Anthony Bourdain’s recommended reading

Die-hard fans of Anthony Bourdain loved reading his books nearly as much as they loved watching his entertaining travel programs. It’s sad to know that we’ll never enjoy another Kitchen Confidential or Medium Raw. The next best thing might be to read books that he recommended. Now we can do just that, because the New York Public Library has compiled a list of books and authors recommended by Anthony Bourdain.

The list was compiled from interviews Bourdain gave in the years following the release of Kitchen Confidential. It will come as no surprise that the themes Bourdain enjoyed “tended towards 20th-century archetypes-bohemians, adventurers, rockers, spies, existentialists, cowboys, addicts-who lived lives of creativity, appetite, and adventure.” 

You’ll find books on food and cooking, plus fiction and nonfiction tomes as well. In addition to specific books, the listing also includes authors. A few highlights from Bourdain’s recommended food and cookery books is shown below. Get out your library card (or update your Amazon cart)!

• La Bonne Table by Ludwig Bemelmans
• Heat: An Amateur’s Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany by Bill Buford
• The Ivy: The Restaurant and Its Recipes by AA Gill
• Nose to Tail Eating: A Kind of British Cooking by Fergus Henderson
• Between Meals: An Appetite for Paris by A. J. Liebling
• On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen by Harold McGee