1. Fleetwood Mac? Just started to fall in love with this band and I’d like to read something great about them—esp Stevie Nicks, I’m fascinated by what little I know about her.
2. Doormen / Bouncers? Is there anything in the same league as Buford’s ‘Among the thugs’?
3. Behind the scenes of a restaurant? Fascinated with this from watching the Ramsay’s Boiling Point from the late-90s. I’ve recently ordered Kitchen Confidential, is this any good?
I’ve recently ordered Kitchen Confidential, is this any good?
Very.
I’ve read Kitchen Confidential twice. You can go ahead and think the guy is a huge dick, and you’d be right, and of course he has this boring early-70’s worldview (he seems to love The Doors, for reasons that people who live in the civilized world may have a hard time understanding), but when he talks about the kind of life you live when you work in a kitchen, he’s got a lot to say. He also loves food in a way that few do, which is what you want when someone’s writing about food. Great book.
Ask Ian Johnson about Fleetwood Mac.
4. Muck-raking early-1900’s journalism about corporate corruption, in line with The Jungle?
Fascinated with this from watching the Ramsay’s Boiling Point
Ramsay’s “Kitchens From Hell” or whatever it’s called is really great. He goes into failing restaurants and fixes them, or at least bluntly tells them what’s wrong.
how did we get this off-topic this fast?
Also, for an antidote to Kitchen Confidential (although I too love it), try The Soul of a Chef: The Journey Toward Perfection. It spends a fair amount of time on Thomas Keller, who’s about as opposite from Bourdain as you can get in the business.
5. A good one-volume history of World War I?