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Appetites: A Cookbook by Anthony Bourdain & Laurie Woolever Review: A Tight, Opinionated Home-Kitchen Manifesto
Published by Ecco on October 25, 2016, Appetites: A Cookbook is Anthony Bourdain and Laurie Woolever's collaborative distillation of more than forty years of professional cooking and global eating into a personal, opinionated repertoire for the home cook — earning a Booklist starred review and a place among Bourdain's New York Times bestsellers. This review assesses the book's content, structure, and published critical reception; it does not reflect a kitchen test of the recipes.
LuvemBooks Verdict
Best for
Home cooks who already admire Bourdain's unfiltered voice and want a tightly curated, personality-driven repertoire of his personal favorites rather than a comprehensive reference guide.
Worth it if
You want a purposeful, opinionated collection of recipes — spanning French classics to Vietnamese street food — delivered with the same frank, no-holds-barred ethos that defined Bourdain's television work, and you're willing to bring some kitchen confidence to the table.
Skip if
Readers seeking gentle, step-by-step encouragement or a broad democratic range of difficulty levels may find Bourdain's insistence on prep-kitchen discipline and his deliberately narrow, opinionated curation more demanding than welcoming.
What readers & critics say
BookForum, as quoted by both Parnassus Books and Barnes & Noble, called Appetites "a really great cookbook" alongside its eclectic, expletive-laden portrait of Bourdain's family food life. Booklist awarded the book a starred review, praising Bourdain's "inimitable voice — funny, foul-mouthed, and unapologetically opinionated," and recommending it for every library's food shelves; Eater singled out the book's visual distinction, noting photography by Bobby Fisher and a cover by Ralph Steadman as making it a standout in the cookbook field.
Sources: Parnassus Books, Barnes & Noble, Eater4.8from 4,981 Amazon ratings— reader ratings, not a LuvemBooks score
Look inside the book
Preview the actual pages, via Google BooksIn This Review
- What Works & What Doesn't
- What the Book Actually Is
- Significance and Place in the Bourdain Canon
- Critical Reception and Strengths
- Who This Book Is For — and Who It May Frustrate
- Craft, Design Intent, and Lasting Relevance
What Works & What Doesn't
What Works
- A Booklist starred review praises Bourdain's voice as 'funny, foul-mouthed, and unapologetically opinionated' and recommends it for every library's food shelves
- Co-authored with Woolever, whose nearly decade-long collaboration with Bourdain gives the book a cohesive, authoritative voice throughout
- Visually distinctive design, with photography by Bobby Fisher and a cover by Ralph Steadman, sets it apart from standard cookbook presentation
- BookForum called it 'a really great cookbook' alongside its portrait of Bourdain's family food life
- A New York Times bestseller that distills forty-plus years of professional cooking into a focused, personal home-cook repertoire
What Doesn't
- Bourdain's insistence on a professional prep-kitchen mindset may feel demanding or exclusionary to less confident home cooks
- The book's deliberately opinionated, curated scope — 'dishes that everyone should know how to cook' by Bourdain's own lights — means it is not a broad or comprehensive reference
Appetites: A Cookbook is a New York Times bestseller that translates Bourdain's decades of professional and itinerant eating into a home-cook collection — frank, curated, and unmistakably his own.
What the Book Actually Is
Interior spread featuring a meat dish with garnishes and hands preparing food, demonstrating bold, hands-on cooking techniques.
Appetites is Anthony Bourdain's first cookbook in more than ten years at the time of its 2016 publication, co-written with Laurie Woolever, who spent nearly a decade as his collaborator and co-author. The premise, as the publisher frames it, is straightforward: boil down forty-plus years of professional cooking and globe-trotting into a tight repertoire of personal favorites — dishes that Bourdain believed everyone should know how to cook. Rather than chasing crowd-pleasing universality, the book refocuses on the discipline of cooking itself, advising readers to treat their home kitchens with something closer to the rigor of a professional prep kitchen. The recipes draw from a deliberately eclectic range — classic French technique, Vietnamese street food, homestyle Italian cooking — a spread that will surprise no one familiar with Bourdain's television work on No Reservations and Parts Unknown. Sections span breakfast, sandwiches, and party foods, among others.
Significance and Place in the Bourdain Canon
Bourdain arrived at Appetites already established as one of food culture's most recognizable voices — the author of Kitchen Confidential, Medium Raw, and the host of CNN's Parts Unknown. That context matters: this is not a debut cookbook from a chef trying to build a brand, but a late-career, deliberately personal document from someone who had spent years eating at every level of the global food chain. Woolever's role as co-author is substantive; the publisher credits both writers on the cover, and Woolever's decade-long working relationship with Bourdain is evident in how cleanly the book's voice holds together. Appetites joined Bourdain's other titles as a New York Times bestseller, and the cookbook landscape received it as a visually and editorially distinct entry, noted by Eater for its photography by Bobby Fisher and a cover designed by Ralph Steadman — the artist best known for his long collaboration with Hunter S. Thompson.
Split image showing dark still life with grapes and produce on left, man in kitchen with candelabra and "Party 101" text on right.
Critical Reception and Strengths
Critical reception from named outlets was strong. Booklist awarded the book a starred review, with the reviewer writing that "Bourdain is back with his inimitable voice — funny, foul-mouthed, and unapologetically opinionated — in this tightly curated collection of recipes," calling it "a cookbook that should be on every library's food shelves." BookForum was equally direct, stating that Appetites, "in addition to presenting an eclectic, expletive-laden portrait of one's family's fare, is also a really great cookbook." The voice is the engine: Barnes & Noble's editorial description characterizes it as written with the same no-holds-barred ethos that defined No Reservations and Parts Unknown, and the Booklist review makes clear that the personality is not a veneer over the recipes but woven into them throughout.
Who This Book Is For — and Who It May Frustrate
The book is designed for home cooks who want a purposeful, stripped-down repertoire rather than an encyclopedic reference. Bourdain's framing — these are dishes he thinks you should cook, presented without apology — gives Appetites a strong point of view that is also its most polarizing quality. Readers who come to a cookbook seeking gentle encouragement or a broad democratic range of difficulty levels may find the book's stance demanding. The professional-kitchen mindset Bourdain advocates, including the emphasis on mise en place and treating the home kitchen with prep-kitchen discipline, sets a particular tone. Some readers, as Barnes & Noble's description suggests, will find this energizing; others may find it exclusive. The eclectic recipe range — stretching from French classics to Southeast Asian street-food-inspired dishes — also assumes a level of comfort with varied ingredients and techniques.
Craft, Design Intent, and Lasting Relevance
The recipes in Appetites are written in the same direct, personality-driven prose that characterizes all of Bourdain's published work. The book's design — Steadman's cover art and Fisher's photography — gives it a visual identity that Eater singled out as making it a standout in the cookbook field. Bourdain died in June 2018, and Appetites now carries the additional weight of being among his final published works in his lifetime. For readers coming to it after his death, it functions as a document of his domestic cooking life and his culinary convictions at their most personal — a counterpoint to the globe-spanning ambition of his television work and a record of what he actually cooked and valued at home.
Frequently Asked Questions
is Appetites: A Cookbook by Anthony Bourdain, Laurie Woolever worth buying
It depends on what you want from a cookbook. Booklist gave it a starred review, calling it 'a cookbook that should be on every library's food shelves,' and BookForum said it's 'a really great cookbook' — so critical reception was genuinely strong. That said, the reviewer notes it's best for home cooks who want a purposeful, stripped-down repertoire rather than an encyclopedic reference, so if you're looking for gentle hand-holding or a wide range of difficulty levels, it may not be the right fit.
what is Appetites: A Cookbook by Anthony Bourdain, Laurie Woolever actually about
It's Bourdain and Woolever's attempt to distill forty-plus years of professional cooking and globe-trotting into a tight personal repertoire — the dishes Bourdain believed every home cook should know. The recipe range is deliberately eclectic, pulling from classic French technique, Vietnamese street food, and homestyle Italian cooking, with sections covering breakfast, sandwiches, and party foods among others. The reviewer emphasizes that this isn't a neutral survey of crowd-pleasers but an opinionated, personality-driven document of what Bourdain actually cooked and valued at home.
is Appetites: A Cookbook by Anthony Bourdain, Laurie Woolever good for beginner home cooks
It can be inspiring for beginners who respond well to tough love, but the reviewer flags a real caveat: Bourdain pushes home cooks to treat their kitchens with the rigor of a professional prep kitchen, emphasizing mise en place and discipline. The eclectic recipe range — stretching from French classics to Southeast Asian street-food-inspired dishes — also assumes a level of comfort with varied ingredients and techniques. Readers looking for gentle encouragement or step-by-step basics may find the book's stance more demanding than welcoming.
how does Appetites: A Cookbook by Anthony Bourdain, Laurie Woolever compare to Kitchen Confidential
Kitchen Confidential is Bourdain's breakout book about the professional restaurant world, while Appetites is a late-career personal cookbook focused on what he actually cooked at home. The reviewer notes that Appetites functions as 'a counterpoint to the globe-spanning ambition of his television work' on No Reservations and Parts Unknown, making it a more domestic and intimate document. The voice — described by Booklist as 'funny, foul-mouthed, and unapologetically opinionated' — will feel familiar to Kitchen Confidential fans, but the purpose is entirely different.
does Appetites: A Cookbook by Anthony Bourdain, Laurie Woolever have good photos and design
Yes — the visual presentation was specifically called out as a standout. Eater singled out the photography by Bobby Fisher and the cover designed by Ralph Steadman (the artist best known for his long collaboration with Hunter S. Thompson) as giving the book a visual identity that made it distinct in the cookbook field. The reviewer describes the design as part of what makes Appetites a standout entry in the cookbook landscape, not just another celebrity chef title.
is Appetites: A Cookbook by Anthony Bourdain, Laurie Woolever too demanding for a home kitchen
That's a real tension the reviewer honestly addresses. Bourdain advocates for treating the home kitchen with something closer to the rigor of a professional prep kitchen, which the reviewer describes as the book's most energizing quality for some readers — and its most polarizing for others. If you're comfortable with varied techniques and ingredients across cuisines like French, Vietnamese, and Italian, you'll likely find it manageable; if you want a book that meets you where you are, the professional-kitchen mindset may feel exclusionary.
what makes Appetites: A Cookbook by Anthony Bourdain, Laurie Woolever different from other celebrity cookbooks
The reviewer emphasizes that this isn't a brand-building debut but a deliberately personal late-career document from someone who had spent years eating at every level of the global food chain. Woolever's decade-long working relationship with Bourdain is credited with keeping the book's voice unusually cohesive, and BookForum described it as 'an eclectic, expletive-laden portrait of one's family's fare.' The reviewer also notes that since Bourdain died in June 2018, Appetites now carries the additional weight of being among his final published works, making it a record of his culinary convictions at their most personal.
Sources & Further Reading
The key facts and claims in this review are grounded in the retrieved, verified sources listed below.
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Anthony Bourdain, Laurie Woolever, Wikipedia
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sevencircumstances.com
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booklarder.com
- 6
parnassusbooks.net
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powells.com
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