The Unreserved Bourdain
This week’s New Yorker features an extended, revealing profile of chef-turned-TV-gastronaut Anthony Bourdain. I’ve long been a fan of…
This week’s New Yorker features an extended, revealing profile of chef-turned-TV-gastronaut Anthony Bourdain. I’ve long been a fan of Bourdain’s work, including both his riveting memoir-exposé Kitchen Confidential and his decade and a half traveling and eating his way around the globe, in his various shows A Cook’s Tour, No Reservations and Parts Unknown. Bourdain’s gonzo gastronomy has, according to the profile, seen him visit almost 100 countries, and his attitude towards the places he visits has gradually evolved from brash libertine to sophisticated anthropologist.
If Bourdain has become wiser and more worldly during those 15 years, then so too has his audience, myself included. I’m willing to contend, in fact, that the 142 episodes of No Reservations will teach you more about the world than any single other television series ever made. And while coverage of Africa was unfortunately underrepresented in No Reservations, since moving to CNN Bourdain has visited six sub-Saharan counties under the Parts Unknown banner.
What explains his appeal? As the New Yorker piece makes clear, Bourdain not only knows he has the best job in the world, but has also seen far worse days than most TV personalities: including but not limited to hard drug addiction. His new, unlikely lease on life clearly spurs Bourdain on during his hectic filming schedule — he was only home in New York for twenty weeks last year — and influences his implacable yet inquisitive approach to travel. Both the profile and Bourdain’s exploits are worth consuming in full.