Arguably one of the more sardonic chefs out
there, Anthony Bourdain has established himself
as a multi-faceted and world-traveled aesthete
with a deep affection for food, community,
and regional traditions.
But he wasn't always known for being an intellectual
silver fox who hobnobs with Obama, or for
being cool enough to call Iggy Pop a personal
friend.
Here's the must-know dirt about America's
favorite bad boy chef.
Recovering addict
It's no secret that substance abuse runs rampant
in the foodservice industry.
Bourdain developed a serious problem with
drugs while working in kitchens many years
ago.
Most significantly, he developed a heroin
addiction, which he managed to kick in the
'80s.
"I wanted to become a heroin addict.
I was very proud of myself when I first shot
up.
I was a vulnerable, goofy, awkward guy whose
only success socially was to be the baddest
guy in the room."
He also smoked crack cocaine.
On a Reddit AMA, he wrote that he found himself
"combing the shag carpet for paint chips in
the hope that they were fallen crack bits,"
and "smoking them anyway."
He quit that too.
But unlike many addicts, who give up any and
all substances when they get clean, Bourdain
still drinks alcohol.
He knows he's unusual, and writes,
"Most people who kick heroin and cocaine have
to give up on everything.
Maybe cause my experiences were so awful in
the end, I've never been tempted to relapse."
But you'll never find Bourdain knocking one
back, at home.
He told Men's Journal,
"I don't ever drink in my house.
When I indulge, I indulge.
But I don't let it bleed over into the rest
of my life."
Rebellious tastes
Bourdain came from relatively humble origins
in New Jersey, where he was raised on standard
American cuisine.
But he was intrigued by the smells that would
drift upstairs when the adults were hosting
dinner parties downstairs.
And when his family traveled abroad, his curiosity
only grew.
He told The Guardian that he responded to
being left out of adult dinners by his parents
with a culinary rebellion of sorts, recalling,
"I reacted by requesting oysters and dishes
they found repulsive and becoming increasingly
adventurous in my tastes.
It wasn't about the food but about getting
a reaction."
And he hasn't stopped.
But for a man who's traveled the world eating
everything, he told Conan that even he has
has limits:
"I've eaten a lot of really nasty things on
my show.
But nothing as soul-destroying as my airport
Johnny Rockets experience."
Paying his dues
"How did I get from, you know, dunking breaded
clams in hot grease to where I am today?
F--- if I know."
Bourdain cut his teeth in the restaurant business,
as a dishwasher.
And he actually liked the job.
At the time, he was a self-professed "awkward
teenager," and as he told The Guardian, this
job made total, objective sense to him.
The ability to perform the job well, accomplishing
any tasks given to him within the job description,
allowed him to flourish under the tutelage
of people he respected and admired.
He told Fresh Air,
"I was a happy dishwasher.
I jokingly say that I learned every important
lesson, all the most important lessons of
my life as a dishwasher."
A fateful trip
Bourdain did do a bit of travelling before
he became a famous, globetrotting chef.
So what was it that made him want to do more
in life and see more of the world?
"First time I came here…
It was just like taking acid for the first
time."
Bourdain told Men's Journal that a trip to
Japan, shortly before Kitchen Confidential
was published, completely changed his life.
He said,
"It showed me there was so much more in the
world than I had any idea about — there
was so much to learn and there was so much
stuff out there."
Serious about jiu-jitsu
If you watch Parts Unknown, you're privy to
the fact that Bourdain is in good shape.
"Apparently they don't know what tapping out
means here, because I was tapping like Western
f---ing Union.
I thought he was gonna push that 71-year-old
finger right into my brain pan."
You'll even catch him in action as a serious
practitioner of the martial arts, specifically
Brazilian jiu-jitsu.
He told Nuvo,
"I train every day, wherever I am in the world.
When I'm in New York, I train at the Renzo
Gracie Academy, an hour private and then an
hour and a half general population.
That's basically Fight Club."
"It's a humbling experience getting just squashed
by younger, more fit, more experienced people."
Late bloomer
It's hard to look at Bourdain and imagine
him struggling to pay his bills.
But he spent years busting his hump in the
kitchen, worrying if he'd be able to get by.
He told Biography that at age 44, he was,
"...standing in kitchens, not knowing what
it was like to go to sleep without being in
mortal terror.
I was in horrible, endless, irrevocable debt.
I had no health insurance.
I didn't pay my taxes.
I couldn't pay my rent."
But things changed for Bourdain when his first
book Kitchen Confidential was published, catapulting
him out of the world of kitchen obscurity
and into the world of celebrity.
The book, which was credited with revolutionizing
the entire genre of food writing, was so well-received
that he no longer had to slave in a kitchen
for 12 or more hours every day.
He told Fresh Air,
"When the book came out, it very quickly transformed
my life — I mean, changed everything."
Unlikely advocate
As a rule, Bourdain says he isn't prone to
advocacy, but when it comes to food waste,
he's throwing his full weight into raising
awareness about it.
"In the United States, 40 percent of the food
we produce is going to waste."
That alarming statistic was the impetus that
inspired Bourdain to join the team behind
the documentary Wasted as an executive producer.
"As a young cook, I came up in an old-school
system.
Use everything, waste nothing."
But it's not the only trending topic he's
passionate about.
Bourdain's girlfriend, Asia Argento, is among
the many women who have said they were assaulted
by Harvey Weinstein, and Bourdain says that
has brought the issue home for him.
He told Slate he's doing some soul-searching,
asking himself,
"Why was I not the sort of person people would
see as a natural ally here?...I started looking
at that."
Mending fences
There are a few choice things Bourdain is
known for, and feuding with other celebrity
chefs is one of them.
He's thrown down on everyone from Bobby Flay
to Rachel Ray, leveling his peers with colorful
and profane barbs.
But in recent years it seems that Bourdain
may be spending less time trash talking and
more time focusing on his own work.
Some of his more recent insults toward, Guy
Fieri, are tamer than those in the past.
And he's been mum about Paula Deen for some
years now, which is a huge change in tack
from his previous critiques of her.
"This is not southern food she's been selling.
This is… her brand has been, for all those
years, novelty food.
Cheeseburgers between, you know, Krispy Kreme
donuts here."
He even headlined The Cayman Cookout with
Emeril Lagasse in January of 2017, showing
that he's chilled in that regard too.
Maybe it's all that jiu-jitsu, and his world-weary,
sunnuvabitch, unstoppable lust for life.
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