Quotes from Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly

“your body is not a temple, it's an amusement park. Enjoy the ride.”
― Anthony Bourdain, quote from Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly

“Do we really want to travel in hermetically sealed popemobiles through the rural provinces of France, Mexico and the Far East, eating only in Hard Rock Cafes and McDonalds? Or do we want to eat without fear, tearing into the local stew, the humble taqueria's mystery meat, the sincerely offered gift of a lightly grilled fish head? I know what I want. I want it all. I want to try everything once.”
― Anthony Bourdain, quote from Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly

“Vegetarians, and their Hezbollah-like splinter faction, the vegans ... are the enemy of everything good and decent in the human spirit.”
― Anthony Bourdain, quote from Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly

“No one understands and appreciates the American Dream of hard work leading to material rewards better than a non-American.”
― Anthony Bourdain, quote from Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly

“Skills can be taught. Character you either have or you don't have.”
― Anthony Bourdain, quote from Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly

“I've long believed that good food, good eating, is all about risk. Whether we're talking about unpasteurized Stilton, raw oysters or working for organized crime 'associates,' food, for me, has always been an adventure”
― Anthony Bourdain, quote from Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly

“Don't lie about it. You made a mistake. Admit it and move on. Just don't do it again. Ever”
― Anthony Bourdain, quote from Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly

“Don't touch my dick, don't touch my knife.”
― Anthony Bourdain, quote from Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly

“Good food is very often, even most often, simple food.”
― Anthony Bourdain, quote from Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly

“To me, life without veal stock, pork fat, sausage, organ meat, demi-glace, or even stinky cheese is a life not worth living.”
― Anthony Bourdain, quote from Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly

“Avoid at all costs that vile spew you see rotting in oil in screwtop jars. Too lazy to peel fresh? You don't deserve to eat garlic.”
― Anthony Bourdain, quote from Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly

“Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do."- Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe”
― Anthony Bourdain, quote from Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly

“Assume the worst. About everybody. But don't let this poisoned outlook affect your job performance. Let it all roll off your back. Ignore it. Be amused by what you see and suspect. Just because someone you work with is a miserable, treacherous, self-serving, capricious and corrupt asshole shouldn't prevent you from enjoying their company, working with them or finding them entertaining.”
― Anthony Bourdain, quote from Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly

“Garlic is divine. Few food items can taste so many distinct ways, handled correctly. Misuse of garlic is a crime...Please, treat your garlic with respect...Avoid at all costs that vile spew you see rotting in oil in screwtop jars. Too lazy to peel fresh? You don't deserve to eat garlic.”
― Anthony Bourdain, quote from Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly

“So who the hell, exactly, are these guys, the boys and girls in the trenches? You might get the impression from the specifics of my less than stellar career that all line cooks are wacked-out moral degenerates, dope fiends, refugees, a thuggish assortment of drunks, sneak thieves, sluts and psychopaths. You wouldn't be too far off base. The business, as respected three-star chef Scott Bryan explains it, attracts 'fringe elements', people for whom something in their lives has gone terribly wrong. Maybe they didn't make it through high school, maybe they're running away from something-be it an ex-wife, a rotten family history, trouble with the law, a squalid Third World backwater with no opportunity for advancement. Or maybe, like me, they just like it here. ”
― Anthony Bourdain, quote from Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly

“For a moment, or a second, the pinched expressions of the cynical, world-weary, throat-cutting, miserable bastards we've all had to become disappears, when we're confronted with something as simple as a plate of food.”
― Anthony Bourdain, quote from Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly

“I'm not going anywhere. I hope. It's been an adventure. We took some casualties over the years. Things got broken. Things got lost.
But I wouldn't have missed it for the world.”
― Anthony Bourdain, quote from Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly

“An ounce of sauce covers a multitude of sins.”
― Anthony Bourdain, quote from Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly

“[When I die], I will decidedly not be regretting missed opportunities for a good time. My regrets will be more along the lines of a sad list of people hurt, people let down, assets wasted and advantages squandered.”
― Anthony Bourdain, quote from Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly

“I, a product of the New Frontier and Great Society, honestly believed that the world pretty much owed me a living--all I had to do was wait around in order to live better than my parents.”
― Anthony Bourdain, quote from Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly

“Our movements through time and space seem somehow trivial compared to a heap of boiled meat in broth, the smell of saffron, garlic, fishbones and Pernod.”
― Anthony Bourdain, quote from Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly

“I wanted to write in Kitchenese, the secret language of cooks, instantly recognizable to anyone who has ever dunked french fries for a summer job or suffered under the despotic rule of a tyrannical chef or boobish owner.”
― Anthony Bourdain, quote from Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly

“Whachoo want, white boy? Burn cream? A Band-Aid?
Then he raised his own enormous palms to me, brought them up real close so I could see them properly; the hideous constellation of water-filled blisters, angry red welts from grill marks, the old scars, the raw flesh where steam or hot fat had made the skin simply roll off. They looked like the claws of some monstrous science-fiction crustacean, knobby and calloused under wounds old and new. I watched, transfixed, as Tyrone - his eyes never leaving mine - reached slowly under the broiler and, with one naked hand, picked up a glowing-hot sizzle-platter, moved it over to the cutting board, and set it down in front of me.
He never flinched.”
― Anthony Bourdain, quote from Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly

“Good food and good eating are about risk.”
― Anthony Bourdain, quote from Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly

“Writing anything is a treason of sorts.”
― Anthony Bourdain, quote from Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly

“At the base of my right forefinger is an inch-and-a-half diagonal callus, yellowish-brown in color, where the heels of all the knives I've ever owned have rested, the skin softened by constant immersion in water. It distinguishes me immediately as a cook, as someone who's been on the job a long time. You can feel it when I shake my hand, just as I feel it on others of my profession. It's a secret sign, a sort of Masonic handshake without the silliness.”
― Anthony Bourdain, quote from Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly

“To me, life without veal stock, pork fat, sausage, organ meat, demi-glace, or even stinky cheese is a life not worth living. Vegetarians are the enemy of everything good and decent in the human spirit, an affront to all I stand for, the pure enjoyment of food.”
― Anthony Bourdain, quote from Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly

“My love for chaos, conspiracy and the dark side of human nature colors the behavior of my charges, most of whom are already living near the fringes of acceptable conduct.”
― Anthony Bourdain, quote from Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly

“Under 'Reasons for Leaving Last Job', never give the real reason, unless it's money or ambition.”
― Anthony Bourdain, quote from Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly

“Cream rises. Excellence does have its rewards.”
― Anthony Bourdain, quote from Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly

About the author

Popular quotes

“Our ordinary conceptual system, in terms of which we both think and act, is fundamentally metaphorical in nature.”
― George Lakoff, quote from Metaphors We Live By

“The church exists primarily for two closely correlated purposes: to worship God and to work for his kingdom in the world ... The church also exists for a third purpose, which serves the other two: to encourage one another, to build one another up in faith, to pray with and for one another, to learn from one another and teach one another, and to set one another examples to follow, challenges to take up, and urgent tasks to perform. This is all part of what is known loosely as fellowship.”
― N.T. Wright, quote from Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes Sense

“Neither of us uttered a word about what happened. We never do. But I can't smudge it from my mind. The farm boys' sneering red faces. The runt shaking the fence. The brown lump of spit tobacco. The anguish in David's eyes. They don't know the first thing about us; they just hate us because we're black”
― Julia Scheeres, quote from Jesus Land: A Memoir

“What are you afraid of?
I'm afraid of not recognizing Paradise.”
― Louise Penny, quote from The Brutal Telling

“A Day Away We often think that our affairs, great or small, must be tended continuously and in detail, or our world will disintegrate, and we will lose our places in the universe. That is not true, or if it is true, then our situations were so temporary that they would have collapsed anyway. Once a year or so I give myself a day away. On the eve of my day of absence, I begin to unwrap the bonds which hold me in harness. I inform housemates, my family and close friends that I will not be reachable for twenty-four hours; then I disengage the telephone. I turn the radio dial to an all-music station, preferably one which plays the soothing golden oldies. I sit for at least an hour in a very hot tub; then I lay out my clothes in preparation for my morning escape, and knowing that nothing will disturb me, I sleep the sleep of the just. On the morning I wake naturally, for I will have set no clock, nor informed my body timepiece when it should alarm. I dress in comfortable shoes and casual clothes and leave my house going no place. If I am living in a city, I wander streets, window-shop, or gaze at buildings. I enter and leave public parks, libraries, the lobbies of skyscrapers, and movie houses. I stay in no place for very long. On the getaway day I try for amnesia. I do not want to know my name, where I live, or how many dire responsibilities rest on my shoulders. I detest encountering even the closest friend, for then I am reminded of who I am, and the circumstances of my life, which I want to forget for a while. Every person needs to take one day away. A day in which one consciously separates the past from the future. Jobs, lovers, family, employers, and friends can exist one day without any one of us, and if our egos permit us to confess, they could exist eternally in our absence. Each person deserves a day away in which no problems are confronted, no solutions searched for. Each of us needs to withdraw from the cares which will not withdraw from us. We need hours of aimless wandering or spates of time sitting on park benches, observing the mysterious world of ants and the canopy of treetops. If we step away for a time, we are not, as many may think and some will accuse, being irresponsible, but rather we are preparing ourselves to more ably perform our duties and discharge our obligations. When I return home, I am always surprised to find some questions I sought to evade had been answered and some entanglements I had hoped to flee had become unraveled in my absence. A day away acts as a spring tonic. It can dispel rancor, transform indecision, and renew the spirit.”
― Maya Angelou, quote from Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now

Interesting books

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.