18.6.10

ANTHONY BOURDAIN: The Gourmet Daredevil


By Alfonso Corona and Isa Traverso-Burger

Chefs are known for their extravagant or blunt behaviors and
Mr. Bourdain is no exception. He is a character who seems
to have jumped out of one of his thriller novels –yes he’s a
fiction writer too.



Opinionated and humorous, Bourdain is
the Executive Chef at Brasserie Les Halles in New York, and
best-selling author of Kitchen Confidential. He has many
stories to tell and recipes to divulge, which is why he is so
popular nowadays after a successful Food Network series
called ‘A Cook’s Tour’. The Travel Channel is presenting his
latest venture, a show titled, “Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations”.
This typical New Yorker says what he feels, knows where he’s been and where he comes from. More importantly he can cook like a whiz kid.



Where were you born?
New York City

What and where did you study?
I studied Liberal Arts, just like everybody else, and I wasted
the entire experience; it was in Vassar College, where
90% were women. I was 17, confused and distracted. My
life didn’t begin until I became a dishwasher. I fell in love
with the restaurant business and its lifestyle. It’s like joining
the mafia, once you’re in you’re never out. I wanted to
get good at what I was doing so I studied at the Culinary
Institute of America (CIA). I f*cked up in college spectacularly.
I was self-destructive and a total mess, but here I
was a good student. I had an advantage, there were not
many students with restaurant experience, and for me it
was easy and fun.

How was the CIA experience?
I always knew I had a future in the business, if you can
handle the pressure and the insanity, you can always find a
structure. It takes discipline, as well as an extended family
of equally dysfunctional people. It’s like mafia, --anywhere
in the world you go, there are people that can relate and
understand you.

What made you inclined towards the art of cooking?
I love the life I have, who else would let me behave like I
do? When I started there were no celebrity chefs. The rock
and roll lifestyle was a powerful motivation, --drugs, girls
and power. To be surrounded by people who shared that
world felt very elite. Now it’s another reality, but at the beginning
it was that lifestyle that grabbed my mind.

How do you best describe what you do?
I have the best job in the world; I get to travel all around it, eating and meeting
people. This business is about meeting people and I love it, it’s the perfect job
for me; I’m a lonely person in my personal life.

How’s your life?
My life is great, I have always done what I want and usually get away with it.
My life is a complete-freedom stage and I like it that way.

Can you eat everything?
Literally everything, except...monkey brain. I once had the chance of eating it
and my wife told me that if I did, she would divorce me (because of the harm
done to the little animal). Once I ate seal with an Eskimo tribe, as you know,
these people really need to eat seals as part of their DNA heritage; we sneaked
into an igloo and had one of the most intense dinners of my life.

Tell us about the strange ones.
One of the strangest things I have eaten was a live, still pounding cobra snake
whose heart was washed down with its own blood and vile; I also ate a soft
boiled duck embryo and roasted sheep testicles still hanging in their place.

What’s your biggest accomplishment in the food business?
Well, food is necessary in life, every one has to eat, so food generates control,
this is one of the main reasons in human or animal conflicts in history. Food is
the most important thing in life so somehow I’ve accomplished certain
success in this area.

Are you reading a book?
Not right now, but I’m preparing an investigation regarding
real low-key Caribbean and Latin American restaurants in
Miami.

Is there any plate that you can’t prepare?
Some of Bulli’s restaurant in Barcelona, Chef Ferran AdriĆ 
did amazing things putting up a chemistry lab using flavored
mousses that are simply the best in the world. This is the
most impressive food on earth.

Which is your best food dish?
Beluga Caviar with blinis, fresh buckwheat, scallop and white
truffle risotto and lobster bisque.

Who do you LOVE to cook for?
Martin Scorsese, he’s a very special person.

What do you feel like eating now?
Mexican food. I love Mexico and their food; it’s a great place
where people are awesome.

What would you like to do ten years from now?
Exactly the same thing I’m doing now, hanging out with my
friends, eating, cooking, etc. Among Chefs there’s a sub-culture
you know? Everywhere I go, I have Chef friends, I go see
them, they invite me to eat, drink and talk, so imagine, I get to
eat and drink with the best cooks in the world in the best restaurants
of the world; believe me, these are great reunions,
all of them full of awesome food and lots of wine.



Complete the following words:
-Love is: I don’t know
-Life is: A trip
-Money is: Everything and nothing
-Food is: everything