On Friday morning, immensely talented and loved television host and chef, Anthony Bourdain, was found dead in his hotel room in Paris. He was 61. To say this is a tremendous and profound loss to the world is an understatement.
If you're experiencing thoughts of suicide or feel alone, help is out there. Call the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at 1-800-273-8255. Text the Crisis Text Line by sending HOME to 741741. The passing of Anthony Bourdain is a profoundly sad one, but know you are loved and there are people and resources out there that want to help.
No doubt today will be full of important and heartfelt testimonials to the man who hosted beloved food travel television shows "No Reservations" and "Parts Unknown," penned some of the greatest food writing of his generation and championed, above all, the simple humanity of sharing a meal with others.
But here, we've pulled together a collection of what might be considered the best writing about Bourdain — a man who was largely defined by his ability to offer his unvarnished, and often correct, opinion, but also by his willingness to publicly grapple with himself. Aside from rewatching the entire runs of "No Reservations" and "Parts Unknown" there might be no better way to come to understand Tony than to read what some of the most seasoned food writers had to say about him.
Don't Eat Before Reading This — Anthony Bourdain, The New Yorker
Before achieving near-worldwide renown, Bourdain spent over two decades in the kitchens of no-name restaurants in New York City. In 1999, at the age of 43, Bourdain published a story in the New Yorker that would eventually lead him to where he is today.
"Don't Eat Before Reading This," launched a tectonic shift in how the world perceived chefs, the kitchens they work in and the industry they hold up. "Don't Eat Before Reading This," would eventually lead to him writing the now-canonical Kitchen Confidential.
Gastronomy is the science of pain. Professional cooks belong to a secret society whose ancient rituals derive from the principles of stoicism in the face of humiliation, injury, fatigue, and the threat of illness. The members of a tight, well-greased kitchen staff are a lot like a submarine crew. Confined for most of their waking hours in hot, airless spaces, and ruled by despotic leaders, they often acquire the characteristics of the poor saps who were press-ganged into the royal navies of Napoleonic times — superstition, a contempt for outsiders, and a loyalty to no flag but their own.
Anthony Bourdain's Moveable Feast — Patrick Radden Keefe, The New Yorker
Contrast Bourdain's breakout work with the most recent profile of Tony in The New Yorker, where staff writer Patrick Radden Keefe reckons with Bourdain's near-literal elder statesmen role — one scene has Bourdain sitting down to enjoy some noodle soup with Obama in Vietnam — within the food industry.
But over the years he has transformed himself into a well-heeled nomad who wanders the planet meeting fascinating people and eating delicious food. He freely admits that his career is, for many people, a fantasy profession. A few years ago, in the voice-over to a sun-dappled episode in Sardinia, he asked, “What do you do after your dreams come true?” Bourdain would be easy to hate, in other words, if he weren’t so easy to like. “For a long time, Tony thought he was going to have nothing,” his publisher, Dan Halpern, told me. “He can’t believe his luck. He always seems happy that he actually is Anthony Bourdain.”
Anthony Bourdain, The Distinguished Motherfucker Of Food, Is 60 — John Birdsall, First We Feast
From the illustrious pages of The New Yorker, we head to the James Beard award-winning blog, First We Feast. Here, John Birdsall, in a lengthy conversation with Bourdain, attempts to take stock of the then 60-year-old's legacy.
These are themes Bourdain has christened, in a voice as clamorous as a headboard slamming into a hotel wall. All of us are who try to write intelligently about food, even Bourdain’s critics, are working in a tradition he’s built. I wonder, as we chit-chat over pleasantries, what Bourdain thinks about the universe he’s shaped, the planets he’s nudged into orbit. Even as he’s busy filming season eight of Parts Unknown, getting ready to ship Appetites: A Cookbook (his first in a decade), and working out the plans for Pier 57, his international food market on the Hudson River in Manhattan, does Bourdain even consider his work in terms of a static legacy? Or is he too busy plowing forward — the late-bloomer hell-bent on getting shit done while he still has a voice?
Anthony Bourdain: The Post-Election Interview — Helen Rosner, Eater
There is, arguably, no better indicator of one's character and politics than one's reaction to the 2016 US presidential election. Some retreated in defeat, others took to the streets in anger, even more today are still trying work out what happened. Anthony Bourdain sat down with food writer Helen Rosner to explicitly talk about the election of Donald Trump.
But I think to mock constantly, as so much of the left has done — to demonize, to ridicule, to treat with abject contempt people who live in a very different America than they live in — is both ugly and counterproductive. There are a lot of people who are pissed off, they’re tired of being talked to like that. There are a lot of people in this world who, when an Applebee’s moves to their town, it’s a big deal — and I don’t mean that in a dismissive way. Where somebody coming to take your guns away is a big concern. Look, I don’t think racism can ever be forgiven. It’s a conversation-ender for me, for sure. But if you grew up isolated, no interaction or little interaction, the only interaction you’ve had has been negative, and you’re fearful of the Other, and somehow everything you read in the paper makes it seem like they’re getting all the breaks, especially when, in the news environment we live in now, it’s perfectly permissible to lie.
With my shows, I seem to fall into power vacuums. I did at Food Network, I did at Travel Channel, I always feel like I somehow slip through the cracks. I have really no — zero, I don’t feel that I have any — responsibility. I’m following my heart. If I find myself talking about immigration, or multiculturalism — though I hate that word — at this point, it’s because that’s how I feel. It’s personal to me. Maybe at this point it’s because I travel so much.
[Eater]
Anthony Bourdain Thinks You're Crazy for Eating Airplane Food — Belle Cushing, Bon Appétit
While within recent years Bourdain's life was marked by his understanding of his elevated place in the world and how he might best use his unique understanding of humanity to help others understand, it would be a grave mistake to say that he stopped caring about food. This interview with Bon Appétit is proof positive that for Bourdain, it's always been about the food.
If you’re in Singapore and there are two chicken and rice places, and there’s one with a huge line, go to the one with the huge line. Already, that’s a clue. If a place is crowded, but the people lining up are not local, that’s a clue — a bad clue. If it doesn’t have signs in English. it’s almost always worth investigating. I look to see if locals are willing to inconvenience themselves and wait in line for a long time to get something that only costs a dollar fifty, especially if it’s a mixed bag of different incomes. One of the things that’s interesting about Singapore is that you’ll see people roll up in a Mercedes and stand on line behind someone who lives in a housing project. They’re both gonna wait the 25 minutes for the same nasi lemak.
Anthony Bourdain's Life Advice — Sean Woods, Men's Journal
A fitting piece to cap this all off with is this simple collection of wisdom from the man himself. Bourdain has an incredibly seasoned history — surviving life as a line cook in a New York City kitchen, overcoming a drug addiction, navigating war zones, producing a wholly honest television show in an industry that favors fiction and so on — and to read him waxing poetic on how best to deal with the wrinkles in life that we must all face is, well, reassuring.
That Bourdain, by his own admission an aging man, was still figuring it all out late in his life offers a slice of hope to the rest of us — that we can take comfort in an understanding that We're All Trying To Figure It Out.
I have an operating principle that I am perfectly willing, if not eager, to believe that I’m completely wrong about everything. I have a tattoo on my arm, that says, in ancient Greek, “I am certain of nothing.” I think that’s a good operating principle. I love showing up to a place thinking it’s going to be one way and having all sorts of stupid preconceptions or prejudices, and then in even a painful and embarrassing way, being proved wrong. I like that. If you can get a little smarter about the world every day, it’s a win. I just came back from Iran, and perfect example: I went in thinking all sorts of things, and man I had every expectation, everything I thought I knew or suspected, turned up-side-down.
News of Bourdain's death is, understandably, not an easy thing to bear. While we implore those who might be feeling alone in the world to reach out to those who love them, we also understand that it's not that easy. If you're experiencing suicidal thoughts, please know there are people out there who want to help. Call the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at 1-800-273-8255. Text the Crisis Text Line by sending HOME to 741741. The passing of Anthony Bourdain is a profoundly sad one, but know you are loved and there are people and resources out there that want to help.
Update, 3:00 PM: Remembrances and celebrations of Bourdain are now pouring in from peers, chefs and food writers. Here are a few.
Anthony Bourdain Stood Up For Women Without Making It About Him — Megan Greenwell, Deadspin
An extension of Bourdain's deep respect and appreciation of humanity is his embrace and work in promoting the #MeToo campaign. Deadspin Editor-In-Chief Megan Greenwell write about how a Bourdain, a privileged, white man was able to set an example of how to be a good ally.
He acknowledged that his self-reflection was prompted by his girlfriend, Asia Argento, coming forward about Harvey Weinstein raping her. But even that didn’t come off as “As the partner of a woman” smarm. He just saw what was wrong, thought about his own role in it, and did his best to make amends. “Right now, nothing else matters but women’s stories,” he wrote in a gut-punch of a Medium essay in December. That such a seemingly obvious line from a male celebrity feels so extraordinary is dismaying; that Bourdain was willing to scream it just as loudly as he once told sous chefs to suck his dick gives me hope.
[Deadspin]
Anthony Bourdain And The Power Of Telling Truth — Helen Rosner
Helen Rosner, who had interviewed Bourdain post-election for Eater, writes in the New Yorker today — she's now a food correspondent for them now — about the arc of his career. While Bourdain achieved fame as the bad boy chef figure who tore down the industry with "Kitchen Confidential," his characteristic skepticism led him to even evaluate his own image.
Bourdain effectively created the “bad-boy chef” persona, but over time he began to see its ill effects on the restaurant industry. With “Medium Raw,” his 2010 follow-up to “Kitchen Confidential,” he tried to retell his story from a place of greater wisdom: the drugs, the sex, the cocky asshole posturing—they were not a blueprint but a cautionary tale. Ever resistant to take on the label of chef, he published a book of home recipes, in 2016, inspired by the cooking he did for his daughter. Despite its chaotic cover illustration by Ralph Steadman—and its prurient title, “Appetites”—the book, which was co-written with his longtime collaborator, the writer Laurie Woolever, is a tender memoir of fatherhood, an ode to food as a vehicle for care.
Anthony Bourdain Made Us All Proud To Be Line Cooks — Brian McManus, Munchies
Chef Brian McManus writes about how Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential inspired him and his fellow cooks to re-examine their industry culture and become better people, both inside and outside of the kitchen.
The stories of working in the trenches with towering degenerates—pirates, Bourdain called them—fiercely dedicated to toiling in obscurity and humping out hot plates was my life.
Kitchen Confidential described an industry and the people in it, often at its and their reckless worst, and it was like looking at strands of my own DNA under a microscope.
[Munchies]
