If there’s one person in the world who completely changed the way I travel, it’s definitely Anthony Bourdain. I stumbled upon the very first episode of A Cook’s Tour by chance — it was set in Tokyo, a city that, as you’ll come to discover, I feel has always been my home from a past life. But it wasn’t your usual travel documentary — it was something else entirely. Through food and Bourdain’s words, you were drawn into the vibrant, metropolitan world of Japan’s capital. From that moment, I wanted to know everything I could about this man — so genuine, so curious — who made me feel as if I were right there, having dinner with him somewhere around the world.
Born in New York, he had French roots on his father’s side and spent his summers in France, where he learned the language – and perhaps also developed his refined taste for good food. It was during one of those holidays that he tried his first fresh oyster, and boom, love at first mollusc.
He graduated from the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, and from there began working in various restaurants across Manhattan and New York. This experience eventually led him to write his now-famous 1999 piece for The New Yorker, “Don’t Eat Before Reading This”, where Bourdain threw us headfirst into the raw, unsanitised world of professional kitchens, giving us a bold taste of his views on both food and humanity. I still smile when I think of his disdain for vegans, whom he described in the article as: “the Hezbollah-like splinter faction of vegetarians. Enemies of everything good and decent in the human spirit. Living without veal stock, chicken stock, fish cheeks, sausages, cheese or organ meat is a betrayal.” No offence to my vegetarian and vegan friends, but that line has always made me laugh.
Even in that piece, you can already see who he truly was and what his calling would become: a storyteller of love – for food and for people – who seasoned everything with raw, unfiltered honesty, served up for an adult audience.
From that writing experience came two books that did not gain much success, while in 2000 Kitchen Confidential arrived. It was, in a way, the follow-up to the 1999 article, and in its roughly 300 pages Bourdain tells the story of his life: where his fascination with food began, his early experiences in the kitchen, and his rise to fame as a chef, through intense moments and many struggles with addiction. From this bestseller came more books, which I will tell you about in detail in a dedicated post that you will find under the “Books” category of the blog.
Almost in parallel with his career as a writer and chef, from 2002 Bourdain appeared on television with A Cook’s Tour, the show I mentioned at the beginning of this article. It was his first major success, where we came to love him as the travelling chef, always in search of good food – for the body and for the soul. The show was immediately well received by both audiences and critics, and from it came several new programmes for different networks, such as No Reservations on the Travel Channel, and his final show, Parts Unknown, produced by none other than CNN. It was in Parts Unknown that one of his most famous moments took place: Bourdain having lunch on the streets of Hanoi, Vietnam, with the then President of the United States, Barack Obama. “A cooks tour”, che citavo all’inizio dell’articolo, il suo primo programma di successo dove impareremo ad amarlo come chef viaggiatore a caccia di buon cibo per corpo e per l’anima. Fu subito accolto positivamente dal pubblico e dalla critica, nasceranno così svariati programmi per diverse emittenti televisive come No Reservation con Travel Channel e l’ultimo Parts Unknown, prodotto nientepopodimeno che dalla CNN, dove è presente il famosissimo episodio di Bourdain che pranza in Vietnam per le strade di Hanoi con l’allora presidente degli Stati Uniti Barack Obama.
The show came to an end in 2018, following Tony’s suicide, which left everyone stunned. As with many suicides, perhaps there were signs that could have been seen, but depression really does know how to hide itself well when it wants to. I will not go into detail or dwell on the gossip surrounding it all, because that is not the reason I want to remember him.
I wrote this article to give you a brief introduction to just how incredible this human being was – so ordinary, yet at the same time brilliant. As disciplined in his work as he was self-destructive, he was, to me, a fascinating figure who made me stop believing that “VIPs”, those we see on the small or big screen, are somehow different or better than us. They are exactly like us – brilliant, but also deeply fragile.
I have prepared several articles dedicated to him:
- Anthony Bourdain: Kitchen Confidential – A Guide to Bourdain’s Books
- A Cook’s Tour – A Guide to Bourdain’s TV Shows
- Anthony Bourdain’s Favourites – Food Is Music
- Bloody Quotes – Tony’s Best Lines.
Reading his books and following him on his adventures around the globe has completely changed the way I travel, and I hope I have sparked your curiosity too.
I will end with his four rules, which have become a sort of mantra for me:
- Get up off the couch.
- Eat and drink with the locals.
- Venture off the beaten path.
- And lastly, let travel change you.
In short: Don’t be a tourist, be a traveller..
Happy reading.
Big Love from Giuliona
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