New Yorker Anthony Bourdain, chef, food writer and novelist on his career, eating out, celebrity chefs and the murkier side of the restaurant industry.
Anthony Bourdain describes how he became a chef starting out as a dishwasher, he was attracted by what he describes as the "Pirate King" lifestyle of the chefs and cooks around him.
My first thought was I want to be a chef.
He describes the restaurant industry as comprising people with unlovely personal habits and criminal histories outside the kitchen. However, inside the kitchen, it is a rigid military hierarchy.
Bourdain is the author of a number of books which set out to demystify exactly what goes on in restaurants. In 'Kitchen Confidential' he describes the darker side of restaurants that customers rarely if ever get to see and says that the perceptions conjured up by the image of celebrity chefs such as Jamie Oliver and Ainsley Harriott are far from the reality.
He also provides advice about ordering a well-cooked steak which usually only serves to anger the chef who invariably serve the worst cuts of meat to those customers.
You're paying for the privilege of eating our garbage.
This episode of 'The Late Late Show' was broadcast on 4 October 2002. The presenter is Pat Kenny.
