Today, I bid farewell to one of my culinary heroes. Yesterday Anthony Bourdain was found dead in his hotel room in Paris. He was there to film his series, "Parts Unknown".
Anthony, or Tony, as he was fondly called by his fans, was known for his bad-boy vibe. Swearing, tattoos and a carnivorous appetite for the wilder things in life, Tony first emerged into the public spotlight in 2000, when his book, Kitchen Confidential was published. He wrote about the hard life of restaurants, his experiences and tribulations experienced there. He candidly told us, his readers, about his terrible heroin addiction, in the funny, brusque way he had. This is where I first got to know Tony, and his stranger than fiction life story. I first read Kitchen Confidential back in 2008, when I was sweating my skinny ass off in the fine-dining industry. He gave me hope, he sympathised with me when I was tired, made me laugh at the crazy antics he got up to in his kitchens, antics that I was very familiar with myself.
Anthony Bourdain was born in New York in 1956, and grew up in New Jersey. I downloaded his book Kitchen Confidential as homework for this post, and as I read it, I could just hear his gravelly, thick New Yorker accent telling me his life story.
He speaks about his first experience with food on a trans Atlantic cruise to France, his father's homeland. I quote:
“MY FIRST INDICATION THAT food was something other than a substance one stuffed in one's face when hungry-like filling up at a gas station-came after fourth-grade elementary school. It was on a family vacation to Europe, on the Queen Mary, in the cabin-class dining room. There's a picture somewhere: my mother in her Jackie O sunglasses, my younger brother and I in our painfully cute cruisewear, boarding the big Cunard ocean liner, all of us excited about our first transatlantic voyage, our first trip to my father's ancestral homeland, France.
It was the soup. It was cold.”
Excerpt From: Bourdain, Anthony. “Kitchen Confidential.” iBooks. - Buy here
He was of course speaking of the now tired and archaic Vichyssoise, the leek and potato soup that is normally served cold. I instantly fell head over heels for his brash, descriptive way of talking. He reminded me of Jack Kerouac, and other Beat era writers and poets. Described as a "heir in spirit to Hunter S. Thompson"1, he certainly didn't mince his words about anything.
One of the reasons I fell in love with Tony was his strongly opinionated persona. Tony had huge contempt for vegan and vegetarians, saying that it was a luxury to live that lifestyle. A point of view I shared with him was his complete and utter contempt for celebrity life. He famously dissed many celebrity chefs, including Gordon Ramsay, Rachael Ray and Guy Fieri. He hated the commercialism that these celebrity chefs and their cooking shows promoted, and I think he also thought that they didn't really know what they were talking about, rather relying on the producer's for recipes and information.
One of my favourite Tony insults ever, is what he said about Adam Richman, the host of Man Vs Food, in his 2015 stand up tour "Close to the Bone":
"Why did we watch [Man vs. Food]? Admit it. You wanted him to die. The show confirms [other countries'] worst suspicions—that Americans are fat, lazy, slothful, [and] wasteful. I know what [the viewer] is thinking, 'America is a terrible place. I want to join ISIS.'"
Excerpt from Evan Mah's review of the tour. Read the whole article here
Tony did give praise where praise was due, though. I remember watching an interview some time ago, where literally he gushed over Marco Pierre White, and his iconic book White Heat. Truth be told Marco is someone who I would consider a Godfather of the modern day culinary scene, the original celebrity chef, having trained the likes of Gordon Ramsay and Mario Batali. Tony also lists Thomas Keller, and of course Auguste Escoffier (known as the King of Chefs, and the man who changed French cooking to what we know it as today) as inspirations in his book.
In Kitchen Confidential, he gives a few, now legendary, tips on dining out.
DO NOT order your meat well-done. In his chapter entitled "Third Course", he tells of when he was working at a restaurant called the Rainbow Room, they used to, if faced with an order for Well-Done steak (a crime in the foodie world), throw the steaks in the deep fryer, cooking until inedible, then put the steaks under a grill to burn further. They would cover this monstrosity with a sauce to hide the sad piece of meat destined for the diner. In kitchen culture, it is considered a sin to order meat well-done. Most chefs consider people who do this uncultured, and uneducated about food, so feel that they deserve their meat basically incinerated.
DO NOT order fish on a Monday. I can confirm this one myself, from years of working in restaurants. Tony's logic, in his chapter From Our Kitchen to Your Table, is that most kitchens order their fish fresh on Thursdays or Fridays, ready for the weekend. Therefore, any fish left on Monday, is close to being off. Apparently in New York, Fish Specials are a thing on Monday... I wonder why?
DO NOT attend Sunday Brunch buffets. I know this is a big thing in America, but it's not commonplace here in South Africa. He notes that its usually what he calls the B-Team, the guys in the team who are not the best, as the Head Chef is probably taking the day off. Same as with the Fish On a Monday story - most restaurants are looking to offload their last bit of produce and ingredients on unaware brunch guests. Just for a bit humour and to show his wondrous way of speaking, I quote his musings on brunch below.
“Brunch menus are an open invitation to the cost-conscious chef, a dumping ground for the odd bits left over from Friday and Saturday nights or for the scraps generated in the normal course of business. You see a fish that would be much better served by quick grilling with a slice of lemon, suddenly all dressed up with vinaigrette? For 'en vinaigrette' on the menu, read 'preserved' or 'disguised'.”
Excerpt From: Bourdain, Anthony. “Kitchen Confidential.” iBooks. - Buy here
Tony also produced and starred in a few foodie travel shows, such as "A Cook's Tour" where he travels the world, exploring some very exotic locations and their cuisines. My favourite, "The Layover", where he would pick a city, and explore the foodie scene, as one would when on a 24 hour layover between flights. I loved the episode where he toured Amsterdam, repeatedly noting that as it was a travel show on an esteemed network, that the use of any controlled substances was completely banned. He kept throwing in little sparky comments like, "That would have been terrifying, if I was high... luckily, I"M NOT." His last show he produced was "Parts Unknown". Also a travel show, exploring many different locations and cuisines.
Tony, you bastard. I'm going to miss you so much. Your books inspired me and consoled me while I was working eighteen hour shifts in restaurants, dead on my feet, living for the passion and the rush of being immersed in the culture of cooking, the hard-knock life that is the restaurant biz. Your excitement over simple things like knives, flavours and people was similar to mine. I always dreamed of meeting you one day, I guess you're rocking out with Joey, Johnny and DeeDee of The Ramones now. Thanks for the inspiration, the entertainment and the love. I know you're at rest now. Rock on.
Sources and Citations:
1 - Wikipedia
2- Atlanta Magazine
3 - Kitchen Confidential by Bourdain, Anthony.
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