Anthony Bourdain knew the restaurant business from the inside and was never afraid to expose its less glamorous side. In 2000, Kitchen Confidential turned his years as a chef into a revealing account of the industry, from chaotic kitchens and punishing shifts to the unwritten rules that diners rarely see.
His world is now back on the big screen with Tony – A Cook’s Story, directed by Matt Johnson and starring Dominic Sessa, with Antonio Banderas playing the chef who becomes his mentor. Produced by A24, the film follows a 19-year-old Bourdain during the summer of 1975, when he arrives in Provincetown and takes his first steps into a professional kitchen. The film was released in Italian cinemas on August 27, distributed by I Wonder Pictures.
Among Bourdain’s most memorable observations were his warnings about certain dishes that diners might want to approach with caution. They were never meant to be a definitive set of rules, but rather reflections drawn from different passages of Kitchen Confidential and his experiences in American restaurants during the 1990s.
Fish on Mondays
Perhaps Bourdain’s most famous piece of advice concerned ordering fish at the beginning of the week.
In Kitchen Confidential, he described how some New York restaurants in the 1990s ordered fresh fish ahead of the busy weekend period. That meant that by Monday, some of the seafood being served could have been sitting around for several days.
His suspicion of Monday fish was therefore less about the day itself than about how restaurants managed their supplies.
The advice is somewhat dated today. Refrigeration, delivery schedules and supply chains
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