These are books I would give or ask for myself.
Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly by Anthony Bourdain is so diabolically fun that it will flip your ideas about restaurant life upside down. It’s twisted, it’s sexy, it’s the cooking version of backstage at a Rolling Stones show (or a Ramones show for Mr. Bourdain). This is not a cookbook! Give this to someone who wants to know what really happens in a restaurant kitchen.