The Anthony Bourdain thread

This sentence remains assez opaque to me.

I loved the contrast between his self-identification as a 'no bullshit' kinda guy and the realization that he's with a lot of other quite lucky people in a nice hotel, swimming and getting a tan while they 'await their fate'. Bourdain's life, of late has seemed a paradise: food, drink, drugs, travel, but all of a sudden he was forced to come to terms with the fact that he's livin' the high life, comparatively.

It doesn't seem so silly if you've seen the episode, and know Bourdain's general attitude toward war and the military, ans especially not if you share his views. He's not a big fan of war, is critical of our government, but was himself stunned by the generosity, personability, and machine-like competency of the US Marines. These are really good people, he said in no uncertain terms.

http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2006/07/28/bourdain_beirut/

Our military excels in far more in just killing people. That's what I got that I don't often get elsewhere.

i've heard lots of bad shit about some of the military, but the marines are generally thought of as a different caliber. they seem to demonstrate this on the USS nashville, and in a different way than expected. they're thought of as so hardcore and badass, and here they are described over and over as compassionate and kind as they efficiently evacuate lots of freaked-out and confused people.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2006/07/25/DI2006072501108.html?sub=AR

I read A Cook's Tour recently and really liked it.

i like anthony bourdain a lot. i still have never eaten at les halles, mainly because it seems overpriced for what it is - howEVA - i NEVER eat fish at restaurants on mondays now because of him (don't know whether i'm grateful or annoyed by this)

I knew there was a reason behind my kneejerk attitude toward this dude.

Actually, most of my antipathy is just because the Chicago thread talks about him all the time, and I had no idea who he was or why I should care about him.

Sorry, Kenan.

and i'll fourth the fish tip!

hahah me too.
-- s1ocki (slytus...), Today 11:33 AM. (slutsky)

Some fish markets/distributors are open on Monday! Maybe not on the East Coast but elsewhere in the world Monday is just dandy.

But Bourdain is definitely telling you something: go out Tuesday/Fridays for fish.

I’m okay with people who are horrified by cruelty to animals. I understand that completely. Who isn’t? Well, a lot of people aren’t, but I am.

She wrinkled her nose & said "My husband loves him, I'm only here because of him. I just want to see if he's clean."

When I asked her what she meant she smiled in this deranged way and said primly "He looks so dirty on TV. I just came to see if he's clean in real life, or if he really is that dirty."

I swear, she's the single weirdest person I've ever encountered.

I can just picture her snapping on a white cotton glove & giving him the 'finger test' at the signing table....

No.

I like A.B., from what I'v read. And I totally support Nice Guys in the Military, but I support neither the gov't nor the "military."

Also, Dan's right -- I've spent some time in commercial kitchens, and he pretty much nails it.

When I first read Kitchen Confidential I loved it because it showed the Way It Really Is. Now I hate Bourdain because he is an example of The Way It Really Is. He is just the sort of macho, self-aggrandizing, control freak that plagues too many restaurant and makes life miserable for the rest of the staff including waiters, managers, cooks, runners, bussers, and even owners.

I think my breaking point was when I saw Bourdain on The Restaurant, dining at Rocco's in NY with another chef, talking some crap about "Chefs embody madmen, visionaries and artists, all in one body..." as the camera spun and zoomed giddily about them. Blarf.

That said, I have never tasted Bourdain's food, and from what I have heard he's a good, workmanlike chef but not a truly special one. He seems to know his French comfort food, which is still better than what most of America ever eats.

But whatever, he's not even a chef anymore, he's a full-time writer and TV personality. Fuck TV -- he's a professional personality. I happen to like this personality. Some will not.

So I like Bourdain, but only when he is eating durian.

The fish tip doesn't hold true right across the board though, where I work we sell out of stuff over the weekend, so a fresh fish delivery arrives on Monday.

maybe this is why Friday has always =ed "fish day"?

"is everybody happy? well i should say!"

Oh, missed that West Texas one. Will look for it.

i enjoyed this

https://www.gq.com/story/anthony-bourdain-men-of-the-year-tribute

Thanks for posting that. I teared up reading it.

more than a hint of klopp in this untrustworthy showy german in paraguay imo

I am very ok with today being Bourdain Day.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/tips/ways-celebrate-anthony-bourdain-bourdain-day/?utm_term=.58a857a41825

https://thetakeout.com/s/parts-unknown-anthony-bourdain

I still haven’t been able to watch the last season or any of his shows at all for that matters.

I watched a couple of random episodes earlier this year but also haven't watched the last season yet. I just read through that summary linked above of every episode and now have a list to make my way through.

Yeah, I couldn’t watch the last season until just recently. I enjoyed it very much even if it was bittersweet.

One of his graphic novels is getting adapted for TV, I'm a little bummed it's not Get Jiro (post-apocalyptic sushi chef revenge tale)

https://www.eater.com/2019/6/14/18678863/anthony-bourdain-hungry-ghosts-animated-series-joel-rose-sony-pictures

https://www.insidehook.com/article/food-and-drink/remembering-a-hero-and-eating-a-few-on-the-anthony-bourdain-food-trail-new-jersey

Similar article for SF: https://m.sfgate.com/food/article/restaurants-Anthony-Bourdain-San-Francisco-show-14029068.php

miss this dude a lot

He was kind of a dick

But my kind of a dick

otm

the fact that we lost him when he had just started really perfecting “mellow Bourdain” bums me out

i mean i love him in all forms but the last few years were real gold

BOURDAIN: Alright so tell me what this is.
CITIZEN: This is apple pie. It is a classic American food.
BOURDAIN: Okay, so-- wait, what are you doing?
CITIZEN: I am adding a small scoop of ice cream.
BOURDAIN: [chuckling skeptically] All right. All right. Fuck it. Let's do this.

— Brooks Otterlake (@i_zzzzzz) July 20, 2018

he met all the wrong people in dublin but i mean maybe everybody does and he did ok so he did

Yeah, somehow no culinary/eating shows ever get a place right for the ppl living in it.

And it's probably for the best, as the places featured would stop being good for locals after the shows air.

He did well in Chicago imo

Was watching this really good documentary about the Carlysle Hotel in NY last night and up he pops to my surprise, sounding/looking great and so centred and solid on screen, still hard to believe he's gone.

my god

https://youtu.be/RyUVNFBZ_X4

I miss this dude.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiZFH6_f0tg

don't now if Roadrunner got talked about elsewhere but seems like it should be discussed here. Finally watched this last night, it's very devastating. I know there was a hoo-haw about the use of AI on something that is spoken by him but it was, AFAICT, only in like two sentences in the middle of the doc; there was an email he sent to David Choe and asked him if he was happy, Choe reads it and it slowly morphs into Bourdain's voice, it's like, 20 seconds tops; the hoo-haw was over nothing, IMO.

There is clearly a feeling among his colleagues on the show that Argento played a huge role in things unraveling for him, I know the filmmaker said there was more but he didn't want to go over and over it. HIs brother does make it clear that he doesn't blame her but I def felt like some of the people from the show do. Argento has always struck me as a high-chaos type of individual, immensely charismatic, intelligent, sexy, who wouldn't get obsessed with her? I don't think anything is her fault. But it's sad to see how impactful this relationship became for him, he himself noted multiple times it was going to be bad.

the film was mostly good, but I think it was pretty unfair to make all these insinuations about Argento while not including her in the interviews

I thought it was interesting that they left out any mention of Argento having sex with a minor. I'm guessing they had to, for legal reasons

https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2021/09/inside-anthony-bourdains-all-consuming-relationship

not interviewed: Argento

so? like I'm sure she was just waiting for the call

She's either going to confirm what many other people have said (unlikely) or deny it all and claim the others just don't understand or have the full picture (likely). Being that she denied having a sexual relationship with that teenager and then a pic came out of her topless in bed with him, and that nothing others have said about her seems out of character for her, I'm inclined to believe the others' version of things over hers.

Before this year I had only caught episodes of his shows here and there, but I watched every episode of Parts Unknown this year, ending with the finale today. seeing everything was pretty wonderful. He's just so good at picking character out of a place, and great at getting people to share their stories. I loved pretty much every episode where he traveled with a companion, the joy between them is infectious

There are a small handful of episodes where I don't think he uses the time well, like some of the self-indulgent interviews with his heroes, but hey I'd probably do the same thing if I had a show

The final season suffered a bit from his lack of involvement. Obv not much of his VO, and they spent way more time than I think he would have mocking backpackers in Bali. And he would have HATED the episode which is just people gushing about him. But as mentioned the West Texas episode was great, as was the Kenya one. Very sad to reach the end

anyway here's my POX:
Quebec
Libya
Jerusalem
Copenhagen
Detroit
Sichuan
Houston
Japan (season 8)
Lagos
Bhutan

Agree, i read the oral history bio recently published, and am now working through the series again. The book confirms your take on the final series, inasmuch as he was not as interested/engaged as he had been

that Quebec episode is my favorite for sure. something about watching him eat so many amazing meats in the freezing cold with cool people.

the Libya ep is so good. it also feels like its where the show really starts grow, exploring that somewhat journalistic niche for him.

the vietnam episode in s4 has always been a highlight for me, looking foward to revisiting

oh and i used to love the Vienna episode because he’s so sure he’ll hate it and he ends up having a lovely time

*final season, i meant, not series

Worst episode: the one with Joe Rogan

I love almost all of the rest of it but haven’t seen all of it yet. The Quebec episode was great, I liked the one in the Philippines a lot cause he obviously had such a personal connection there.

that Berlin episode with that numpt US rockband mate of his was pretty bad, though at least there was a bit of Ellen Alien in there as well to almost redeem it!

one of the production crew, i cant remember if it was an editor or a director, said that they would call “cut to wide” to mark the end of a scene, and that Tony would often invariably say something offhanded because he knew he was done - they used 100% of those, because he always said or did something great.

it was cool reading about how engaged he was with the show, even about what a pain in the ass he could be. as a crew they were very much “all-in” with him, and working towards the same goal because of his enthusiasm for the authentic experiences they were trying to capture. a lot of it kind of sounds like a stressful nightmare as you could well imagine, but the driving underlying determination to get it right really shows on screen remarkably consistently

Yeah the Berlin one a good example of his self-indulgence. Newcombe is entertaining enough, but c'mon, show me Berlin!

I'll have to check out that oral history book, I loved the behind-the-scenes ep in the last season and am eager to know more about how they made the show

it’s great - and a lot of varied feedback about him, not just a “he was a genius” circle jerk

watched road runner last night, and found the last 30 minutes or so completely repugnant. was enjoying the enneagram 7 energy before that tho

Biopic but great cast and I've enjoyed everything I've seen from Matt Johnson so far, so

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1MVnzd2aVc

also seems like it's going for a "the summer he became who he was" coming-of-age story rather than a cradle-to-grave epic or even something focused on the period of his life we all remember him from.

Yeah, seems more Kitchen Confidential, which iirc was constantly rumored to be coming soon (maybe once with Fincher attached?) but eventually became a ... sitcom? With Bradley Cooper?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitchen_Confidential_(TV_series)

Kitchen Confidential is an American television sitcom that debuted on September 19, 2005, on the Fox network, based on Anthony Bourdain's New York Times bestselling book, Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly. Bradley Cooper played the lead character, Jack Bourdain, inspired by Anthony Bourdain.

After the show's first three episodes aired on Fox, the show was put on hiatus due to Fox's coverage of the Major League Baseball playoffs. In November 2005, Fox announced the show would not air during sweeps and that only 13 episodes would be produced because it was only averaging 4 million viewers. The show returned on December 5, 2005, with its fourth episode, but only received 3.38 million viewers. Four days later, Fox announced the cancellation of the series

LOL had never heard of this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDSqbZ1COhc

still looks better than that stupid biopic

Funny that Cooper then went on to do this (purely fictional) film:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/21/Burnt_Poster_Updated.jpg

that sitcom is wild

aww nicholas brendon was in it RIP

And some others, too, like John Francis Daley from "Freaks and Geeks," and John Cho. Weird. I wonder how many random pilots are locked in a vault somewhere featuring who knows who.

i wonder if it's online in 144/240p but one of Bourdain's first few books (a cook's tour?) was turned into a short season of food-doc-tv and when Tony (as he was known then) and Eric Ripert went to The French Laundry, my then-roommate was TFL's lead expo and apparently made such "good TV" that he was featured more than Thomas Keller (known neurodivergent/introvert) which irked TK to no end haha.

480p!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYjZpfr6JQ4

starts at 5m12s