Anthony Bourdain: I Have No Reservations About My Undying Love For Him

I can't talk about food without bringing up Anthony Bourdain. I love him. No, really. Absolutely adore him. The snarky humor, the rock n' roll persona, the deep reflections on food, culture, and life... not to mention he's looking pretty good for a guy in his fifties. (Yeah yeah, he's happily married with a toddler. Do I tear down your dreams?)

Maybe you've seen him on the Travel Channel. His show, No Reservations, follows him around the world, where he interacts with locals, learns cultural customs, eats whatever's there for the eating, and drinks. A lot. It is, to my mind, the perfect vicarious travel show. If you like the show, I have to insist that you read his book, A Cook's Tour. There's a lot more going on during these trips than what makes it in the final cut. But the place to start is with his break-out book, Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly. It's not just the shocking truths he reveals about restaurant life. The book is also a memoir of his life in the business -- and it is not all pretty. Tony's been through some dark stuff, which makes his success all the more inspiring. The man is extremely intelligent (he went to Vassar for a time), and his insights make for pretty absorbing reading.

I don't really go for the whole "celebrity chef" thing. I don't watch Hell's Kitchen or any other food-themed reality show. I feel guilty for kind of liking Rachel Ray. But Tony is different. He's a step above. Seriously, read his books, watch his show. You can't but love him. And I will NEVER EVER forgive myself for missing the chance to see him speak in Pittsburgh last year.

Oh yeah, and that "Bizarre Foods" dude who's recently reared his gimmicky head on the Travel Channel? He can suck it. Tony eats people like him for breakfast.


Here's a quote from the New Jersey episode of No Reservations (which will never cease to strike me as an amazingly clever title). It pretty much sums up what I love about him.

The beauty of the grilled cheese sandwich in its classic form is that neither the shaped carbohydrate slabs nor the processed orange food product have any relationship to a living, organic nutrient system. Being therefore incapable of sustaining life in any form, they presumably can't make you sick. It exists merely to provide a warm, savory, viscous sensation in the mouth, and so fool the stomach into believing it is receiving actual food.

Anthony Bourdain, ladies and gentlemen. He tells it like it is.