He says "The restaurant kitchen may indeed be the last, glorious meritocracy," yet his own career has greatly benefited from his talent for writing and self-promotion.
He is now a writer / TV personality and is no longer spending his career in a kitchen. Certainly, he is making more money now than he would have been able to do while only being a chef, but he advanced pretty far in the restaurant industry before he wrote the book that launched his second career.
I think the draw of his book & tv show has more to do with his persona rather than his resume as a chef. This is consistent with what he is saying in this article. To survive as a chef, you have to be crazy. And to be mega-successful, you have to be lucky to boot.
That is correct.
EDIT: You also need to read the article, in which he says:
If I hadn’t enjoyed a freakish and unexpected success with Kitchen Confidential, I’d still be standing behind the stove of a good but never great restaurant at the age of fifty-three. I would be years behind in my taxes, still uninsured, with a mouthful of looming dental problems, a mountain of debt, and an ever more rapidly declining value as a cook.
Bourdain is under no illusions about his own value as a cook, as opposed to his value as a writer. And he'll be the first to tell you.