Medium Raw by Anthony Bourdain

The subtitle of the book is: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook. And that pretty much sums up the content in a nutshell. Which is what Bourdain is known for, I guess. Concise, abrasive, and largely accurate commentary. He is not one to mince words. It is possible his accuracy is lacking as well--on that account I am largely unable to comment. One example: did Alice Waters really write Obama and suggest that she knows best? Yes, that happened. She was on '60 Minutes', she wrote an open letter in the New York Times--she openly campaigned for a change in the White House Chef. Did she really have no idea who the current chef was and what her background and priorities are? That also has some corroborating evidence--here is a piece in Gourmet that verifies Bourdain's assertion that Waters had little to no knowledge of Cristeta Comerford's philosophy and practices, and that she instead painted the White House Chef with the brush of the Commander in Chief: http://www.gourmet.com/foodpolitics/2009/01/white-house-chef-wars.
Comerford is the first female White House Executive Chef, with street cred as a locavore as well as experience in the White House kitchen. Waters may be the mother of the slow food movement, but she did nothing for the advancement of women in a male dominated career. Shame on her for that. She is not alone--women are known to be harder on other women than their male peers are, but it is nothing to be proud of.
Waters conceptualization of the job of the White House Chef is also incredibly naïve. This is not a PR job. The White House Chef doesn't go on tour, talking about food. It is a real 'boots on the ground' job, and Obama is under tremenous pressure to perform, to put on fabulous White House dinners. Suggesting he allow three celebrity foodies choose his chef is preposterous. So I think Bourdain was right on target with that one. He is not kind, but Waters really didn't deserve kindness. While she 'backtracked' on her comments, she never apologized (at least not publically), and she clearly demonstrated that she had no idea what the White House food supply is, nor is it likely that she had any idea of the complexities related to security that surround procuring food for the White House kitchen. Rather than criticize Comersford, she should have been singing her praises for grace and innovation under fire.
This is just one of the many stories Bourdain relates and comments on. It is a book that I might have hated if I read it on a different day--the abrasiveness is not quite balanced out by the smartness and insightfulness of his comments, and the fact that largely, I share his priorities and world view. I would just rather have people think that I am nicer than that. Bourdain, on the other hand, purposely stirs people up. Must be the New Yorker in him :-)