A Cook's Tour
The author of Kitchen Confidential, a dashing behind-the-scenes look at the work life of a restaurant chef, embarks on a world journey in search of exotic and photogenic meals. This sometimes promises to become a foodish Travels With Charlie, a mad romp across a world of eateries with Food Channel camera crews struggling to keep up, but without the anchor of unveiling the mysteries of real life (and real people) back in the kitchen, Bourdain drifts from personal memoir to exotic food porn to The Worst Hotel In The World.
I read most of this book in the Food Court of the Worst Shopping Mall In New Jersey. (It's a long story) This is an unfair thing to ask of a book, and A Cook's Tour did survive, although it was doubtless scarred by the ordeal.