The best Mid Atlantic U.S. Biographies: Reddit reviews

From 3.5 billion Reddit comments

This book, which was written with the full knowledge and cooperation of Batali, contains several scenes of borderline or actual sexual harassment by Batali. And it’s always explained away as, that’s just how celebrity chefs are.

Reading that book when it first came out gave me a new respect for what a talented chef he is, while leaving me disgusted by what a shitty human he is.

Crazy to think that book was published just a decade ago.

Stalin's Apologist. The New York Times aggressively pushed Russian propaganda to cover up the Holodomor.

Go read Report from Engine Co. 82, by Dennis Smith. Old thread.

Martin's schtick was "anti-comedy", and he was one of the first to do this. When you think about it, he was actually embarrassing himself in front of the cool kids.
His first movie, "The Jerk", was similar in tone to his standup comedy.
Martin's memoir, Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life really lays out what he was trying to do in the late 60s and 70s to break out of the "setup-then-punchline" style of comedy and do something akin to "absurdist performance art".
That said, it's not for everyone. I didn't feel like all his bits worked, either. But, when he was on, it was, and is, gold.

I fear that Will may not have time to answer your question but I have decided to step in because I have sympathy for all 18 year old aspiring comedians. Comedy ultimately flows from your own sense of humor rather than from any kind of formal study, however, if you are looking for inspiration and guidance the best thing I can suggest is the book "Born Standing Up" by Steve Martin.

http://www.amazon.ca/Born-Standing-Up-Comics-Life/dp/1416553657

I don't disagree. That sounds like a great conversation to have in a subreddit not named after Kitchen Confidential.

Maybe you're mistaking people being self-deprecating about their poor coping skills for glorification.

Maybe you need to check the name of the sub.

[When I die], I will decidedly not be regretting missed opportunities for a good time. My regrets will be more along the lines of a sad list of people hurt, people let down, assets wasted and advantages squandered.

Your body is not a temple, it's an amusement park. Enjoy the ride.

My love for chaos, conspiracy and the dark side of human nature colors the behavior of my charges, most of whom are already living near the fringes of acceptable conduct.

Fuck it, here's one more, a favorite of mine, really, from a little book you might have heard of:

So who the hell, exactly, are these guys, the boys and girls in the trenches? You might get the impression from the specifics of my less than stellar career that all line cooks are wacked-out moral degenerates, dope fiends, refugees, a thuggish assortment of drunks, sneak thieves, sluts and psychopaths. You wouldn't be too far off base. The business, as respected three-star chef Scott Bryan explains it, attracts 'fringe elements', people for whom something in their lives has gone terribly wrong. Maybe they didn't make it through high school, maybe they're running away from something-be it an ex-wife, a rotten family history, trouble with the law, a squalid Third World backwater with no opportunity for advancement. Or maybe, like me, they just like it here.

Kindly take your sanctimonious self-righteousness and shove it directly up your ass.

>Called "Stalin's Apologist" for covering up the mass starvation of five million Ukrainians, NYT Bureau Chief Walter Duranty once quipped that you "can't make an omelet without breaking eggs".

That's pretty fucked up if true

Realized I forgot to mention Noonday Demon: it’s a non-fiction book that includes research, though, the author also shares anecdotes and stories about depression: https://www.amazon.com/Noonday-Demon-Atlas-Depression/dp/1501123882/ref=nodl_

I love books! Books are life!

Kitchen Confidential Updated Edition: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly (P.S.) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0060899220/ref=cm_sw_r_u_apa_fab_P27BFb96GR2HG

I would really love Andrew Bourdain's Kitchen ConfidentI'll. I come from a family that owned restaurants and chef autobiographies are fascinating to me!

Congratulations to your sister, wow that takes persistence and dedication. She is awesome!

Without giving away to much I'm from the mid-state.

It can me tuff sometimes, I've been in my Volunteer department since I was born and while I've never personally anything gory. My father and people who have been there a while have; I'll not lie to you this job not sunshine and roses. Stuff will happen that keeps you at night, but don't let me discourage you this is undoubtedly the greatest thing I've ever done. If you offered me 100,000,000 dollars on the condition I couldn't be in the Fire Service ever again, I'd turn it down in a heart beat.

If you want to find out what it means to be a firefighter pick up <em>Report from Engine Co.82</em> it chronicles a Fireman with FDNY in the busiest station in poorest part of New York City during the early 70's. The book won't teach you a thing about training or anything like that. But that book taught me about why we go through the stuff that we do and what it means to be a firefighter. It's a 11 bucks on Amazon.

While I've not been a active,interior, firefighter long. I an tell you that the most I've ever felt alive is when I'm about 10 feet away from a structure fire putting water on it.

I believe you're referring to the rules/laws that say a establishment owner must pay the difference between a servers actual salary and minimum wage if the individuals total take home is less than minimum wage*hours worked.

The late Anthony Bourdain addressed that assumption in one of his books that I just finished. Basically his opinion is, servers who remind owners/managers about this rule/law tend to not stick around that particular establishment very long.

https://www.amazon.com/Kitchen-Confidential-Updated-Adventures-Underbelly/dp/0060899220

I'm the same way. This book really helped me understand the full scope of depression and it ends with a bitter sweet depiction of depression that frames it as not all bad. He says that depression puts you in touch with your humanity and makes you a more empathetic person. I found it inspiring to think about depression as both a blessing and a curse.

The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression https://smile.amazon.com/dp/1501123882/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_YJy6BbRNYD7X7

Read report from engine co 82 if you are interested. Written in the 60s/70s by a guy at the busiest fire station in the bronx/harlem new york. Fascinating read, right at the beginning of modern firefighting. https://www.amazon.com/Report-Engine-Co-Dennis-Smith/dp/0446675520

guy wrote a few books, but this was the first.

Hey man, I know what you're talking about. If you haven't already come upon it, I highly recommend this book: https://www.amazon.com/Noonday-Demon-Atlas-Depression/dp/1501123882

It's more of a reference than a front-to-back kind of thing, but it's very enlightening.

> People in my age group seem to be moving on to focus on their relationships and marriages and no longer on their friendships which for an incel like myself makes me feel left in the dust.

Been there, I remember that sucked.

>Some won't escape the misery and this is what leads them to drastic measures.

Well, I know two families who have suffered suicides. I have to say, after seeing all of the fallout on the people left behind from those suicides, that I really can't support anyone who is depressed committing suicide (if you're terminally ill, that's another story).

Suicide just makes the world a much worse place, in part because it is contagious; it tends to provoke other suicides. The word "degenerate" gets thrown around here a lot. Well, suicide is one of the most degenerate actions you can take. I say that as someone who tried to commit suicide and has been hospitalized a few times in mental hospitals due to serious depression. I've also read, perhaps in that same book, that most survivors of suicide are actually happy they survived when polled.

I've also seen people recover from losses. A couple I'm friends with lost their child to a terrible accident. They almost committed suicide together; but then they realized that's not what their child would have wanted for them. And now she's having fertility problems and will probably never be a mother again, which she is very sad about. I'm sure not a day goes by that she doesn't miss her child. But I've seen her happy. She and her husband are very much involved now in supporting those people who have lost children. Seriously, every time now I see them, I marvel at how they were able to rebuild their lives and how courageous they are. They will never forget the tragedy, of course.

Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain

I read this on Kindle on through their Lending Library (it might still be on there) and loved it. It's a great look inside kitchens and Bourdain is a good writer.

Edit: inserted title and author

Poking your hand is a generic guide that simply gives someone a frame of reference, no professional cook is actually sitting there poking their hand and then poking the steak and comparing the two. They may however squeeze or poke the steak itself to gauge it's doneness. Bill Buford goes into detail about this in his book Heat which he spends a year working in NYC's Babbo. Its similar to Espresso - at home you can take your time and weight your beans pre and post grind so every shot is consistently the same. In a busy cafe with orders lining up and people standing in line expecting their coffee on their way to work you don't have that luxury. You pull, tamp and go. Over time with enough practice you figure it out without needing a digital scale.

I don't see why it wouldn't be marketable, but I don't know enough about your field to know what publishers to approach. It would be worthwhile for you to consume everything that is close in format and topic and a) see who the publishers were and b) know what format/depth to emulate. A quick search on "nonfiction books about mental illness" turned up, among other hits, this TED talk from Andrew Solomon and for fun, here's the Amazon link to his The Noonday Demon, though I bet you could enjoy it for about $1.25 in late fees at your local library.

> The Mass Media has always aided and abetted the crimes of the Communists. The NY Times is guilty of white washing Stalin's Show Trials and the 'great reign of terror'.

http://www.amazon.ca/Stalins-Apologist-Walter-Duranty-Timess/dp/0195057007

>Go figure the Gulag Archepeligo has never been made into a movie.

Good point.

If you ever manage to achieve your dream remember that she does not appreciate being peed on and lied to at the same time. If you are going to do one make sure you do not do the other.

Sourcetation

Heat. Written by a previously untrained guy who goes to Italy to learn to cook Italian food and ends up as a chef in the kitchen of one of Mario Batali's restaurants. A great read, really engrossing. A perspective on cooking and professional chefs that I never would have seen otherwise.

NewJack: Guarding Sing Sing

It's one of the few greats that hasn't been mentioned yet. > Conover, a journalist and university professor, recounts his experience of learning about the New York State correctional system by becoming a correctional officer for nearly a year. The author went to such lengths after being repeatedly denied cooperation by the New York State Department of Correctional Services. In the book, he divulges the inner-workings of the system.

There's not a lot new under the sun. Short version: be very, very polite to people that cook and serve you food.

If you want to know this kind of thing in more detail, read Kitchen Confidential, by Anthony Bourdain. Great book. Cooks rule!

Anthony Bourdain's book is very entertaining, and has a lot of insight.

Not a cookbook or anything, but it would definitely hold your interest, and teach you a lot.

Kitchen Confidential

Gotta be New Jack - Guarding Sing Sing by Ted Conover

I love the idea of a guy going "hmm so they wont answer my questions as a journalist... fuck this I'm going to sign up and become a guard"

Also the description of New Years Eve inside Sing Sing is one of the best and most descriptive chapters ever.

Fiction wise it has got to be 2666 by Roberto Bolaño. When I first finished it I was somewhat perplexed by the threads left hanging. Then thinking back on the whole story it just grew and grew into "damn that was just GENIUS"

Read "Heat" by Bill Buford, he has some interesting perspective. http://www.amazon.com/Heat-Adventures-Pasta-Maker-Apprentice-Dante-Quoting/dp/1400034477/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1293387244&amp;sr=8-5

There's also an article out there written by Bourdain entitled "So you want to be a chef" or something similar that would give you some perspective if you're thinking of becoming a professional.

Ok, since no one has mentioned it yet, I feel compelled to recommend you read "Kitchen Confidential" by Anthony Bourdain, if you haven't already. Of course all experiences are different, but it paints a pretty vivid picture of what real kitchens are like (or at least were a few years ago). I love food and cooking as well and considered becoming a chef, but this book persuaded me otherwise. However, I think there are plenty of people that that lifestyle appeals to, so might as well check it out. Bourdain is also an entertaining writer, so if anything, you should just read it purely for fun and the love of food. (oh look, they released an updated version)

Ramsay explains why well done steaks are bad in the YouTube video...but if that's not enough, you might want to read Kitchen Confidential if you're at all interested in learning what cooks and chefs think of well done steaks.

The short of it: By overcooking the steak, you remove all juiciness and tenderness of a good cut of beef. Beef is carefully raised and graded according to the level of fat distributed throughout the meat. When the steak is cooked correctly (medium to medium-rare) the proteins and carbohydrates on the outside of the steak caramelize and develop delicious flavor while the fat melts and becomes a carrier for the amazing steak-y goodness. The inside of the steak warms slightly but you still have enough intact proteins that you actually taste the beef.

With a well-done steak, you loose that contrast between the inside and outside of the steak and the caramelization process will have gone on too long on the outside giving you burnt charcoal instead of sublime flavor.

If you haven't tried a steak cooked medium or medium-rare, you should. I don't think you'll go back to ruined meat ever again.

Well you would certainly have precedent on your side, what with big name chefs like Batali having gone over there to work alongside chefs for slave wages.

Bill Buford did a great book called <em>Heat</em> where he goes to Tuscany and does the same thing for a well-regarded butcher, outstanding book.