Anthony Bourdain

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Wyatt Burp

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My son gave me his book "Kitchen Confidential" and it is great. In another thread some people expressed extreme disdain for Bourdain. I like him. I just finshed reading his diatribe about having to cook for vegetarians and then he got into fish in restaurants. After reading this I wanted to lock myself in a hotel room forever like Howard Hughes and stick exclusively to the purity of Campbells soup. But then he ends it with the statement, "Our bodies are not temples. They are amusement parks". And then said if we are willing to eat a street hotdog or slice of pizza that's been under a heat lamp for an hour, then even the worst grub in the best restaurant is fine by comparison. So I will still eat seafood in restaurants. But never on a Monday.
 
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Bourdain is constantly having to deal with his leftist culture attitude, it's fun to watch him struggle with having a good time and being successful. But he's an unapologetic hedonist, and that's o.k. With me.
 
Old TexMex said:
Bourdain is constantly having to deal with his leftist culture attitude, it's fun to watch him struggle with having a good time and being successful. But he's an unapologetic hedonist, and that's o.k. With me.
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After hanging out shooting full auto weaponry with Ted Nugent in the episode Sipowitz spoke of, Bourdain said he's the complete opposite of Nugent politically then expressed an open mind about those differences. And he didn't badmouth Nugent later and had a genuine good time with him, you could tell. You're right about his hedonism. And I appreciate the fact that he doesn't hide it hypocritically behind the camera. It does get him an "adult content" warning, though.
 
I'm a Bourdain fan.Have been since Kitchen Confidential first came out because it was the first time someone had written honestly about life behind the swinging doors. Sweating,bleeding, elbow to elbow with degenerates and saints.
He is polarizing however,especially when he skewers and grills all the stereotypical types and edicts the well fed among us like to hold up as an example of being American and therefor civilized.
I find his unapologetic opinionated,foul mouth,self depreciating,scatological humor refreshing in this age of the talking heads.
He is a gun lover by the way and has said that it runs contrary to his admitted liberal slant.
I don't take Bourdain too seriously and just like living vicariously through his travels,experiences and meals and just picked up his graphic novel "Get Jiro" about a homicidal sushi chef... great fun.
 
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sipowicz said:
I like the episode where he had BBQ at Ted Nugent's, then went rock and roll with some 2A hardware. Anthony is no gun lover, but he sure did enjoy himself..:)
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He sure as heck did...I was surprised that he took to it like he did....However I saw another of his shows were he was hunting and he difinatly knew hoe to handle a shot gun in a blind.....Actually I think he was having the time of his life at uncle Ted's place....If every liberal gun hateing person liked guns and hunting and fishing as he seems to...Well things would be more tolerent...When he was down in SW Missouri with what could only be described as real red necks and had a good time, and they with him, he can't be all bad....Interesting show none the less....
 
george minze said:
He sure as heck did...I was surprised that he took to it like he did....However I saw another of his shows were he was hunting and he difinatly knew hoe to handle a shot gun in a blind.....Actually I think he was having the time of his life at uncle Ted's place....If every liberal gun hateing person liked guns and hunting and fishing as he seems to...Well things would be more tolerent...When he was down in SW Missouri with what could only be described as real red necks and had a good time, and they with him, he can't be all bad....Interesting show none the less....
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You reminded me of the episode where he was in the bayou backwoods having a giant feast of great looking local recently killed food. In the early morning, probably right before his first beer, they handed him the .22 revolver for the honor to shoot the pig. Bang! You know he feels if you are willing to eat it, then you can kill it. He also hit himself in the face when firing a high power rifle to close to the scope up in Maine. He also shot a small deer species in france off hand with a rifle and it dropped dead. I think he felt a little weird after that one for a moment. Then they ate it.
 
diamonback68 said:
Not to mention a fake and a no talent fraud. Just like his kitchen experience, garbage in, garbage out.
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Disagree. He is as genuine as they come.

Bourdain came up in the culinary trenches at the same time I did. Back then, there was no Food Network, there were no "celebrity chefs" or "food personalities." It was a trade job, on the scale of landscaping and roofing, the only differing factor being the artistic slant involved.

Being incessantly screamed at by an alcoholic, festering, classically-trained Escoffier-worshipping Frenchman in a wild, noisy, searing-hot hive filled with knife-wielding degenerates, Type-A misfits, drunkards, transients and artists for low wage and lower recognition was not a venture one entered into without a sincere love of the craft and the game.

There should be a mandatory course on these realities of the kitchen in every culinary school in the land -- it ain't like it appears on TV. But I digress ...

To that end, try and watch the episode of No Reservations wherein Bourdain goes back to his last restaurant job after 10 years away and tries to work the Tuesday double shift. If you've never worked a line in a very busy restaurant, you have no idea. That show is the closest accurate documentation of the pro cook's life I've ever seen. He gets crushed.

Brasserie Les Halles, his last restaurant job, is not a hash house. Bourdain had the culinary skills it took for that very good, very popular restaurant. He ran it well, very well. That takes talent.

I met him on his first book tour, as I had just picked up a first-edition copy of Kitchen Confidential and was immediate and profoundly impressed by the fact that someone had finally told our tribal story, the story of the cooks, so well and with all warts displayed. It was, and is, a fine piece of writing.

This was before anyone knew who he was. No TV had happened for him yet. He was literally on vacation from his restaurant job to flog his book and hope he could get out of the kitchen for good. Everyone there was a restaurant lifer, kitchen and front of the house, and let me assure you these people don't flock for a disingenuous putz who hasn't really walked the walk. He was and is the real deal.

Which brings us to that other talent of his -- writing. His command of the language and ability to turn a phrase is not hack work either. Before he took the time to report on the scene behind the kitchen doors, he published two crime novels that are worth seeking out: Bone In The Throat and Gone Bamboo. Suffice to say that the industrial kitchen is a location that can figure very well into murder and effectively, um, 'processing evidence.'

Wyatt, be sure to pick up his book Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook -- it is a great read as well, and will continue the story of the book you're reading now.
 
Wyatt Burp said:
You reminded me of the episode where he was in the bayou backwoods having a giant feast of great looking local recently killed food. In the early morning, probably right before his first beer, they handed him the .22 revolver for the honor to shoot the pig. Bang! You know he feels if you are willing to eat it, then you can kill it. He also hit himself in the face when firing a high power rifle to close to the scope up in Maine. He also shot a small deer species in france off hand with a rifle and it dropped dead. I think he felt a little weird after that one for a moment. Then they ate it.
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Along those lines, he still wants to live in Vietnam or Laos for a year or so, just so his daughter will experience the daily struggle most people have to put food on the table,witness the blood and guts that comes with preparing that bowl of Pho and that for the majority of the globe,meat does not come conveniently butchered,bloodless in a shrink wrapped package.
He's worried that there is a risk that his daughter can grow up to be just another over privileged,spoiled upper west side kid.
 
Love his show especially the ones in E. Europe and central Asia!

Love his humor as well. Reminds me of ...me! I also drink and smoke more then my share!!!! And I'll try any food once ...Yak, monkey, cat, ..whatever



Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk 2
 
Dashriprock said:
Disagree. He is as genuine as they come.

Bourdain came up in the culinary trenches at the same time I did. Back then, there was no Food Network, there were no "celebrity chefs" or "food personalities." It was a trade job, on the scale of landscaping and roofing, the only differing factor being the artistic slant involved.
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Think what you want. I too was a chef for about 12 years or so and I know what it's like to sling out 380+ plated dinners, some the best food in town, in one night.

I still don't like nor do I watch Bourdain, so there. If you like him so be it. Taste is an acquired thing, some have it, some don't.
 
DashRipRock, Just yesterday we watched an episode of his called "Seven Sins" and it had the part when he worked the line again and how difficult and scary it is. But I think this particular chef yelling at him sounded latin.
The only writing I know of his, before this book, is the narations on his shows. It's pretty much like this book which is very difficult to put down. I was reading it in the dentist's chair yesterday while they took forever making me sit there with a bib on and was annoyed when they interupted me to put that crown on. I said in the other thread he wasn't a snob even if he says he is in his book. He'll eat something some guy squatting outside a hut just tenderized by chewing on it first, then sit in a million star french restaurant eating delicacies I can't pronounce. And once he said people complain to the network about his drinking on the show. He basically said "....'em." and took another shot. I like that. If i'm in the mood for wholesome i'll watch my other favorite guy, the late Huell Howser.
 
diamonback68 said:
Think what you want. I too was a chef for about 12 years or so and I know what it's like to sling out 380+ plated dinners, some the best food in town, in one night.

I still don't like nor do I watch Bourdain, so there. If you like him so be it. Taste is an acquired thing, some have it, some don't.
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So this really puzzles me....You've supposedly worked in the business,profess to have taste,proclaim Bourdain to be a fraud ripping off the public,don't like or even WATCH his shows but.......this is the second tread is as many days that you've found the time and energy to express you seething hatred for him? What was that about taste again?
 
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duppie said:
So this really puzzles me....You've supposedly worked in the business,profess to have taste,proclaim Bourdain to be a fraud ripping off the public,don't like or even WATCH his shows but.......this is the second tread is as many days that you've found the time and energy to express you seething hatred for him? What's was that about taste again?
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It's real simple duppie, I don't like the guy nor what he portrays himself to be. He makes a lot of money off being nothing. You like him, God love ya. Let's just end it and leave it at that, but don't attack me just because I don't agree with YOU.
 
diamonback68 said:
It's real simple duppie, I don't like the guy nor what he portrays himself to be. He makes a lot of money off being nothing. You like him, God love ya. Let's just end it and leave it at that, but don't attack me just because I don't agree with YOU.
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Perhaps it's the thought of all the money and fame you think you should have made being a chef for 12 years slinging"the best food in town" and having impeccable taste? Sorry it didn't work out Chef.
 
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