A Complete List Of Anthony Bourdain's 13 Books
He was writing long before Kitchen Confidential.
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In the months after his death, you may have felt like you read all there was to read about Anthony Bourdain. And while you very may well have done that, there's a chance you didn't read his books—the works that led him to the career you now know so well. Here is a round-up of every book Anthony wrote during his lifetime, all of them deeper and more thought-provoking than the next.
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Long before the 1999 New Yorker essay that blew Bourdain into the national spotlight, the chef was writing books. His first was not so much about food in the ways his next 10+ were, but it satirically follows the semi-autobiographical character Tommy, a guy working in his shady uncle's restaurant in New York City.
Anthony's second book was another novel. This one, described as a "hilarious crime thriller," centered around a CIA assassin who messed his last assignment up juuust a little bit.
This book was ultimately a much longer follow up to "Don't Eat Before Reading This." It was the deepest delve into restaurant life the world had ever seen before and has sold around a million copies to date.
His first book after rising to fame wasn't another hardcore food tell-all, but historical non-fiction. Anthony delved deep into the story of "Typhoid Mary," the woman who was pinpointed in the early 1900s as spreading typhoid throughout NYC through poor hygiene practices in a kitchen.
Originally released as Bobby Gold, this was Anthony's third novel.
A Cook's Tour: Global Adventures in Extreme Cuisines; 2001
Yup. His third book of the year. This was the book that led him to the Food Network, where he ultimately began his television career.
Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles Cookbook; 2004
Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles Cookbook; 2004
This tome served as a behind-the-scenes look into both French cooking and Les Halles, a since-closed iconic French brasserie in NYC where Anthony was the executive chef for a time.
The Nasty Bits marked Tony's returned to gritty kitchen lit. This book featured 37 essays and stories from the chef, each broken into a category of salty, sweet, sour, bitter, or umami.
No Reservations: Around the World on an Empty Stomach serves as a prelude to Parts Unknown, in a way (the show first aired in 2013). Want to know what it was really like to travel (and eat around the world) with Tony Bourdain? Here's your best shot at getting it.
This book was written as a follow-up to Kitchen Confidential; it continued to take big, uncensored aim at other prominent people in the food world and, you know, at the industry in general.
Yes! A graphic novel! One in which master chefs rule a dystopic society in the not-too-distant future, nonetheless.
Three years later, Anthony published a follow up to Get Jiro! This graphic novel looked back at Jiro's beginnings.
Anthony's last book was a cookbook—only the second he published during his illustrious career. This one was more of a look at the basics than Les Halles, with recipes the chef felt everyone should know.
Posthumously, the channel that aired Parts Unknown published an incredibly touching tribute to the chef, combining little-known quotes, images, and memories of him into one home.
Anthony Bourdain: The Last Interview: and Other Conversations, by Melville House
Anthony Bourdain: The Last Interview: and Other Conversations, by Melville House
Another posthumous tribute, publisher Melville House combined some of Tony's last and most remarkable interviews in the aptly titled Anthony Bourdain: The Last Interview.
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