A link to a great interview with Anthony Bourdain on bookslut. I love his irreverence and candor and well, we’re reading him for this month’s ReadCookEat Book Club…!
I love him on TV too–”A Cook’s Tour” on the Food Network hooked me, and then I followed him over to the Travel Channel for “No Reservations.” I love that he doesn’t always take the well trodden Western Frenchified food paths (even though that’s been the core of his own cooking) and gives more than just a nod to other world foods. In particular I learned and liked reading just WHY he moved over to the Travel Channel (I always wondered but never investigated on why that happened):
When the Food Network asked him to stop going to Asia because “they talk funny” there, he took his show to the Travel Channel where they let him make all of the decisions.
Yes!
And Bourdain’s 3rd season of “No Reservations” includes a trip to Korea, a sorely overlooked food and travel destination (just ponder the lack of travel guides South Korea). Dude loves Asia and Asian food and not in a stupid “Rice King” sort of way, either. Can’t wait to watch it!
3 responses so far ↓
connie // August 8, 2006 at 8:40 pm
I like enjoy his show, his brashness has an appeal, and by all accounts, he’s actually a nice guy in person, but I cannot stand his writing style. It’s okay to read his postings on egullet or even in a magazine article, but I tried to pick up “The Nasty Bits,” and remembered what I disliked about Kitchen Confidential. I’m glad I went with Buford.
C(h)ristine // August 8, 2006 at 9:01 pm
Buford is definitely the better writer of the two–he’s a writer turned cook (whereas Bourdain is a cook/chef turned writer)….
Still, I love Bourdain’s personality and how he lets his voice pervade his writing. (Though I can TOTALLY see how it’s grating, it grates me at times!) Too many people become “someone else” when they write.
Mark // August 9, 2006 at 1:45 am
I was really happy to see the Korea episode of No Reservations too. At first, I was a little disappointed because it veered from the usual show formula and instead had Bourdain tag along with his Korean American assistant on a home-coming trip. Instead of his usual gourmet restaurant, alley grub, and the token shock value meal - it was dinner with her family, a night of norae-bong and po-jang macha, and a trip to the Seoul Fish Market (should have gone to Pusan!). But I’ll be damned if the places she took him didn’t look world class tasty - I’d love to hit up that seafood shack where they met her grandfather anytime.
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