Lines & Line Cooks — Walking in on Anthony Bourdain
There are few culinary figures that have made their splash in pop culture, let alone existed in the minds of generations. Those who have established their fame have done so through cookbooks, catchphrases, and decadent recipes, but one man, in particular, defied the normal conventions of a chef and became a true icon. It wasn’t with a whisk, a bread recipe or a hit cooking show on the Food Network, but with drugs, shitty dishwasher jobs and a whole lot of foreign street food.
Anthony Bourdain inspired himself, I’d like to assume, in the sense that growing up, food was not always at his forefront. It wasn’t until later in life that Bourdain decided to attend The Culinary Institute of America and reveal all of the toxic practices of knife cuts and taste tests that reduced the glamour of the chef world but certainly piqued our interest. The true distinguishing factor of Bourdain amongst well-known culinary icons is his no-bullshit mode of storytelling, and he’s damn good at it. With the publishing of his first book, Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly in 2000, the world was already under his spell and standing right next to him in the walk-in fridge watching him do lines of cocaine with the fry chefs in order to get through a shift. Though the truth of Bourdain’s culinary journey was always raw and uncut (a teaser to the title of the second book he published later on), he still made us fall in love with food, but not without the truth.
Not only were the New York kitchens of some of the most iconic restaurants in history broken down and exposed for their asshole executives and wage cuts, but Bourdain was also bold enough to take us outside into the world, places we’ve never dreamed of, to show us the truth on Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown. When Bourdain left the non-fiction memoir page, his journalistic reporting made it on CNN’s screen, and he became, and still remains, a notable figure in the culinary and journalistic world. I plan to focus on some of the narration that accompanies Bourdain’s episodes of Parts Unknown as he incorporated his written journalism into the captivating footage of the legendary chef sitting down in Peru, Iran, and Hanoi with President Obama drinking local beer and eating bun cha noodles. Yet, I also plan to heavily focus on Bourdain’s first memoir, Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly, as this was Bourdain’s point of entry into narrative journalism with a memoir-exposé. After Kitchen Confidential sent him soaring into stardom, Bourdain was shoved in front of the camera, and he tells all once again in Medium Raw. Though most may know Bourdain for his TV personality and ridiculous adventures, most of the pain and experiences that may have led to his suicide in 2018 might be contained in the enchanting narratives of his memoirs, and that’s what I intend to explore. I’m ready, Bourdain, take me to the walk-in.
