http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0060934913/102-0144779-6793769?v=glance

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i have always wanted to get 'kitchen confidential'..three years ago anthony bourdain actually came down to singapore and i could get him to sign a copy of it..but darn i missed it..

but somehow i thought of the book again today coz i was getting a lil bit stressed in the kitchen.i volunteered to do dinner today. fine, it was only dinner, and my kitchen is no great chef domain, but in case anybody aspire to be in one..sweating it out (literally with all the steam and vapour) under any form of pressure is no fun. it was stressful enough for the amateur main masak masak cook here, to get something palatable ready for dinner, considering i only had slightly more than an hour (my hats off to the iron chefs and challengers)

as it is, things can be chaotic..and cooking requires some organisational skills..and there is always the kitchen management politics you know if you are sharing it with others in hostel, rented place or even with the family. like the fridge space. like how you manage the kitchen or do certain things in terms of how things should be chopped, diced, arranged, washed, dried and so on and so forth..hahahah.. serious. the last thing some cooks want to have while watching the dish, is to have someone poking nosily around telling them what to do, esp if it is their dish. (actually both of us agreed this is prob one of the reasons why there will always be more men chef than women coz women can get into catfights over such things. emotional)..and if one adds a neurotic nitpicking personality more common in women, esp to keep things clean at all time..then die, you may need hours to prepare that meal.

*a chef is i guess not the same as a cook in a franchised eatery. i've actually worked with a former chef. he said he wont ever get back to it again for some reasons you know if you read the book. and there was one chem engineer i knew who took some sabatical and decided to try his hands at it, joined a culinary school to become a chef. but it turned out to be shortlived.

*still i spose it must be exciting..watched a few episodes of the restaurant when it showed some time back. would love to have it shown again.