As promised with the subtitle, this book really does expose the reader to his Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly. Bourdain is basically presenting a biography of his cooking career as he worked in restaurants, primarily in New York City and stops in California, Japan, and Provincetown. For most people, this will be quite the eye-opening adventure filled with the raunchy talk, drugs and alcohol, and surprising amount of edginess that is found in the kitchens of many restaurants.

While there are some gross parts, you can feel safe in knowing that he spares tales about cooks and servers getting back at customers by abusing their food. Instead, he really is providing an interesting look into the practices of many chefs as they try to run operations with low cost.

He starts by sharing how a ride along a luxury cruise inspired him to become a cook. This interest expanded after working in some restaurants in P-town during the peak season. It was at that point that he decided to go for professional training by attending the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York. While his previous experience gave him a lot of the basics, this allowed him to expand his knowledge.

The strength of the book is his frankness. He is not ashamed or proud of his actions or the behavior of those he works with. It is simply just a fact of life. With that said, he provides wonderful advice for both aspiring chefs and restaurant patrons as to know what restaurants to avoid and what can be a sign of a bad restaurant.

For me, this book was interesting. A lot of what is described was familiar to me, though some of his experiences are a lot scarier than I ever saw in the restaurants I worked at. That is probably because he was working in the big city while I worked in smaller places in RI. I did really enjoy the book.