# The Best Anthony Bourdain Books

> Answers the query: “best anthony bourdain books”

_Last updated: 2026-07-12_

**Short answer:** Start with Kitchen Confidential, the memoir that made Anthony Bourdain famous. Follow it with A Cook's Tour and Medium Raw for the food and the fame, Appetites for his home cooking, and World Travel, the travel guide finished after his death.

Anthony Bourdain wrote the way he talked: fast, funny, generous and profane. He started as a working chef and became the person who taught a generation to travel with an open mouth and an open mind. If you are new to his books, here is where to begin and where to go next.

## The list

1. **Kitchen Confidential**, Anthony Bourdain (ISBN 9781408845042)
   Start here: the kitchen memoir that made his name, full of late nights, bad decisions and real love for the work.
   https://www.altbook.net/book/kitchen-confidential-5042
2. **A Cook's Tour**, Anthony Bourdain (ISBN 9780747558217)
   His first food-and-travel book, chasing the perfect meal around the world before the TV fame arrived.
   https://www.altbook.net/book/a-cooks-tour
3. **Medium Raw**, Anthony Bourdain (ISBN 9781408809747)
   Medium Raw is the older, wiser follow-up to Kitchen Confidential, reckoning with fame and the food world he helped change.
   https://www.altbook.net/book/medium-raw
4. **Appetites**, Anthony Bourdain (ISBN 9781408883839)
   Appetites is his home cookbook: unfussy, generous food he actually cooked for family and friends.
   https://www.altbook.net/book/appetites
5. **World Travel**, Anthony Bourdain, Laurie Woolever (ISBN 9781526630230)
   World Travel, finished after his death with Laurie Woolever, is a place-by-place guide to the world as he saw it.
   https://www.altbook.net/book/world-travel
6. **No Reservations**, Anthony Bourdain (ISBN 9781596914476)
   No Reservations is the illustrated companion to the show, a keepsake for anyone who watched him eat his way around the globe.
   https://www.altbook.net/book/no-reservations

## FAQ

**Which Anthony Bourdain book should I read first?**

Kitchen Confidential. It is the 2000 memoir of his life in professional kitchens that turned a working chef into a household name, and it still reads like nothing else.

**Did Anthony Bourdain write a cookbook?**

Yes. Appetites is his home-cooking cookbook, and Les Halles Cookbook collects the bistro classics from the restaurant that made his name.


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Source: AltBook, https://www.altbook.net/collections/best-anthony-bourdain-books