chef, later as a world-traveling chronicler of food and culture on his CNN series Parts Unknown, he has made a profession of understanding the appetites of others. These days, however, if he’s cooking, it’s for family and friends. This is Anthony Bourdain's interpretation of a normal cookbook. As a restaurant By: Anthony Bourdain Media of Appetites: A Cookbook. See larger image

Bourdain's pulled pork was a showstopper that can feed a crowd

New for 2021- celebrate the life and legacy of the inimitable food writer with WORLD TRAVEL, Bourdain's guide to the global food scene, compiled by his long-time assistant and cookbook co-author** It's almost certain that as a cookbook, I am unlikely to make many of the recipes. While they do lean practical, it's still a time investment I'm not able to make very often and some of the ingredients, particularly in the seafood section, are not easily acquired. But it stands the reason that the audience for Appetites falls into two categories: the urban foodie, and/or the Bourdain fan, and whether you're in it for the eats or the prose, you'll walk away satisfied.

On New England Clam Chowder: There is only one chowder. All else is soup. And I’m a purist. YES! I’m going to have to try this recipe. Edgy, evocative photography by Bobby Fisher and a cover from artist Ralph Steadman (known for his work with Hunter S. Thompson) make Appetites a visually distinct entry to the 2016 cookbook lineup. Go, take a look inside: I've lost three days of work in 16 years ... only three days that I've been down for the count and confined to bed and desperately, horribly ill. Generally speaking, if it's, like, a street-food stall that's busy, even if it looks dirty as hell, if there are a lot of locals there and they're eating and they're happy, my crew will always eat at that place. Eating a Caesar salad at the major chain hotel in Central Africa or the Middle East, that's where you run into trouble, stomach-wise, generally.Most of the recipes are for the things he liked to eat … pastrami sandwich, burgers, spaghetti dishes, ramen/miso and some other more exotic type of fare. I will say that the curation of recipes is obviously done by Bourdain and not too many cookbooks would cover as wide a ground of super complicated/fancy recipes to everyday stuff like sandwiches or three to four ingredient pasta. Anthony Bourdain is man of many appetites. And for many years, first as a chef, later as a world-traveling chronicler of food and culture on his CNN series Parts Unknown, he has made a profession of understanding the appetites of others. These days, however, if he’s cooking, it’s for family and friends. Appetites, his first cookbook in more than ten years, boils down forty-plus years of professional cooking and globe-trotting to a tight repertoire of personal favorites—dishes that everyone should (at least in Mr. Bourdain’s opinion) know how to cook. Once the supposed "bad boy" of cooking, Mr. Bourdain has, in recent years, become the father of a little girl—a role he has embraced with enthusiasm. After years of traveling more than 200 days a year, he now enjoys entertaining at home. Years of prep lists and the hyper-organization necessary for a restaurant kitchen, however, have caused him, in his words, to have "morphed into a psychotic, anally retentive, bad-tempered Ina Garten." The result is a home-cooking, home-entertaining cookbook like no other, with personal favorites from his own kitchen and from his travels, translated into an effective battle plan that will help you terrify your guests with your breathtaking efficiency. Read More Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles Cookbook: Strategies, Recipes, and Techniques of Classic Bistro Cooking

The recipes themselves lean more practical than I expected - the kitchen experience is here as efficiency is the central component of each, as far as I can tell. Seafood is his kryptonite so it makes sense that's where the heart of the book lies, but he makes room for comfort foods like mac' n cheese and biscuits and gravy. No dessert, though, so if that's a dealbreaker you'll want to avoid this one. Who is the target audience for this? As far as I can tell it's people who think Anthony Bourdain can do no wrong yet possess zero kitchen skills. There's no rhyme or reason to the recipes besides "here's stuff AB likes" (which I guess is part of the charm), and everything is either laughably basic (scrambled eggs! grilled cheese!) or out of the realm of possibility for most home cooks (whole quail, heads and all?). The recipe captions and supplemental writing are half-assed, at best, and the photography ranges from modernist to unhelpful to just plain gross.....nobody's appetite was ever whetted by seeing a picture of Eric Ripert with sausage gravy dribbling down his chin. Also, super awkward seeing his (now ex) wife plastered everywhere, usually sweaty and in the middle of a jujitsu match. I started working as a dishwasher one summer and it was really a big event for me, because up to that point I was lazy. I was the kid that if you hired me to shovel your walk in winter, I would really do a terrible job of it, probably find a way to weasel out. ... As a restaurant professional, Bourdain spent his life on the fringes of normality – he worked while normal people played, and played while normal people slept. Since then he has settled (kind of) into family life and is cooking for the people he loves rather than people who pay. These are the recipes he turns to when called in for pancake service at sleepover parties or when preparing a violence-free family dinner. I have no doubt that Anthony Bourdain is a talented chef. He obviously has a huge amount of very unique experience and has put so much work into his talent and career. This book is his collection of his everyday comfort food recipes—some fairly straightforward, and others a definite departure from what we're used to.The pictures are kind of ho hum … Bourdain goes into 'artsy' mode with the photos, which is something that could work … or not … depending on the photos. In one, he is carrying a severed pig's head on a tray. Others are close-ups of artfully arranged food or ingredients. Others are staged photos of himself or his friends. It has a delightfully 1990's vibe to it and is a fun book to read and leaf through.