Not a snob

Although this book is called Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles Cookbook, Anthony states at the beginning of the book that this is, in fact, not a cookbook. He goes on explaining that most of the recipes he includs in the book are pretty classic and they can easily be found elsewhere. What makes this book worth $25 bucks is that it's these recipes that make Les Halles one of the best bistros in the U.S. of A. And of course, having the recipes doesn't mean anything--it involves a lot more than just the written words to create something brilliant for the stomach. It's good that Anthony goes through the tips on how to get each individual dish done right.

I also learned to view what I am doing now at work differently: preparing mise en place is actually an exciting process. True, it's repetitive and not so much fun comparing to working on the line, but think about it--I am "transforming a big heap of raw ingredients into an organized array of useful foodstuff".

And that is exciting.

And throughout the book Anthony encourages his readers to get cheap and ordinary ingredients and try to turn those into fabulous food. For example, he uses "hanger steak" as the main ingredient if one of his dishes. As you know, the butcher used to bring the hanger steak home just because they can't be sold for a lot of money, yet that's one of the best parts of the creature as it has ropy texture and kidneyish flavor. And in the fish section he asks us to try making something useful out of fish heads--something that normally got thrown away in a French or western kitchen.

I totally agree with Anthony... a cook should not be a snob.

A man who is rich in his adolescence is almost doomed to be a dilettante at the table. This is not because all millionaires are stupid but because they are not impelled to experiment.
---A. J. Liebling