No Reservations: An Evening with Anthony Bourdain

I'm sure he doesn't fancy himself a celeb, but he is popular and in the past 5 years or so, cooking has definitely stepped up in the forefront of publicly discussed skills.

What makes Bourdain a step above is his complete lack of focus when it comes to the subject. This makes him a much more interesting lecturer and just generally an entertaining guy to listen to as he discusses anything in particular. His wide range of travels also give him perspective outside the norm for chefs who typically focus in more European areas.

In life there’s many paths one can go down, in the world of careers, there’s about four. If you’re one of the kids that’s good at manipulating people and following the game, you end up in an office, either that or you end up in an office and learn how to do said things. Have you the propensity towards blowing your paycheck on trophies like designer clothing and rubbing it in the faces of your peers, and touting your accomplishments whilst you are still far from weaned off your mother’s breast, you enter the world of sales. Have you respect for your family, or at the least a sense of honor strong enough to progress tradition, you ender the labor force. The fourth path is that of food service. Either you’re a complete moron and can’t get a job anywhere else and need to be stabbed in the kidneys, or you are looking for some kidneys to stab…

Anthony Bourdain is by no means a moron… As he states himself, he’s a rotten kid with a large vocabulary. But he’s more than just that. He’s the voice in the back of our heads that we all have, but are either too polite or too cowardly to voice. One would say such personality leans towards a bully, but bullies usually do their duties as a release of their own inadequacies. Tony does so to release others’ inadequacies…

“If some Birkenstock-wearing knucklehead driving around in a SUV and wearing sneakers someone was sold into slavery to make is sniffling about the poor animals, that person is clearly never going to experience the world.”

His life isn’t just about food so much as food has been a vehicle for him to live. He’s always been a proponent for exploration and finding the realities in life, which is why he gets the fifth star. To go into a zone with the understanding that you consume to local fare, and enjoy the culture, rather than try to find your own culture in a foreign place; I.E. you don’t go to Taiwan or Russia to eat at McDonald’s…

Hearing his talks, seeing his shows, and reading his books really gives you a nice metaphorical overlay that acts as a decent filter. The philosophies expressed are sometimes so blunt that the average person would just miss them, while others are so tongue in cheek that again the average person would not even see it. That being the case, the stories he tells are no less amusing. Aside from being a decent reference on how to progress through life at its roots in an honest way, he’s got enough actual experiences to just “tell stories”. Colourful disgusting stories about ungodly practices of other people and the things they decide to ingest… Hard to say what’s worse… Someone eating three year old fermented shark livers, or what goes on in the kitchens here in America…