Unit 1, Day 1: Mon. Feb. 14th

READDon’t Eat Before Reading This” by Anthony Bourdain. Write a response to the questions below. Make sure to thoughtfully respond to the questions. Do not just write a few words in response, write a meaningful answer that is based in the text. Use evidence and examples from the text to support your thinking.

RESPOND  to at least one of your classmates! Read through the comments that your classmates post! Choose one to respond to! Write a thoughtful response. Some ideas of how to start (you don’t have to use these! just ideas!):

  • Something you wrote that I really liked was….
  • I liked [. __ ]  because
  • I wanted to know more about [ __ ] because …
  • What you wrote made me think about …..

READING QUESTIONS

  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? What is the purpose of the piece? What is the Genre?
  3. What is the tone of the piece (formal, informal, humorous, serious, academic, etc.) Why do you think the author chose this tone?
  4. What Discourse Community does the author describe?  What discourse community is he a member of? Explain!
  5. What do you learn about Bourdain’s discourse community?

21 Comments

  1. Tehmina Imanat

    1. I think this piece was very interesting and it really relieved a side of restaurants that is not talked about more. This piece has given me more reasons to dislike fish/seafood lol.
    2. I think the intended audience is people that enjoy eating fish at restaurants or people that want to educate themselves on what really goes down when it comes to ordering fish/seafood at resultants. I believe this because the author is directly talking to the people that have knowledge about the different fish and the different ways they like it cooked. The purpose of this piece is to inform people life is as chief and how bad it can be when you have customers that always criticize your work and you never get any recognition for it. The genre of this piece is an informative article.
    3. The tone of this piece is formal and serious because the author is trying to get a message across to people
    4. I think the author is describing the culinary discourse community or the chefs’ discourse community. I think he is the expert member of the group, because of all the experience and knowledge he has.
    5. I learned that Bourdain is well experienced and he is well known for how he talks and works in the kitchen. He knows how to communicate with customers and his workers which is a good quality when you are an expert in a discourse community.

  2. Diana

    1. I found this piece very interesting. From the first line I found, myself wanting to continue to read the article.
    2. I think the intended audience is people who like or eat seafood. This article informs people of the different ways to order seafood. The article addresses how it can be difficult to be a chef because you don’t get the recognition that you may feel like you need. This was an informative article because it lets people know more about the food industry.
    3. I think the tone is formal because the author is trying to inform their audience and in order to do that the author needs to use formal language to be taken seriously.
    4. I think the author is describing the culinary discourse community. I believe this because the author is able to talk about how a kitchen works and knows what happens in restaurants.
    5. I learned that Bourdain has had a lot of experience in the kitchen just by the way he talks. He is good at talking about the audience.

    • Tehmina Imanat

      Hi Diana. I agree with when you stated that this article is written for people who eat or like seafood.

    • Nastassia Molicheva

      Hi Diana!
      I agree with you that it was easy to see that Bourdain had a lot of experience in the kitchen by the way he talked about it, even if we didn’t know who he was. It felt like he shared insider information, tips, and tricks. One could feel a lot of passion for his craft in his delivery.

  3. Christopher Lopez

    1.I thought the text was very weird but interesting. I liked it because I don’t like seafood so the story gave me even more reason to do so.

    2.I think the intended audience are people that like to eat seafood at restaurants. The purpose of the text is to inform people what is going on in the kitchens in restaurants. I believe the genre and the purpose works together because Bourdain was informing us on the cooking community while telling us how bad it can be if you go into a bad restaurant.

    3.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 he chose that tone to get his point across.

    4.The discourse community the author describes is the cooking/chef/beginners in the culinary field since they all love to cook and serve the food.

    5.I have learned that Bourdain’s discourse community is good for letting you know what goes on in the kitchen. He is an expert in the field and knows how to communicate with others.

    • Mushfiq Alam

      Hey Chris,

      I enjoyed your answer to number 1 as I can agree fish is terrible and it funny that the article gave you more of a reason to dislike fish.

    • Alisa

      I agree with about how he informs his audience what goes on in a seafood restaurant kitchen because seafood lovers really need to be more educated on this topic.

      • Steven Galushka

        I agree with the first question even though I enjoy seafood, its good that the author decided to share his experience inside a kitchen that preps seafood.

  4. Mushfiq Alam

    1)Honestly I found the reading to be somewhat interesting. The opening sketch accompanying the text piqued my curiosity and had made me ask myself what does this mean and does it foreshadow something.

    2)I believe that the intended audience are those who enjoy dining in more luxurious locations. My reasoning behind this is to expose the conditions that most of the “food” that they may be consuming, At multiple points throughout the text, the author notes that a majority of proteins fall under one health violation or another. Whether it be fish that’s left out for days or chicken that’s close to rotting, the author mentions all of this to point out the risks that may come about. This all done so in an informative article to bring attention to the issue and spread awareness to it.

    3)Based on the reading I believe that the tone is a mixture of formal, serious, and humorous. All very contradicting but I say this because the author uses different tones at different points to nail down the importance of what they’re saying. The author speaks formally when simply just informing the audience but then switches to a serious tone to emphasize why this is an issue but lowers it down to humor to relieve built up tension from previous statements.

    4)The author describes a culinary discourse community. From the way he depicts his fellow chef’s in a manner similar to his own prowess brings in the idea that they all have the same objective in mind. Including himself, the author tries to drag the idea that although kitchen work environments may be questionable, the chef’s will attempt to produce a product that is satisfiable to the customer.

    5)From insights in his discourse community it is clear that Bourdian is very much capable of what he does. He seems to be able to understand his surroundings and how they may affect others.

  5. Rickey Bryant

    1.I think this piece was somewhat like I don’t really eat fish reading this making don’t want to eat fish anymore.
    2.I think the attended audience are the people that enjoying eating fish at the restaurant.The purpose of this is that how he is chief that be in the kitchen cooking a lot of seafood and people who are judging him for how the way he cook.
    3.The tone of this piece is serious because the author is not playing around because it wants everything to as it planned.
    4.The authors as it based describe is a culinary discourse community.For the discourse community I would say for the author he is an amazing chief great cooking talks about thing what’s goes on in the kitchen and has a great experience.
    5.What I leaned from Bourdain discourse community the things he do in the kitchen is her serious he takes job serious.When it comes down to having conversations with co workers and all the customers it’s a good community.

    • Kaylee Castaneda

      Hi Rickey, I agree when you said that the author takes his job seriously. As we continue reading in the text we see that he has experience in his profession as well. He seems to be very determined too.

  6. Kaylee Castaneda

    I enjoyed reading this article. I feel like the length was alright but it was pretty interesting to read. It gave a good amount of information and it came from someone’s story and personal experience.
    The genre can be an informative article but I think it can also be a personal narrative as well. The intended audience can be people getting informed by the cooking industry. But it can also be about people disliking fish and it talked about food going bad and restaurants trying to save them.
    The tone can be humorous but also formal and informative. I think the author choose these tones to get the readers hooked on and interested in the topic. Also to make it intriguing as well.
    The author described the discourse community in the cooking industry. In the text, it says “I’ve been a chef in New York for more than ten years, and, for the decade before that, a dishwasher, a prep drone, a line cook, and a sous-chef. I came into the business when cooks still smoked on the line and wore headbands.”Here he is getting introduced to the industry and from there he goes to tell his story.
    In Bourdain’s discourse community we see how he had struggles in the cooking industry and we also see that he is an expert since he has been in it for a while now. He also likes what he does and he considers it a way to help people out and a hobby as well.

  7. Alisa

    1)The piece is not boring or bad , it was okay reading it.
    2) I think the author is trying to tell people that they need to be careful where they eat, since that’s he started the text by describing the food in bad way , and then saying how a 2 star restaurant might serve a 4 day fish.
    3) I think the tone is formal and also humorous because of the way he describes food and how gets more serious when starts talking about the kitchen.
    4) The author describes culinary discourse community because that’s what he talks about in the text being a chef , cooking experience and food.
    5) Bourdain is very experienced at what he does based on he talks about it and in his community he has good work environment .

  8. Steven Galushka

    I found the text very interesting on how the author first introduced it by telling us much he disliked seafood with a burning passion.

    The intended audience is people who enjoy seafood and is showing the behind the scenes look on what happens in the kitchen and to inform the cooking community about this practice.

    The tone in the article is a mix between humorous but stern on the message.

    In this discourse community is based on the culinary field, he explains how the cooks and chefs all love to cook and serve people food because it is what they do best.

    The article has showed me that this discourse community cares for their craft and passion they put into their communities.

  9. Abdul Ikhlaq

    I’m always careful of what I eat. Double checking that the meat is kosher and always checking the reviews. I enjoyed reading this article, revealing the dark side of restaurants. After reading this, I’m going to make sure that I continue to steam and cook my own fish for me and my family.

    The intended audience I believe Anthony Bourdien was targeting were those who order seafood from restaurants. Anthony Bourdine states “Why not go for it? If you like four-day-oldsh, be my guest”. Anthony questions why not go ahead and order your favourite side of fish in whatever way it is cooked. Follows up with “If you like four day old fish be my guest” stating that the fish restaurants order in bulk don’t sell or finish in time. They don’t throw it away and order a fresh batch, they’ll simply serve it to you as if it was fresh.

    As I was reading I sensed some humour with the irony and side jokes Anthony Boudine made. Overall this was an informal article. Educating those who don’t know what really goes on in the kitchen.

    The discourse community Anthony describes and he is a part of is the chef community. Throughout the article he gives his professional experience of being a chef.

    What I learned from Bourdine’s discourse community is that not all restaurants are bad and the same as others. There are still good restaurants out there where you can order your seafood knowing it is fresh. Bourdien is very aware of what he does and professional in situations he is faced with.

  10. Christopher

    This post sparked my interest because the author included information that I was unaware of regarding the foods we consume. People who enjoy eating fish in restaurants, I believe, are the intended audience. The goal of this piece is to inform the average person on what goes on in their food and what happens to it. The text’s genre is an article. The tone of this piece is serious/humorous, and I believe the author picked this tone to emphasize his argument while also injecting some humor. The cooking community is the discourse community that the author discusses and is a part of. In the cooking community, I discovered that you must have a lot of experience and know how to prepare meals.

  11. Nastassia Molicheva

    I liked the way the piece was written – Bourdain covered some information that was new for me. It was also enjoyable to read and entertaining.

    The intended audience of this piece was the people who aren’t a part of the back-of-the-house community, people unaware of the intricacies and dynamics of kitchen workers’ reality. Its genre is a feature article: the piece was published in The New Yorker and is a peek into the restaurants’ daily life behind closed doors.

    The tone of the article was light and humorous, and at the same time, formal. There was a need for the piece to be captivating – hence the lighthearted tone, however, since the article was written for a serious and well-known publication, it also needed to address the readers formally.

    The author describes the Discourse Community of people who know the restaurants’ kitchens’ insider jokes, ones who are passionate about food. Simply said, kitchen insiders – people who work at the restaurants – chefs, helpers, sous-chefs, etc.

    It stood out to me how kitchens are a safe and welcoming place for people of all backgrounds and past experiences. How stories and attitudes of people in the restaurant business are similar, whether they’re on US soil, or overseas.

    • Camila Torres

      I agree with what you said to number 4 , because it does seem like Bourdain is passionate about his job and food.

  12. Camila Torres

    1. I found this piece interesting , even the title made me want to read it more. It gave me new information on what goes on in the kitchen at restaurants.
    2. I believe the intended audience of this piece are those who mainly eat seafood. It can also be intended to those who are interested in learning more about the culinary industry. The purpose of this piece is to inform people more about how the food is at restaurants such as chicken and fish. The genre of this piece is a feature article or an informative article.
    3. The tone of this piece is a mixture of both serious and humorous. I say its serious because Bourdain tries to inform the readers about the culinary industry. I also say its humorous in a way because he tries to make it a bit as a joke when its actually something true and serious.
    4. The discourse community the author describes is the culinary industry or being a chef in restaurants. He is a member of the culinary industry because he is a chef and have worked other roles such as a dishwasher, line cook , and a sous chef.
    5. In Bourdaine discourse community I learn that he is a chef and knows what he is doing. He takes his job seriously and also seems to want people to be informed about what goes on in the kitchen and how they prepare the food.

  13. Henry03

    I liked the text, I made sure to read through it very carefully as I enjoy going out to eat and having a professional make my dish, however, I’m not a big seafood fan the article has given more of a reason to not order it on the weekdays.

    The text is targeted to the people who enjoy seafood and go out to eat in restaurants, the purpose of the text is to bring awareness to those who enjoy seafood and bring them up to speed on what happens in the kitchen.

    The tone of the text is informative, the reason being is that Arthur is trying to teach and inform the reader on what happens in a kitchen and the practices in the kitchen.

    The discourse community that is mentioned is the chef industry in restaurants, the author is a member of the culinary industry as well and the author also has a background in working in restaurants as a dishwasher, line cook, and a sous chef,

    I learned that in Bourdain’s discourse community that a lot goes on and that each member is experienced in the field of restaurants, and also shows that the author is very serious in their job as a chef.

  14. Tania Natali Cedillo

    Don’t eat before reading was an interesting piece, it wasn’t boring but if anything as a reader made me want to continue reading. I believe the intended audience for this piece or people that enjoy eating at seafood restaurant. The purpose of this piece is to inform people of the different ways seafood is made, as well as how hard it can be to be recognizable chef in the food industry. The tone is formal because it’s informative to their audience. He’s describing a culinary community. He’s a part of this community because of his love in the kitchen and him knowing about the restaurant industry. Bourdain’s discourse community is good for informing that not all restaurants are bad and not all are good.

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