Book Week: "Medium Raw" by Anthony Bourdain

Phoenix New Times - What's on your summer reading list? This week,Chow Bella contributors will answer that question with reviews of the food-related books we've read lately. If you have a recommendation for us, please leave it in the comment section. Today's selection: Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook by Anthony Bourdain.

Anthony Bourdain's latest food memoir, Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People who Cook, is a collection of essays -- a non-fiction pu-pu platter of assorted delights and skewered bits.

A lot has happened in the ten years since Bourdain published his bestselling, back-of-the-kitchen, grungy, gristly memoir, Kitchen Confidential. For one, Bourdain is no longer a working journeyman cook. He has spent the last several years travelling the world as a successful host and writer of the travel/food-eating/personal documentary mélange of a TV show, Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations. He is still plenty caustic and sharp, but dare I say he's mellowed a bit?