The Omnivore's Agenda: An Interview with Anthony Bourdain

[marmar]

from Mother Jones:



....(snip)....

Mother Jones: It seems odd that a chef could come out of a punk-rock sensibility, if being a chef is all about taking orders from customers and more senior chefs.

Anthony Bourdain: There are people with otherwise chaotic and disorganized lives, a certain type of person that's always found a home in the restaurant business in much the same way that a lot of people find a home in the military. They're looking for order in their lives. They're looking for absolutes. They're looking for a quantifiable kind of statistics—a way to measure whether they're doing well or badly. They're looking for a group whose respect they want and crave. Call it a family or a military hierarchy. Everything important I learned, I learned as a dishwasher.

MJ: It also seems kind of counterintuitive that cooking shows would become so popular. After all, the viewers on the couch can't taste or smell the food. What do you attribute this trend to?

AB: People like looking at food. I think it's a sensual experience. People will relate it back to their own personal memories. But ultimately it's become a form of popular entertainment, a human drama like any other. Will Contestant No. 1 burn their hands and have their dreams shattered and go back to Palookaville, or not? Chef friends and I debate all the time: Why us? Why now? How did this happen? They never cared about us before. I grew up at a time when you'd see a movie first and then go to dinner and talk about movies. Now, people just go right to dinner and talk about the next dinner they're having, or the dinner they had last week.

MJ: So, after 100 episodes of No Reservations, are you worried you'll run out of material and be parsing the food of the greater Duluth area?

AB: No. I could do one show after another in China for the rest of my life and still die ignorant. There's a lot of places left to go. We're doing a Congo show next year. It's a big world with lots of great stuff in it. ............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://motherjones.com/environment/2010/09/interview-anthony-bourdain

[Xipe Totec]

1. That man would eat the ass off of a galloping rhino nt

[Raine]

2. Yeah really

:puke: I can't stomach his show.

[Xipe Totec]

3. I meant that as a compliment

:evilgrin:

I kid! I kid!

:rofl:

[Subdivisions]

4. I absolutely love his show. I learn so much about other cultures and

about the food other cultures eat. For instance yesterday he was in Britagne, France. I spent 2 hours during and afterwards exploring Brittany in Google Earth, looking at where he had been and at the pictures posted on there. By the time I was finished, I felt cheated that I had not been born and raised there.

[Lucian]

5. He's got the best job in the world.

He gets to travel, eat, and talk philosophy, and get paid to do it.