Anthony Bourdain is the author of Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly, which spent 14 weeks
on the New York Times Bestseller list, and the Urban Historical Typhoid Mary. His mystery novels include Bone in
the Throat and Gone Bamboo. He is the executive chef at Brasserie Les Halles in New York City.
Summary
Dodging minefields in Cambodia, diving into the icy waters outside a Russian bath, Chef Bourdain travels the
world over in search of the ultimate meal.
The only thing Anthony Bourdain loves as much as cooking is traveling, and A Cook's Tour is the shotgun marriage
of his two greatest passions. Inspired by the question, 'What would be the perfect meal?', Anthony sets out on
a quest for his culinary holy grail.
Our adventurous chef starts out in Japan, where he eats traditional Fugu, a poisonous blowfish which can be prepared
only by specially licensed chefs. He then travels to Cambodia, up the mine-studded road to Pailin into autonomous
Khmer Rouge territory and to Phnom Penh's Gun Club, where local fare is served up alongside a menu of available
firearms. In Saigon, he's treated to a sustaining meal of live Cobra heart before moving on to savor a snack with
the Viet Cong in the Mecong Delta. Further west, Kitchen Confidential fans will recognize the Gironde of Tony's
youth, the first stop on his European itinerary. And from France, it's on to Portugal, where an entire village
has been fattening a pig for months in anticipation of his arrival. And we're only halfway around the globe...
A Cook's Tour recounts, in Bourdain's inimitable style, the adventures and misadventures of America's favorite
chef.