I found this book because I was looking for a good cartoon-type text to assign to my students for the last day of our food memoir unit. I requested a bunch of different stuff, skimmed through everything, and this was the best one. It even involved slicing a customer’s head off for dunking a whole piece of sushi into soy sauce. Nice.

Get Jiro! is set in a fantasyland where food is the most valuable capital. Reservations are scarce, and chefs are gods in the Los Angeles of this world. Jiro is this excellent sushi chef who gets everyone’s attention. Other chefs want him at their restaurants, but he just wants to stay true to his craft. There’s sex work and food wars and amazing art.

Great book.

-Rachel

Update: read part two too because I accidentally requested it from the library trying to get the first one. Gave the background of who Jiro is and where he comes from. Also good.

I have a copy of this book available at my bookstore Ten Dollar Books. Click here to view.

Click here to view all the books I have by Anthony Bourdain.