KITCHEN CONFIDENTIAL Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly

original rhinestone-aproned stage, where Billy Rose's famously zaftig chorus line once kicked, was still t ...

unctuous and transparently duplicitous cheerleader who was always urging his terrorized waiters to "smile" and "have f ...

"They're gonna screw you, man," they said. "You gotta do something. You're fucking up! They're gonna g ...

pants leg as he talked, fell on the floor in big noisy droplets. "Just cut the shit and tell me what yo ...

old chef de cuisine, too. I amassed a lot of phone numbers in my brief time at Coco Pazzo Teatro an ...

watching the tube, and half-listening to Nancy, I'm fine-tuning the specials in my head: grill station will ...

olives, garlic confit, tomato concassée, fava beans and chopped fresh herbs), filet au poivre, steak au poivre, st ...

chef." He's covered with grime, his whites almost black from handling dirty, food-smeared kitchen floor mat ...

by the rest of the Queens residents; Segundo the vato loco prep centurion, Ramon the dishwasher, and Janine the ...

of milk crates, loaded with plastic-wrapped côtes du boeuf, entrecôtes, rumpsteaks, racks of lamb, lamb stew ...

Reducing gastrite (sugar and vinegar) for duck sauce while the Dead Boys play "Sonic Reducer" on the ...

claim he carries a gun, insist that he sniffs "thinner" and "pintura", that he's done a lot of prison ...

has a maniacal laugh you can hear out on the street; he's everyone's first choice for Waiter Most Likely to ...

supposed confidence a few times a week, for fun. Later, when it comes back to me it provides an in ...

dish as soon as its name is out of Cachundo's mouth—setting up the pan, doing the pre-searing, getting it ...

accounts, the names of other chefs who buy his fine smoked sturgeon, salmon, trout and fish eggs. I have ...

me first? Me and Carlos gonna punch two holes in your neck and bump dicks in the middle!" Doogie cringes ...

screaming at the blameless Baldor, my anger is gone, so when I call the guilty company, I can barely ...

later with pears, lemon verbena, some baby fennel, fingerling potatoes and some turnips with greens, for ...

and talk to Chris Gerage, who was also a chef for Pino at one point, and we discuss what's good for tomo ...