Kitchen Confidential

Anthony Bourdain's no holds barred exposé of the restaurant trade. A high octane culinary adventure set in New York, dramatised by Marcy Kahan.

Kitchen Confidential was a sensation on publication in 2000, taking the reader right to the heart of a sweaty, noisy, fast and furious cooking station with a fiery, likeable anti-hero protagonist. This debut radio dramatisation is a full-on behind the scenes tour of a range of kitchens, which questions why anyone would want to lead the exhausting, adrenalin-fuelled, harsh and precarious life of a restaurant chef. Marcy Kahan's clever dramatisation brings out the tenderness and real passion of its writer, as well as his high-octane roller coaster career.

Episode 1: Vichyssoise
Anthony is tucked away in a store room of his restaurant Les Halles, tapping out his book. He is telling us why we should never order fish on Monday, when his great friend and colleague Dimitri interrupts - they need to prep the day's ingredients. Then, all of a sudden, Anthony's Mother pipes up, taking him back to his seminal childhood holiday in France, when he first encountered cold soup and oysters. Achef is born.

The dramatist Marcy Kahan is an award-winning radio and theatre playwright and screenwriter. Her plays include 20 Cigarettes (Soho Theatre, 2007), a stage version of Nora Ephron's When Harry Met Sally (Theatre Royal, Haymarket, 2005) and Intimate Memoirs of An Irish Taxidermist (Perrier award, 1986 Edinburgh Festival). Marcy's screenplay Antonia and Jane was the first television film to be given cinematic distribution by Miramax and won a Gold Plaque award for best original screenplay at the 1991 Chicago Film Festival.

Dramatised by Marcy Kahan
Sound Design: Eloise Whitmore
Producer: Polly Thomas
Executive Producer: Robert Abel

A Somethin Else production for BBC Radio 4.

Anthony Bourdain's no holds barred exposé of the restaurant trade. A high octane culinary adventure set in New York, dramatised by Marcy Kahan.

Kitchen Confidential was a sensation on publication in 2000, taking the reader right to the heart of a sweaty, noisy, fast and furious cooking station with a fiery, likeable anti-hero protagonist. This debut radio dramatisation is a full-on behind the scenes tour of a range of kitchens, which questions why anyone would want to lead the exhausting, adrenalin-fuelled, harsh and precarious life of a restaurant chef. Marcy Kahan's clever dramatisation brings out the tenderness and real passion of its writer, as well as his high-octane roller coaster career.

Episode 1: Vichyssoise
Anthony is tucked away in a store room of his restaurant Les Halles, tapping out his book. He is telling us why we should never order fish on Monday, when his great friend and colleague Dimitri interrupts - they need to prep the day's ingredients. Then, all of a sudden, Anthony's Mother pipes up, taking him back to his seminal childhood holiday in France, when he first encountered cold soup and oysters. Achef is born.

The dramatist Marcy Kahan is an award-winning radio and theatre playwright and screenwriter. Her plays include 20 Cigarettes (Soho Theatre, 2007), a stage version of Nora Ephron's When Harry Met Sally (Theatre Royal, Haymarket, 2005) and Intimate Memoirs of An Irish Taxidermist (Perrier award, 1986 Edinburgh Festival). Marcy's screenplay Antonia and Jane was the first television film to be given cinematic distribution by Miramax and won a Gold Plaque award for best original screenplay at the 1991 Chicago Film Festival.

Dramatised by Marcy Kahan
Sound Design: Eloise Whitmore
Producer: Polly Thomas
Executive Producer: Robert Abel

A Somethin Else production for BBC Radio 4.

Anthony Bourdain's no holds barred exposé of the restaurant trade. A high octane culinary adventure set in New York, dramatised by Marcy Kahan.

Kitchen Confidential was a sensation on publication in 2000, taking the reader right to the heart of a sweaty, noisy, fast and furious cooking station with a fiery, likeable anti-hero protagonist. This debut radio dramatisation is a full-on behind the scenes tour of a range of kitchens, which questions why anyone would want to lead the exhausting, adrenalin-fuelled, harsh and precarious life of a restaurant chef. Marcy Kahan's clever dramatisation brings out the tenderness and real passion of its writer, as well as his high-octane roller coaster career.

Episode 2: The Line
Bourdain drifts back to 1973 and his summer at the Cape Cod joint where he started out as bottle washer and skivvy, graduating to being the salad maker alongside a bunch of stoned, metal head, summer season outlaw chefs - a training that took him next to New York.

The dramatist Marcy Kahan is an award-winning radio and theatre playwright and screenwriter. Her plays include 20 Cigarettes (Soho Theatre, 2007), a stage version of Nora Ephron's When Harry Met Sally (Theatre Royal, Haymarket, 2005) and Intimate Memoirs of An Irish Taxidermist (Perrier award, 1986 Edinburgh Festival). Marcy's screenplay Antonia and Jane was the first television film to be given cinematic distribution by Miramax and won a Gold Plaque award for best original screenplay at the 1991 Chicago Film Festival.

Dramatised by Marcy Kahan
Sound Design: Eloise Whitmore
Producer: Polly Thomas
Executive Producer: Robert Abel

A Somethin Else production for BBC Radio 4.

Anthony Bourdain's no holds barred exposé of the restaurant trade. A high octane culinary adventure set in New York, dramatised by Marcy Kahan.

Kitchen Confidential was a sensation on publication in 2000, taking the reader right to the heart of a sweaty, noisy, fast and furious cooking station with a fiery, likeable anti-hero protagonist. This debut radio dramatisation is a full-on behind the scenes tour of a range of kitchens, which questions why anyone would want to lead the exhausting, adrenalin-fuelled, harsh and precarious life of a restaurant chef. Marcy Kahan's clever dramatisation brings out the tenderness and real passion of its writer, as well as his high-octane roller coaster career.

Episode 2: The Line
Bourdain drifts back to 1973 and his summer at the Cape Cod joint where he started out as bottle washer and skivvy, graduating to being the salad maker alongside a bunch of stoned, metal head, summer season outlaw chefs - a training that took him next to New York.

The dramatist Marcy Kahan is an award-winning radio and theatre playwright and screenwriter. Her plays include 20 Cigarettes (Soho Theatre, 2007), a stage version of Nora Ephron's When Harry Met Sally (Theatre Royal, Haymarket, 2005) and Intimate Memoirs of An Irish Taxidermist (Perrier award, 1986 Edinburgh Festival). Marcy's screenplay Antonia and Jane was the first television film to be given cinematic distribution by Miramax and won a Gold Plaque award for best original screenplay at the 1991 Chicago Film Festival.

Dramatised by Marcy Kahan
Sound Design: Eloise Whitmore
Producer: Polly Thomas
Executive Producer: Robert Abel

A Somethin Else production for BBC Radio 4.

Anthony Bourdain's no holds barred exposé of the restaurant trade. A high octane culinary adventure set in New York, dramatised by Marcy Kahan.

Kitchen Confidential was a sensation on publication in 2000, taking the reader right to the heart of a sweaty, noisy, fast and furious cooking station with a fiery, likeable anti-hero protagonist. This debut radio dramatisation is a full-on behind the scenes tour of a range of kitchens, which questions why anyone would want to lead the exhausting, adrenalin-fuelled, harsh and precarious life of a restaurant chef. Marcy Kahan's clever dramatisation brings out the tenderness and real passion of its writer, as well as his high-octane roller coaster career.

Episode 3: Owners
Anthony considers the wilderness years, when he traipsed from one lowly New York place to another, taking hand to mouth chef jobs in ever more ludicrous restaurant ventures, bound to fail.

The dramatist Marcy Kahan is an award-winning radio and theatre playwright and screenwriter. Her plays include 20 Cigarettes (Soho Theatre, 2007), a stage version of Nora Ephron's When Harry Met Sally (Theatre Royal, Haymarket, 2005) and Intimate Memoirs of An Irish Taxidermist (Perrier award, 1986 Edinburgh Festival). Marcy's screenplay Antonia and Jane was the first television film to be given cinematic distribution by Miramax and won a Gold Plaque award for best original screenplay at the 1991 Chicago Film Festival.

Dramatised by Marcy Kahan
Sound Design: Eloise Whitmore
Producer: Polly Thomas
Executive Producer: Robert Abel

A Somethin Else production for BBC Radio 4.

Anthony Bourdain's no holds barred exposé of the restaurant trade. A high octane culinary adventure set in New York, dramatised by Marcy Kahan.

Kitchen Confidential was a sensation on publication in 2000, taking the reader right to the heart of a sweaty, noisy, fast and furious cooking station with a fiery, likeable anti-hero protagonist. This debut radio dramatisation is a full-on behind the scenes tour of a range of kitchens, which questions why anyone would want to lead the exhausting, adrenalin-fuelled, harsh and precarious life of a restaurant chef. Marcy Kahan's clever dramatisation brings out the tenderness and real passion of its writer, as well as his high-octane roller coaster career.

Episode 3: Owners
Anthony considers the wilderness years, when he traipsed from one lowly New York place to another, taking hand to mouth chef jobs in ever more ludicrous restaurant ventures, bound to fail.

The dramatist Marcy Kahan is an award-winning radio and theatre playwright and screenwriter. Her plays include 20 Cigarettes (Soho Theatre, 2007), a stage version of Nora Ephron's When Harry Met Sally (Theatre Royal, Haymarket, 2005) and Intimate Memoirs of An Irish Taxidermist (Perrier award, 1986 Edinburgh Festival). Marcy's screenplay Antonia and Jane was the first television film to be given cinematic distribution by Miramax and won a Gold Plaque award for best original screenplay at the 1991 Chicago Film Festival.

Dramatised by Marcy Kahan
Sound Design: Eloise Whitmore
Producer: Polly Thomas
Executive Producer: Robert Abel

A Somethin Else production for BBC Radio 4.

Anthony Bourdain's no holds barred exposé of the restaurant trade. A high octane culinary adventure set in New York, dramatised by Marcy Kahan.

Kitchen Confidential was a sensation on publication in 2000, taking the reader right to the heart of a sweaty, noisy, fast and furious cooking station with a fiery, likeable anti-hero protagonist. This debut radio dramatisation is a full-on behind the scenes tour of a range of kitchens, which questions why anyone would want to lead the exhausting, adrenalin-fuelled, harsh and precarious life of a restaurant chef. Marcy Kahan's clever dramatisation brings out the tenderness and real passion of its writer, as well as his high-octane roller coaster career.

Episode 4: Cook's Talk
Anthony and Dimitri entertain us with the low down on kitchen repartee. Not recommended for the faint hearted! Mother attempts to maintain some decorum - and finds herself quite fluent in some of the less racy terminology.

The dramatist Marcy Kahan is an award-winning radio and theatre playwright and screenwriter. Her plays include 20 Cigarettes (Soho Theatre, 2007), a stage version of Nora Ephron's When Harry Met Sally (Theatre Royal, Haymarket, 2005) and Intimate Memoirs of An Irish Taxidermist (Perrier award, 1986 Edinburgh Festival). Marcy's screenplay Antonia and Jane was the first television film to be given cinematic distribution by Miramax and won a Gold Plaque award for best original screenplay at the 1991 Chicago Film Festival.

Dramatised by Marcy Kahan
Sound Design: Eloise Whitmore
Producer: Polly Thomas
Executive Producer: Robert Abel

A Somethin Else production for BBC Radio 4.

Anthony Bourdain's no holds barred exposé of the restaurant trade. A high octane culinary adventure set in New York, dramatised by Marcy Kahan.

Kitchen Confidential was a sensation on publication in 2000, taking the reader right to the heart of a sweaty, noisy, fast and furious cooking station with a fiery, likeable anti-hero protagonist. This debut radio dramatisation is a full-on behind the scenes tour of a range of kitchens, which questions why anyone would want to lead the exhausting, adrenalin-fuelled, harsh and precarious life of a restaurant chef. Marcy Kahan's clever dramatisation brings out the tenderness and real passion of its writer, as well as his high-octane roller coaster career.

Episode 4: Cook's Talk
Anthony and Dimitri entertain us with the low down on kitchen repartee. Not recommended for the faint hearted! Mother attempts to maintain some decorum - and finds herself quite fluent in some of the less racy terminology.

The dramatist Marcy Kahan is an award-winning radio and theatre playwright and screenwriter. Her plays include 20 Cigarettes (Soho Theatre, 2007), a stage version of Nora Ephron's When Harry Met Sally (Theatre Royal, Haymarket, 2005) and Intimate Memoirs of An Irish Taxidermist (Perrier award, 1986 Edinburgh Festival). Marcy's screenplay Antonia and Jane was the first television film to be given cinematic distribution by Miramax and won a Gold Plaque award for best original screenplay at the 1991 Chicago Film Festival.

Dramatised by Marcy Kahan
Sound Design: Eloise Whitmore
Producer: Polly Thomas
Executive Producer: Robert Abel

A Somethin Else production for BBC Radio 4.

Anthony Bourdain's no holds barred exposé of the restaurant trade. A high octane culinary adventure set in New York, dramatised by Marcy Kahan.

Kitchen Confidential was a sensation on publication in 2000, taking the reader right to the heart of a sweaty, noisy, fast and furious cooking station with a fiery, likeable anti-hero protagonist. This debut radio dramatisation is a full-on behind the scenes tour of a range of kitchens, which questions why anyone would want to lead the exhausting, adrenalin-fuelled, harsh and precarious life of a restaurant chef. Marcy Kahan's clever dramatisation brings out the tenderness and real passion of its writer, as well as his high-octane roller coaster career.

Episode 5: Okay I Lied
Anthony makes his final confession - everything he has told us is untrue. Well, sort of. His love of chaos and the dark side means that his version of restaurant life is not the only one. As an example, we visit the kitchen of Scott Bryan, a fellow cook and the antithesis of Anthony - quiet, calm, always well mannered. Anthony brings us up to date with his own career as a jet setting cookery writer and presenter, whose love of food drives all his endeavours.

The dramatist Marcy Kahan is an award-winning radio and theatre playwright and screenwriter. Her plays include 20 Cigarettes (Soho Theatre, 2007), a stage version of Nora Ephron's When Harry Met Sally (Theatre Royal, Haymarket, 2005) and Intimate Memoirs of An Irish Taxidermist (Perrier award, 1986 Edinburgh Festival). Marcy's screenplay Antonia and Jane was the first television film to be given cinematic distribution by Miramax and won a Gold Plaque award for best original screenplay at the 1991 Chicago Film Festival.

Dramatised by Marcy Kahan
Sound Design: Eloise Whitmore
Producer: Polly Thomas
Executive Producer: Robert Abel

A Somethin Else production for BBC Radio 4.

Anthony Bourdain's no holds barred exposé of the restaurant trade. A high octane culinary adventure set in New York, dramatised by Marcy Kahan.

Kitchen Confidential was a sensation on publication in 2000, taking the reader right to the heart of a sweaty, noisy, fast and furious cooking station with a fiery, likeable anti-hero protagonist. This debut radio dramatisation is a full-on behind the scenes tour of a range of kitchens, which questions why anyone would want to lead the exhausting, adrenalin-fuelled, harsh and precarious life of a restaurant chef. Marcy Kahan's clever dramatisation brings out the tenderness and real passion of its writer, as well as his high-octane roller coaster career.

Episode 5: Okay I Lied
Anthony makes his final confession - everything he has told us is untrue. Well, sort of. His love of chaos and the dark side means that his version of restaurant life is not the only one. As an example, we visit the kitchen of Scott Bryan, a fellow cook and the antithesis of Anthony - quiet, calm, always well mannered. Anthony brings us up to date with his own career as a jet setting cookery writer and presenter, whose love of food drives all his endeavours.

The dramatist Marcy Kahan is an award-winning radio and theatre playwright and screenwriter. Her plays include 20 Cigarettes (Soho Theatre, 2007), a stage version of Nora Ephron's When Harry Met Sally (Theatre Royal, Haymarket, 2005) and Intimate Memoirs of An Irish Taxidermist (Perrier award, 1986 Edinburgh Festival). Marcy's screenplay Antonia and Jane was the first television film to be given cinematic distribution by Miramax and won a Gold Plaque award for best original screenplay at the 1991 Chicago Film Festival.

Dramatised by Marcy Kahan
Sound Design: Eloise Whitmore
Producer: Polly Thomas
Executive Producer: Robert Abel

A Somethin Else production for BBC Radio 4.