Anthony Bourdain's Culinary Journey: Exploring the World for the Ultimate Dining Experience

Rufino C: un libro recomendable vale la pena

Mexico on Aug 11, 2023

Jeremy Duck: Such an adventurous, insightful, humorous, talented writer.

United Kingdom on Jul 24, 2023

Mario86: Admittedly I am a fan of travelogues but loved this. Wonderful writing about food and travel and culture. There are chapters on France, Cambodia, Vietnam (multiple), San Francisco, Mexico, Morocco, Japan, Scotland, London, Portugal, San Sebastian, Russia. Some of the food described is mouth-watering so make sure you've already eaten when you pick it up otherwise you'll want to raid the fridge where you'll find nothing close to good as what's being described. But there are also other 'meals' which might make you want to retch.

This is based from the TV series of the same name and whilst I watched it a couple of years ago and was reminded of certain passages of the book, it didn't lessen my enjoyment of it. There are also some interesting segments called 'Reasons Why You Don't Want To Be On Television' about situations he went through whilst travelling that may have not come across on TV.

Preferred this to Kitchen Confidential.

United Kingdom on Jun 11, 2023

R. Wakefield: If you have watched the series it’s a must read for any Anthony Bourdain fan. The book is well written and full of interesting details

United States on May 23, 2023

Regina: I know I’m about 20 years or so late to this read, but it came ar a perfect time for me. Since Bourdain’s untimely death, I miss his voice, his insight, and the enlightened way his words make me want to eat and travel! This book beautifully disperses the idea of “the perfect meal” and instead gives us a tale of food, places, people and Tony. From the worse thing he’s ever eaten to the simple food memories of his childhood, “A Cook’s Tour” reminded me why I fell in love with Anthony Bourdain in the first place - he was an incredible human with a unique twist on eating, traveling, and living.

United States on Feb 23, 2023

Gökçe: It is the first book I've ever read by Anthony Bourdain and now I know it won't be the last. I enjoyed every single page of this book, it is a great choice to overcome your reading slump!

Only complaint would be the Amazon deliverer putting my package in my mailbox in such an awful way, anyone in the building without keys could easily get it. I hope Amazon deliverers decide to stop putting small packages in mailbox with 70% of the package hanging out.

Germany on Oct 26, 2022

Bavier: This book portrays Anthony Bourdain in his element, exploring food, geography, politics and cultures. He's truthful and forthright with his opinions. No apologies. Just like he should be.

United States on Aug 27, 2022

weirdprofilename: I've read all his other food related books. Had them in paperback, then replaced them with digital copies. This is one I never owned until now. It was on sale as a Kindle special, so I picked it up for 2 bucks.

The chapters are long, which doesn't grab my attention at this point. He goes on and on about some things that don't seem of interest. He moans about his brother and their experience in France. Some details could have been left out.

I'm about 20% of the way through the book and have begun to lose interest. I've switched to some other titles and will come back to this one in time.

I guess there was a reason I didn't pick this one up in the first place. As a Chef, I usually enjoy these types of books, and as said above, his other books were interesting. This one is kind of flat. For me, shorter chapters and less complaining would have kept my interest.

Canada on Nov 17, 2021

Andrew: Another great book by the late Anthony Bourdain. Most people would associate Bourdain with celebrity chef status but overlook the fact that he was a really great writer. I assume he wrote most of the dialog for his TV shows as his books have the same amazing descriptive, and often amusing turn of phrase throughout.

In this book he travels to many places in the world and experiences their food and drink first hand. Most of the destinations are in Asia; Vietnam, Cambodia, Japan etc, but he also visits other odd destinations such as Portugal, Russia and Scotland. It's not all fun and games and drinking. There are some moving, souls searching moments when he first has to confront slaughtering and butchering an animal first hand.

Well worth reading. My complaint is that there does not seem to be an audio book that Tony narrated himself. A real shame as he also had a great voice.

United States on Sep 06, 2020

Robert I. Hedges: "A Cook's Tour" by the wonderfully worldly and well-traveled Anthony Bourdain, is a book about food like no other, and it is simultaneously entertaining, exciting, and revolting. Tony travels the world in search of the perfect meal; it's an exciting quest for any chef to ponder, but along the way he comes across numerous local delicacies that can be best described as only for the strong of heart.

Although he encounters several problems with dishes from around the world (the Mexican sautéed ant eggs and Scottish deep-fried haggis with curry sauce and deep fried egg stand out), the most stunning for my money are the things he eats in Asia, and especially Vietnam. I for one would not be able to eat the traditional Vietnamese breakfast of soft-boiled duck embryo complete with feathers, followed by a steaming bowl of "chao muk", a hearty soup made from ginger, sprouts, cilantro, shrimp, squid, chives, pork-blood cake, and croutons; later Tony enjoyed some braised bat ("imagine braised inner tube, sauced with engine coolant"). Even worse than that, though, is the concept of eating a still-beating cobra heart, after a very special snake disemboweling ceremony.

While...

United States on Jul 31, 2009