BOURDAIN DAY
The Isolation Blues;
reflections during covid-19
Washington Post
June 25, 2020 Article written by Natalie B. Compton
This past Thursday, June 25, would have been Bourdain’s 63rd birthday. It was declared “Bourdain Day” by his close friends and fellow chefs Eric Ripert and José Andrés, who called on people around the world to toast and celebrate Bourdain and his legacy on the day of his birth, rather than on the day of his death, June 8. “I hope that this is a place that many people will go, will enjoy life, will have a drink. They will cook, they will go to a food truck. They will go to a picnic. They will go to a street vendor. A hot dog, a fancy restaurant, whatever. And they will toast Tony and wish, ‘Happy Bourdain Day!’”
Bourdain’s work humanized the “other.” He taught his audience that being foreign didn’t mean being scary. “He really did a lot to further that idea that we’re all kind of the same in certain ways, despite our beliefs, in spite of religion and despite of skin color,” said Andy Ricker, the chef and owner of Pok Pok who was featured in Bourdain’s shows “No Reservations” and “Parts Unknown.” “And he did it through food. He found a common language that everybody could understand.” Bourdain’s shows didn’t feature locals as props but worked to share their complex stories. They serve as a reminder to go into new places with an open mind. “He showed up with a willingness to learn from people,” travel journalist and author MaSovaida Morgan said. Through watching Bourdain, Morgan learned to “meet people where they are and let them teach you,” she said. “Don’t come in with any assumptions or a narrative that you might have learned.”
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Interview with Popula
Maria Bustillos; published July 15, 2018
Bourdain: My happiest moments on the road are always off-camera, generally with my crew, coming back from shooting a scene and finding ourselves in this sort of absurdly beautiful moment, you know, laying on a flatbed on those things that go on the railroad track, with a putt-putt motor, goin’ across like, the rice paddies in Cambodia with headphones on… this is luxury, because I could never have imagined having the freedom or the ability to find myself in such a place, looking at such things. To sit alone or with a few friends, half-drunk under a full moon, you just understand how lucky you are; it’s a story you can’t tell. It’s a story you almost by definition, can’t share. I’ve learned in real time to look at those things and realize: I just had a really good moment…
I want like young people to read what we’re talking about and be able to find new ways to look at the world and interact with it that don’t have to do with all the bullshit. And you know how to do that, or, people think you know how to do that. Like they think that you can just land in a city, and go meet the people, and interact with them on a human level, and I think that’s the future of the world, that we don’t have to care about nations or boundaries or passports or whatever. We could just eat together, we could just be together. We could just talk together.
Bourdain: I think a recognition that you’re almost always the stupidest person in the room when you venture out of your comfort zone, respect for that clear certainty. If you’re in Beirut, you don’t know what’s going on? Uh, the willingness to walk in other people’s shoes, the sense of perspective… wonder. It’s a way to look at things and say, wow…The more you travel the more you look inwards. Mark Twain said travel is fatal to prejudice. You try to put yourself in a place where you can see things, and let things happen. Where you’re not always in charge, you’re not in control, [you need a] willingness to go with the flow, and understand, you know, you’re in somebody else’s house, somebody else’s country. You’re not in charge…
I find, again and again, just by spending the time, by asking simple questions, people have said the most astonishing things to me.
For a moment, or a second, the pinched expressions of the cynical, world-weary, throat-cutting, miserable bastards we’ve all had to become disappears, when we’re confronted with something as simple as a good plate of food.
- Anthony Bourdain, “Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly”
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Linda and I discovered Tony late in the game just a couple of years ago when we started watching his food/travel show “Parts Unknown” on Netflix. We binge-watched 12 seasons and 104 episodes in less than 4 months! Thanks to Tony we felt like we experienced “virtual travel adventures” around the world with an avant-garde tour guide and culinary advisor. (Although watching the show always made me hungry.) “Parts Unknown” was a double entendre; always looking for the spots the tourists wouldn’t find and not always knowing what part of the animal he was eating. The show was not so much about Tony as a food critic, rather he was an enthusiastic sampler of what each location had to offer, be it haut cuisine in a Michelin star restaurant, street food in a market or a home cooked meal with a local family. Tony was modest, complimentary and always accepting of hospitality. He ate everything that was put in front of him with appreciation and a smile on his face with a side of curiosity (if he was suspicious of its origins).
“Parts Unknown” was billed as a food/travel show but it was actually sociology/entertainment at its best; an ambitious exploration of food, music, art, architecture, politics and culture based on locale. Bourdain never wanted to do what he called a “competent” food program, instead, he wanted to take risks, ask a lot of questions and see where the conversation and tamales took the episode. More than once he told his crew, “…turn off the camera, I just want to have a drink with this person and talk.” Food (and strong alcohol) was often the meeting point for the conversation and connection to begin. After four or five hours of good food, good music and a few too many drinks, how can you not feel like these people who were complete strangers hours ago are now your new friends?
The last four months of covid has had a devastating impact on the food and hospitality sector. Restaurant owners, chefs, staff and patrons alike are adjusting to the current (and future) realities of the food business in a pandemic-prone world. Eateries are currently reopening but it is partial and uneven in many cases and some simply won’t be reopening again. I encourage you to support your favorite local food establishments and express your appreciation with positive food reviews and your dollars. I also encourage you to cook a good meal and eat at home. And even better, share it with a friend or a new friend you just met two hours ago. (socially distanced, of course…)
In the woods, (and I’m still hungry…)
Dave
June 30, 2020
