A Cook's Tour: In Search of the Perfect Meal (THORNDIKE PRESS LARGE PRINT NONFICTION SERIES) - Hardcover

Bourdain, Anthony

4.08

28,032 ratings by Goodreads

9780786242597: A Cook's Tour: In Search of the Perfect Meal (THORNDIKE PRESS LARGE PRINT NONFICTION SERIES)

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0786242590 ISBN 13: 9780786242597

Publisher: Thorndike Pr, 2002

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Follows the author on a quest around the world to find the ultimate meal, from Japan where he eats traditional fugu, a poisonous blowfish that can only be prepared by specially licensed chefs, to a delectable snack in the Mecong Delta.

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Review:

A Cook's Tour is the written record of Tony Bourdain's travels around the world in his search for the perfect meal. All too conscious of the state of his 44-year old knees (Crunch! Pop! Snap!) after a working life standing at restaurant stoves, but with the unlooked-for jackpot of Kitchen Confidential as collateral, Mr Bourdain evidently concluded he needed a bit more wind under his wings.

The idea of "perfect meal" in this context is to be taken to mean not necessarily the most upscale, chi-chi, three-star dining experience, but the ideal combination of food, atmosphere and company. This would take in fishing villages in Vietnam, bars in Cambodia and Tuareg camps in Morocco (roasted sheep's testicle, as it happens); it would stretch to smoked fish and sauna in the frozen Russian countryside and the French Laundry in California's Napa Valley. It would mean exquisitely refined kaiseki rituals in Japan after yakitori with drunken salarimen. Deep-fried Mars Bars in Glasgow and Gordon Ramsay in London. The still-beating heart of a cobra in Saigon. Drink. Danger. Guns. All with a TV crew in tow for the accompanying series--22 episodes of video gold, we are assured, featuring many don't-try-this-at-home shots of Tony in gastric distress or crawling into yet another storm drain at four in the morning.

You are unlikely to lay your hands on a more hectically, strenuously entertaining book for some time. Our hero eats and swashbuckles round the globe with perfect-pitch attitude and liberal use of judiciously placed profanities. Bourdain can write. His timing is great. He is very funny and is under no illusions whatsoever about himself or anyone else. So far, so PJ O'Rourke. But most of all, he is a chef who got himself out of his kitchen and found, all over the world, people who understand that eating well is the foundation of harmonious living. --Robin Davidson

Review:

"It's a celebration of ingredients, an anti-blandness tract, a love-letter not only to grub but to the ambience it is served in." -- The Guardian, 5th October 2002

'Bourdain is a very funny writer; sharp, honest and with a beguiling mix of belligerence and sensitivity' -- Sunday Telegraph

'Bourdain lauds tradition, hates frippery, and wanders tirelessly for the perfect meal ... such entertainment ... enjoy the ride' -- Literary Review

'Brilliantly written in a raw, stylish gonzo prose, with pitch black humour and a devilish turn of phrase' -- Evening Standard

'This is the stuff of real writing ... Bourdain is a great original' -- Mail on Sunday

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