Watching the Food Network channel, I must admit, is one of my favourite pastimes. But when you combine food with travel, and set your sights on the untested realms of cooking and deeply foreign foods in random countries – now that gets me excited.
Anthony Bourdain is thereby one of my all time heroes and favourite chefs – daring to step out, explore, and try things that even my chicken-feet-eating Chinese parents wouldn’t try. He’s a rugged, highly controversial, intuitive, and gutsy kind of guy, and here’s his story.
Born in New York City, Bourdain grew up in New Jersey. It was an oyster that was his first inspiration and the beginning of his journey of love for food. He graduated from the Culinary Institute of America and began working in New York City. He is first and foremost a chef, a critic, a writer, a documentary host, a journalist – all in one, and it is his flexibility and mottled range of skills that have brought him into the spotlight.
In a series aired on the Food Network: “A Cook’s Tour,” Bourdain was documented travelling and trying a range of “unique” foods. When in Morocco, he ate sheep’s testicles which is also called “animelles” and is considered a delicacy. While taking part in an Inuit seal hunt, he ate a raw seal eyeball. In Vietnam, he consumed a whole live cobra: with a beating heart, blood, bile, and the rest. Add to the list: warthog rectum in Namibia, fermented shark in Iceland, and ant eggs in Mexico.
His book, “Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly” was released in 2000 and tells about his experiences of what goes on behind the scenes in the kitchen of a restaurant, full of dark and gritty details. It was a New York Times Bestseller. He’s also been known to put down several other celebrity chefs, including Rachael Ray, Emeril Lagasse, Jamie Oliver, and Sandra Lee.
However, the chefs that he is known to respect and admire are:
- Thomas Keller (French Laundry in Yountville found in Napa Valley, California)
- Masa Takayama (Masa in New York City)
- Ferran Adria (El Bulli in Roses, Spain) – one of the top restaurants in the world next to chef Heston Blumenthal’s (The Fat Duck in Bray-on-Thames, UK)
- Gordon Ramsay (Restaurant Gordon Ramsay in London, UK)
His favourite chefs list is impressive and informs that his eating preferences are not only exceptionally bold and courageous – but that they are also fine-tuned and distinct as far as fine dining goes.
For his blog through the Travel Channel, visit: http://anthony-bourdain-blog.travelchannel.com/