Bad-boy Foodie Anthony Bourdain Comes Calling
By Keli Dailey
Casual viewers of "Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations" describe the TV host as "the guy who'll eat anything." (No, that's Andrew Zimmern on "Bizarre Foods." Same Travel Channel network.) Die-hards know that Bourdain globe-trots, rubs elbows with cutting-edge chefs and honors the eating customs of exotic locales. That only sometimes includes swallowing raw seal with the Inuit in Quebec and a rather unappetizing part of a wart hog with a Namibian tribe. More often, he's enjoying red meat in fine restaurants or in South Asian food courts.
We caught up with the former chef and bad-boy best-selling author by phone, right before his TV adventures in Spain. Bourdain talked about his two celebrated chef memoirs, 2001's "Kitchen Confidential" and this year's "Medium Raw." We found out he travels 175 days for "No Reservations" and 40 for speaking engagements annually. He also revealed what he would never eat.
Q: Are you still the chef-at-large at Les Halles in New York? You film "No Reservations" there sometimes.
A: I think I'm more like Mullah Omar is in Afghanistan. He's not even in Afghanistan, but he's still kind of a spiritual leader in hiding.
Q: Does your cardiologist approve of your "No Reservations" diet?
A: I found myself at a table of six chefs, and all of us are on Lipitor or something like it. Like a bunch of retirees at Century Village, every one of us knows their cholesterol count to the nubbin. When (my doctor) told me that I would have to adjust my diet, I started weeping.
Q: Your show's in its seventh season. Sometimes you joke about being in yet another ethnic food market. Does it ever feel repetitive?
A: Well, at this point, having been to a lot of markets, it better be pretty compelling. The one convention that I really hate, though, is the tease to the commercial. Finding a new way to say, "When we come back." I hate that sort of wind down, convincing people to hang on through the commercial break. I despise having to live with that.
Q: You need a "Dukes of Hazzard" moment, when you freeze-frame a car going over a cliff.
A: I'd rather do that. That would be great.
Q: Did you keep journals for "Kitchen Confidential"?
A: I never, ever kept a journal in my life. I wrote a short article; it ended up in The New Yorker. I was offered a book deal. I wrote a book.
Q: Your latest book, "Medium Raw," is like second thoughts about "Kitchen Confidential." You even say it's safe to order the fish on Mondays now.
A: I definitely see "Medium Raw" as a course correction. I mean, "Kitchen Confidential" keeps selling. It's become this sort of year-in, year-out big seller with new generations of cooking students and restaurant people. I felt obliged 10 years later to update the record.
Q: You talk about food ethics. But you open "Medium Raw" with a scene of you eating a highly endangered bird, ortolan. What would be immoral for you to eat?
A: You know, it's not a matter of morality that I would not eat cat or dog. It's just a matter of you've got to draw the line somewhere. I'm not looking to eat endangered species. But if I am fortunate enough to find myself surprised with one of the rarest feasts in gastronomy? I can live with the complicity.
Q: Is your live show R-rated?
A: I did a gig in Salt Lake City, and I thought, "With all those Mormons, am I gonna have to go to the B material?" No, I did an absolutely filthy show, and it seemed to be much appreciated. I'll (talk about) whatever's (ticking) me off or exciting me that day. There's gonna be question-and-answer -- a lot counts on that.
Q: About that Q&A, is it off-limits to talk about your trips to Caribbean brothels?
A: They can talk about anything. It's anarchy. Once, a guy jumped up on stage, dropped his pants and revealed life-size portraits of me, Eric Ripert and "Iron Chef" (Masaharu) Morimoto tattooed on his hairy thigh.
Q: What does it say about the human condition that chefs are now all rock stars?
A: I really don't have an explanation for it, but I'm glad that it happened. Who deserves the attention, the opportunities, a good score more than chefs?
Keli Dailey writes for The San Diego Union-Tribune.
By Keli Dailey
Casual viewers of "Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations" describe the TV host as "the guy who'll eat anything." (No, that's Andrew Zimmern on "Bizarre Foods." Same Travel Channel network.) Die-hards know that Bourdain globe-trots, rubs elbows with cutting-edge chefs and honors the eating customs of exotic locales. That only sometimes includes swallowing raw seal with the Inuit in Quebec and a rather unappetizing part of a wart hog with a Namibian tribe. More often, he's enjoying red meat in fine restaurants or in South Asian food courts.
We caught up with the former chef and bad-boy best-selling author by phone, right before his TV adventures in Spain. Bourdain talked about his two celebrated chef memoirs, 2001's "Kitchen Confidential" and this year's "Medium Raw." We found out he travels 175 days for "No Reservations" and 40 for speaking engagements annually. He also revealed what he would never eat.
Q: Are you still the chef-at-large at Les Halles in New York? You film "No Reservations" there sometimes.
A: I think I'm more like Mullah Omar is in Afghanistan. He's not even in Afghanistan, but he's still kind of a spiritual leader in hiding.
Q: Does your cardiologist approve of your "No Reservations" diet?
A: I found myself at a table of six chefs, and all of us are on Lipitor or something like it. Like a bunch of retirees at Century Village, every one of us knows their cholesterol count to the nubbin. When (my doctor) told me that I would have to adjust my diet, I started weeping.
Q: Your show's in its seventh season. Sometimes you joke about being in yet another ethnic food market. Does it ever feel repetitive?
A: Well, at this point, having been to a lot of markets, it better be pretty compelling. The one convention that I really hate, though, is the tease to the commercial. Finding a new way to say, "When we come back." I hate that sort of wind down, convincing people to hang on through the commercial break. I despise having to live with that.
Q: You need a "Dukes of Hazzard" moment, when you freeze-frame a car going over a cliff.
A: I'd rather do that. That would be great.
Q: Did you keep journals for "Kitchen Confidential"?
A: I never, ever kept a journal in my life. I wrote a short article; it ended up in The New Yorker. I was offered a book deal. I wrote a book.
Q: Your latest book, "Medium Raw," is like second thoughts about "Kitchen Confidential." You even say it's safe to order the fish on Mondays now.
A: I definitely see "Medium Raw" as a course correction. I mean, "Kitchen Confidential" keeps selling. It's become this sort of year-in, year-out big seller with new generations of cooking students and restaurant people. I felt obliged 10 years later to update the record.
Q: You talk about food ethics. But you open "Medium Raw" with a scene of you eating a highly endangered bird, ortolan. What would be immoral for you to eat?
A: You know, it's not a matter of morality that I would not eat cat or dog. It's just a matter of you've got to draw the line somewhere. I'm not looking to eat endangered species. But if I am fortunate enough to find myself surprised with one of the rarest feasts in gastronomy? I can live with the complicity.
Q: Is your live show R-rated?
A: I did a gig in Salt Lake City, and I thought, "With all those Mormons, am I gonna have to go to the B material?" No, I did an absolutely filthy show, and it seemed to be much appreciated. I'll (talk about) whatever's (ticking) me off or exciting me that day. There's gonna be question-and-answer -- a lot counts on that.
Q: About that Q&A, is it off-limits to talk about your trips to Caribbean brothels?
A: They can talk about anything. It's anarchy. Once, a guy jumped up on stage, dropped his pants and revealed life-size portraits of me, Eric Ripert and "Iron Chef" (Masaharu) Morimoto tattooed on his hairy thigh.
Q: What does it say about the human condition that chefs are now all rock stars?
A: I really don't have an explanation for it, but I'm glad that it happened. Who deserves the attention, the opportunities, a good score more than chefs?
Keli Dailey writes for The San Diego Union-Tribune.
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