“Don’t Eat Before Reading This” by Anthony Bourdain

Please read “Don’t Eat Before Reading This” by Anthony Bourdain and write a response to the questions below. I prefer it if you respond to this post directly, but if you choose you may create a new post.

DUE Feb. 18th

Here is the link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wADl0duH9oGIiwHqKHnHJQRPHfhA6-hz/view?usp=sharing

  1. What did you think of the piece? Be honest! Did you like it? Explain! 
  2. Who do you think might be the intended audience of this piece?
  3. Why do you think the author wrote it?
  4. What is the tone of the piece (formal, informal, humorous, serious, academic, etc.) Why do you think the author chose this tone?
  5. What Discourse Community does the author describe? Explain!

33 Comments

  1. Hamely Jose Taveras

    I think this piece was actually very good. I really like reading it. It was a little hard for me to concentrated while reading because it can be a little hard to understand his writing. The text was hard for me to understand because of the big words and some of the things he said I didn’t understand until I broke the text down a little. (Maybe it was just me but I was a little confused so I had to read it a couple of times to understand.)
    I think that the intended audience of this piece is people that go to restaurants. I think the author wrote this to inform people of what goes on in the restaurant kitchen. The tone of this piece is somewhat humorous but also serious. I think the author chose this tone to explain serious things that go on in restaurants. The discourse community that this author describes is the community of a restaurant like a chef and the staff and how this is done. The author describes how they talk in their own way and they understand each other. The authors explain how the kitchen is full of different people that have the same goal which is to prepare food for customers.

    • Rebekah Coleman

      Hamely,

      Thanks for sharing your feedback! Glad you enjoyed!

      RC

  2. mustapha

    I found this story interesting. I never would have thought that there was a layer if criminality in the world of cooking. I think that the intended audience are restaurant dwellers to let them know what is really going on in the restaurants they like to eat in. I think his purpose in writing this story was to educate the everyday person on just what goes and on and happens to their food. The tone of the story is educational and informative. I believe he chose this tone to portray the real life conditions of the average restaurant. The discourse community the author describes is a foodie or restaurant lover community as this is targeted for that demographic.

    • Rebekah Coleman

      Mustapha,

      Thanks for sharing your feedback! Glad you enjoyed!

      RC

  3. Tenzin Namgyal

    This was an interesting story, there were times when I had to reread a sentence or even a paragraph because English is my second language but I still enjoyed it. I think the authors intended audience are those who like to eat out at restaurants. He wrote it so we could see what really goes down in the kitchen. I believe this story has more then one tone. There is humor but its also very informative. I believe he chose this tone to inform his audience of what its like in restaurant kitchens. But, at the same time he didn’t want the readers to get bored, so he put in some humor to keep us entertained. The discourse community that the author describes is that of a restaurant and its staff. He says that there are people from all kinds of backgrounds, but they all have one goal which is making food.

    • Rebekah Coleman

      Tenzin,

      Thanks for sharing your feedback! Glad you enjoyed!

      RC

  4. Elma Kastrat

    I found this piece interesting. There were a couple words and phrases which I couldn’t understand clearly, but I tried to translate them. I liked it because of some trade secrets which a New York chef told us in this piece. I think the intended audience of this piece are people who like to spend time outside of the house, people who like to go to eat at restaurants. I think the author wrote this to show us what is happening to the other side of the restaurants, in the background of the restaurants, not in the hall where people spend their time. The tone of the piece is humorous, but at the same time serious. The author tried to show us what the chef does with his assistants in the kitchen, and how he prepares the food. On the other hand, he tried to show us how serious mistakes they make during their work time. The author describes the Discourse Community of restaurant, people who work in the kitchen of the restaurant, chef and his assistants. The author describes how they work together, have different opinions. There are people from different places with a lot of different goals, but all of them have one goal in common and that’s to work together in the kitchen and make food.

    • Rebekah Coleman

      Elma,

      Thanks for sharing your feedback! Glad you enjoyed!

      RC

  5. Kevin Yu

    1. It didn’t really capture my attention because I know how that we eat things without knowing what’s inside, especially restaurants that want to save money and make a quick buck out of unsuspected customers, I went to many restaurants and I am always careful of what I order.

    2. The target audience is customers because the Author spilled out tons of information that people may not know is an everyday practice for chefs and what they serve may end up making you sick or even worse.

    3. The author wrote this piece so that people can be more aware of what is going on in the kitchen, make better choices on what you order, or even limit the number of times you go out and eat and cook your own meals instead of going out to dine.

    4. The tone was pretty formal since I couldn’t read some of the words and he does use cooking slang but he does clarify what they mean.

    5. This community belongs to the cooking/chef/beginners in the culinary field since they all love to cook and serve the food, the author wants to let the beginners know that cheating your way is not the best method because if you don’t love food and don’t love cooking don’t waste your time and peoples time your better off doing something else, so if you have a passion for cooking this article is for you.

    • Rebekah Coleman

      Kevin,

      Thanks for sharing your feedback!

      RC

  6. Arian Qosaj

    I found this piece very interesting. The author explained and pointed out many details about the restaurant kitchen’s in New York and how the food is prepared. The intended audience of this piece are people who like going out to restaurants. I think the author wrote this to inform people what really happens in the kitchens of New York restaurants. The tone of this piece is serious and humorous because of the way the author talks about the kitchen environments and the food. I think the author chose this tone to show how he feels about this kind of situation and to point out the facts about what goes on in restaurants. A Discourse Community that the author describes is the cooking community in restaurants and it’s staff. The author specifically talks about how every restaurant chef is different but has the same goal, which is to prepare food for their customers.

    • Rebekah Coleman

      Arian,

      Thanks for sharing your feedback! Glad you enjoyed!

      RC

  7. Shaniyah

    This was a reading that I feel like should not be ignored, but personally it made me want to throw up the Mc Donald’s I just purchased. People are so busy with work or school or just life stuff that we go about our day and we eat, but we don’t take the time to educate ourselves on what we are putting into our bodies. I can be honest I don’t look or study how the food I eat is being made either. The author brings forth a great point, for restaurants including fast food they only care about making money, not the health of our people. I bet if you asked a worker at Mc Donald’s how their nuggets are made they wouldn’t even know. So the point of the article was defiantly to inform people, specifically the middle and working class people who can afford outside food often. The author included his voice because you can pick up on some funny sentences within the text, but he didn’t make it so funny to where it took away from his main idea and the point he is trying to make. The discourse community this relates to is the people who go out to eat a lot, maybe the food community.

    • Rebekah Coleman

      Thanks for sharing your feedback! Glad you enjoyed (even if it grossed you out)!

      RC

  8. Hanting Hu

    I like this piece, it was telling many things about insider knowledge of good food, and is fun. I think might be the intended audience of this piece is customer who want to eat gourmet. I think the author wrote it because want people know the about different kitchen, and what happen in the kitchen. The tone of the piece is humorous, because in the pieces the author has wrote what kind food he like, and explain what would he do. The Discourse Community author to describe is people who love food and the people working at the kitchen.

    • Rebekah Coleman

      Hanting,

      Thanks for sharing your feedback! Glad you enjoyed!

      RC

  9. Isael Castillo

    I found this piece likable, in the way the Bourdain gives inside information from the food and restaurant industry. I think Bourdain’s intended audience is restaurants and their customers to gives them a little pick of what is happening behind doors. I think the purpose of Bourdain writing this, is to give people knowledge of the restaurant and food industry. The tones Bourdain uses I think are humorous and educated. Bourdain uses these tones because he is giving information to an audience that is curious about the things that happened in this industry. Also showing the good side and explaining all the types of food he likes. The Discourse Community Bourdain describes is to people that loved to go out and see a different experience in every restaurant and also the food community.

    • Rebekah Coleman

      Isael,

      Thanks for sharing your feedback! Glad you enjoyed!

      RC

  10. Pedro Flores

    I found this piece interesting because it talks about food and i love eating. It made me think about the food i eat and if it’s healthy which i don’t think of while i eat. This was intended for people who go out to restaurants. The author wrote to see what happen in the restaurants kitchen and to educate people on the food industry. I think the tone is formal because some of the words were a little challenging. The discourse community should be the food community or the people that are in the restaurants/food industry.

    • Rebekah Coleman

      Pedro,

      Thanks for sharing your feedback! Glad you enjoyed!

      RC

  11. Jeimi Bravo

    At the beginning of reading this text, I was very grossed out by the first few lines. After all, I am that person that does not like hearing where my food comes from because I am such a big lover of animals. As I continued to read I noticed there was more to it, it finally caught my attention. I can’t say that I am a big fan of the text but I did enjoy it while I read it, although the author’s writing did confuse me and made me think deeper that is never a bad thing. Reading the text, I think the intended audience could be anyone, especially those who go out to eat at restaurants a lot, the author explains in great detail what happens behind the kitchen of restaurants. The author uses an informal tone because of the humor he uses to describe the actions and details he is giving. The discourse community that the author describes is the cooks, so the chefs and the waiters, and even hosts. When there is a restaurant there are many different discourse communities because the chefs have a way of communicating, so do the waitress and the hosts. There is more than one discourse community in restaurants, I have a close personal friend that is a chef and works in a hotel and is opening up his restaurant. He’s cooked most of his life, he explained to me what it is like behind the kitchen and it is something I would have never imagined. He did explain some of their communications and it all seems unreal and throughout the text, I was not very surprised.

    • Rebekah Coleman

      Jeimi,

      Thanks for sharing your feedback! Sorry it grossed you out a little!

      RC

  12. Kelvin Leon

    I didn’t like the piece, struggled to read it the first time. The intended audience of this piece in my eyes would be the future chefs to give them a insight of being a chef and the community that are not chefs. The author basically wrote this piece to show and describe in depth of the life of a chef and what they see, feel, think when working at a restaurant. The tone of the piece in my opinion would be formal, serious, and educational. The discourse community the author describes is the chefs that work at a resturant, the goals of every chef, the goods and bads of serving customers, the scenarios they go through, the meat they handle

  13. Ahsan

    1: This was a interesting story. Author is trying to show the details about the restaurant and how chef make the food.
    2: People who go out for lunch or dinner author showed that it’s not east to make food.
    3: Because instead of going out for food make or own healthy food.
    4:The author choose humorous tone because author feels about the situation of restaurant and kitchen how chef make food.
    5:The discourse community author describe about restaurant , that peoples can make there own food and they also can save money.

  14. Jsantana

    I did enjoy reading the piece, I was just taken aback by what the author was saying about the food that we eat. It was uncomfortable to see from a different perspective how other people take eating food as seriously as they do. The intended audience is people who enjoy eating out a lot, people who binge eat, or just enjoy eating food in general. The author wrote this piece to inform people about the dangers, if there are any, of eating outside food or certain foods. The tone the author used was somewhat light and informal but also informative. This helped the author educate the intended audience with real stories about what actually goes on in restaurant culture. The discourse community is definitely targeted to a restaurant lover population based.

    • Rebekah Coleman

      Jorlyn,

      I am so glad you enjoyed the piece! I, too, was pretty surprised! Thanks for sharing your feedback!

      RC

  15. Arlene Perez

    I found the piece to be interesting and entertaining. I was always a fan of Anthony Bourdain and his travel/food shows before his unfortunate passing. I think the intended audience of this piece are restaurant goers. The author’s purpose of writing this piece is to inform people, especially consumers about what really goes on in the kitchens of restaurants, even the 5-star ones. The tone the author seemed to have was informal but educational and humorous. I think he wanted to inform the audience of his experiences as a chef and cook but also had a light tone about the negatives which came off a bit humorous. Bourdain describes the “chefs’ discourse community clearly as he refers several times back to his times working in kitchens. He mentions the specific lexis used in the kitchens and what the terms meant to them and how only they would understand each other.

    • Rebekah Coleman

      Dear Arlene,

      Thanks for sharing your feedback! I am so glad that you enjoyed the piece and were also a fan of Bourdain’s.

      RC

  16. BrandonP

    I found this reading interesting and enjoyed it. I am a person who loves restaurants so to see him talk about them in ways I never get to see is quite interesting. I believe the audience for this writing was people who attend restaurants. The reason behind writing about this was to give those people who attend restaurants a perspective that the average customer doesn’t see. The tone of the author was calm however he was certainly trying to inform the readers to the best of his ability. The discourse community described here are chefs and/or restaurant goers.

  17. Christina Bethelmy

    This piece was interesting to me because it talks about different food it made me think about what we eat everyday, and it is trying to present information for people who go out to restaurants. The author wrote this piece for people to see what happen in the restaurants kitchen inform people about these problems, the author educate the intended audience with real stories about what actually goes on in the restaurant industry.

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