I never knew Anthony Bourdain, but I felt like I did to an extent. I felt kindred. We both spent a good chunk of our formative years in the back of restaurants and wasting ourselves with unhealthy habits. It took both of us taking up Jiu-jitsu to get ourselves healthy and quit smoking and drinking. His outlook on cooking and Jiu-jitsu were both to the point, pragmatic and not sugar coated. Cooking (like Jiu-jitsu) was something that everyone could do well with time and thought.
“I think it can best explained… at my age to learn a new skill is deeply satisfying. To recreate that feeling of being the lowest person on the Totem pole in a kitchen back when I was 17—knowing nothing in a very hard world. The incremental tiny satisfactions of being a little less awful at something everyday. It’s like that with Jiu-jitsu for me.”
His work always had a genuine and thoughtful feel that felt artistic and important but without the pretension and glitz that most celebrity chefs wrap themselves in. He seemed a natural when enjoying the highest end 4 star Michelin star restaurants in Soho and Manhattan but also could appreciate simple food done well when he was eating noodles on the street in Cambodia or sitting down to a no gimmick burger in rural America. He wanted things to be done well and simple. He wanted things with his name on them to be of a quality and to mean something. He didn't settle.
"Bad food is made without pride, by cooks who have no pride, and no love. Bad food is made by chefs who are indifferent, or who are trying to be everything to everybody, who are trying to please everyone... Bad food is fake food... food that shows fear and lack of confidence in people's ability to discern or to make decisions about their lives."
He certainly had his demons and his struggles in his personal life but he never seemed to pretend he didn't. Unlike many others in the world that did, he made a pretty positive and lasting impact to many, even though it wasn't the case for everyone. I hope his family and friends are able to find some peace soon.
In closing it seems poignant to end with these words of Anthony. “Maybe that’s enlightenment enough: to know that there is no final resting place of the mind; no moment of smug clarity. Perhaps wisdom... is realizing how small I am, and unwise, and how far I have yet to go.”
