| I'M NOT A "FOODIE."?Given a choice of a grilled, medium-rare hamburger or a salmon kebob with quinoa and grapefruit salad, I'll take the hamburger every time.?I have zero interest in the fine culinary arts, exotic foods, or exquisite presentation.?I have the dietary proclivities of a ten year old, and I am unrepentant about it.? It stands to reason, then, that I would not like food and cooking shows on television, and by and large, that's true.?I've seen just about all the celebrity chef shows and personalities on The Food Network and wouldn't give you a plugged nickel for most of them.?I have a particular loathing of Emeril Legasse and his endless repetitions of well-past-their-sell-by-date clichs lke "Bam!" and "kick it up a notch!"?And a sure way of raising my blood pressure is to merely mention the name Rachael Ray, who is a talentless, tirelessly self-promoting windbag who apparently won't be satisfied until she's on every television show imaginable pimping her recipe collections and yelling "Yum-O!" every five minutes.? But there is one "celebrity chef" I do find very entertaining.?He doesn't appear on The Food Network anymore but has a mini-series on The Travel Channel that combines food and travel in a unique and entertaining blend.? Anthony Bourdain is a chef's chef.?He revels in the restaurant experience.?At McDonald's, they say that the true veterans in the company have ketchup in their veins.?Bourdain has barnaise sauce or bouillabaisse or something in his veins.?He forged a career the hard way, working his way up the food chain, so to speak, from dishwasher to fry cook to chef, culminating in becoming the executive chef at the outstanding French restaurant in Manhattan, Brasserie Les Halles.? What used to flow in Bourdain's veins wasn't barnaise sauce, but heroin.?He has confessed repeatedly to using a variety of drugs, including heroin and LSD, during his thirty-plus year restaurant career.?He lived a hard life, often working double shifts at the restaurant and then partying hearty in the city that never sleeps.? He first came to prominence in 2000 when he wrote a part-memoir, part- expos book that became a New York Times best-seller, Kitchen Confidential:?Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly.? |
| Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly.?He writes in a personal, witty, sarcastic, and sometimes cynical style, and the book is an entertaining and educational read.?He followed the debut book up with five additional non-fiction books, including a cookbook revealing many of Les Halles' most popular recipes.?His talent for writing is also revealed in three novels.?I've read Bobby Gold, and I heartily recommend it.? My first exposure to Bourdain was through his Food Network show, A Cook's Tour.?Tony traveled around the world filming the show, visiting a number of off-the-beaten-culinary-path sites in Southeast Asia, North Africa, and South America, among others.?The series showed me places I am unlikely to see personally, and his irreverent monologue added an unmistakable flavor to the culinary and cultural portrait of whatever area he was visiting.? The series ran two seasons on The Food Network; The Travel Channel hired Tony to do a similar series on their network entitled No Reservations.?His travels for this show took him to Beirut, Lebanon in 2006.?On the second day of filming, the Israeli-Lebanon conflict broke out, and the harrowing experience of having to be extricated from Beirut with his film crew by U.S. Marines made for a memorable episode, one that was nominated for an Emmy.? I think I've seen every episode of both series at least once.?Tony's a fascinating personality; he's part Beat Generation poet, part punk musician, with an artist's eye for what features bring out the soul of a city or country, bringing it all back to the pursuit of food excellence.? Tony frequently asks a question of other chefs he meets on his travels.?You're going to die tomorrow morning.?What do you have for the last dinner of your life.?The answers he solicits are frequently quite revealing.? Soyou're going to die tomorrow.?What will you have for your final dinner?? -- KMR ? 2008, Kenneth M. Rhodes ? ? |
| ? -- KMR ? 2008, Kenneth M. Rhodes ? ? |
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