Summer reading

I'm reading Kitchen Confidential these days, by the chef of Les Halles. It's a quick fun read (a friend lent it to me last night and I'm half done with it already) that I recommend to people who have been in the food industry or are vaguely curious about it. At times it reads like Less Than Zero or a Jay MacInerny novel from the other side of the bar at Odeon, at others he's laying down how it is. It's not an expose on the industry, really, which is how I think some people have fashioned it. It's more a cook telling you his side of the story and giving a glimpse into the kitchen, from his humble beginnings at Cape Cod fish fry joints to the big leagues of New York. Fascinating.