Well, not in love so much as enamored of his wit and bad boy charm. I read Kitchen Confidential when it came out and thoroughly enjoyed it despite never wanting to darken the door of a restaurant again lest I be fed something someone had been having sex on top of in the walk-in. I was also interested in reading his mysteries but have yet to get around to that.
When No Reservations began, I caught a few here and there. You see, I swore off bad boys a while back. Now I prefer those who look like bad boys but really aren’t (Exhibit A being my husband). So, lest I get tempted, you understand, I kind of avoided Mr. Bourdain. Plus, I had already over programmed the DVR.
But lately, I find myself scarfing up episodes of No Reservations like a Bourdain junkie. It started with him being trapped in Lebanon during the Israeli attacks (is that the PC term? do I care if that’s the PC term?). He suddenly seemed, I don’t know, a little braver and a little more human all at once. Yes, I guess, eating the still beating heart of a cobra is brave on some level, but not in my universe. Here, it just seems brazenly perverse. Anyway, then I saw the Sweden episode. Tony among my people, doing something I really would love to do as I have never had the fortune to go to the Old Country. I was hooked.
Now I am into the current season (just watched Ghana and it was wonderful) and catching repeats as I can. Who knew? But I do tend to find chefs fascinating (obviously) and bad boy, rock-star status chefs who can write and have a rapier wit but know when to reign it all in and be a gracious guest, well who can resist? Besides a bad boy who can hold down multiple jobs and tone it down when necessary? Not such a bad boy, but definitely an intriguing man.
You are not alone in your, ahem, admiration of Bourdain. I only wish I had access to his TV shows, but so far I have only been able to get hold of the food books.
I read Kitchen Confidential, too and loved it. I have also read “Walking on Walnuts” by Nancy Ring and loved that, too.
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I AGREE! I have immense love and mostly lust for Anthony Bourdain!! I want his life to WRITE, TRAVEL & EAT!
My love for Tony runs as deeply and as gutwrenchingly bittersweet as my sisters’ previously posted… I read “Kitchen Confidential” a few years after it was released, as is typical with my literary time frame… a bit behind but pleased with the fact that I don’t have to share my expierence with the mass public when reading, like one does when reading a new release.. or even more unfortunately,when you happen to be, by CHANCE, reading the same book that Oprah’s book club is reading… JK, but you get the vibe?? The copy I was reading was signed, lent to me by my good friend Matt. I work in a Japanese restaraunt, the owner is american, and is a trust fund casualty, and a general know-it-all. He considers himself to be well read, and what he has read does sometime surprise me. Kitchen Confidential was one of the books that I DIDN’T want to discuss with him, I knew he had read it, but FUNNY thing… he totally broke every rule in the do’s and don’ts in restaraunt ownership guidelines. It’s typical though, and he did get a pretty Japanese wife out of the whole deal, as he has admitted was one of the goals he had hoped to achieve by opening an up-scale Japanese restaraunt in a city that is otherwise limited to a strip mall sushi environment.
I ramble… I have become addicted to “No Reservations” each week I look forward, maybe a bit too much, to the next episode. Longing to see where Tony is next, awaiting those special moments when I laugh along knowingly…
We have some of the same favorite foods: Uni, sea urchin roe.(which i believe he also said was one of the sexiest foods to eat..) I also share his love of fried foods(can’t help it, it’s a wisco thing)and all fish,crustaceans?,mollusks,cephlopods?,bivalves are my mainstay,being otherwise nonmeateating(this i know is a pet peave. the vegetarian nightmare..)
I regrettably have the misfortune to have HAD the opportunity to dine with him, as guest of my dear friend, Matt. Long story short, as the INDUSTRY works sometimes.. you CAN’T NOT be there, unless you’re seriously CLINGING to life. Or in my case, have attempted the unfortunate ploy; to get your shift covered, unsuccessfully…and then not even being able to resort to “calling in dead” because everyone already knew my deal, and could care less about the great opportunity I had been presented.
THOSE DAMN BITCHES!!That was about five years ago and I kick myself in the ass repeatedly for not going on work ethic alone… Maybe some day the chance will arise again, and this time I will be prepared to do whatever it takes to meet my idol,my sadistic sorta soul mate, the guy who restores my faith in working hard because you love food. And how through eating, drinking, smoking, getting crazy, and expierencing how people everywhere enjoy the same, Anthony Bourdain causes me to get jealous when my coworker says she has him(a book)in bed with her at home, and makes me hate her more because five years ago she wouldn’t work for me so I could meet him.