I took my time reading this book as I wanted to completely soak in the entire life story of Anthony Bourdain. And now I’m eagerly waiting to watch No Reservations, Parts Unknown and A Cook’s Tour (if anyone has a Voot subscription, there’s never been a better time to get in touch with me).
An introduction to the people mentioned in the title, for those of you who lived under a rock in June, 2018: Anthony Bourdain was a celebrity chef, travel documentarian and the best-selling author of Kitchen Confidential. Being the absolute best at two things in life is rare, and being able to combine both those skills into a breathtaking experience is beyond extraordinary. Anthony’s insane ability to express himself in a way that puts the reader in his shoes and the shoes of the people working in the hectic kitchens of high-end restaurants got him popularity in his first ever New Yorker essay, “Don’t Eat Before Reading This“. Laurie Woolever has had the pleasure of working with Anthony Bourdain as a co-author for two books – Appetites: A Cookbook in 2016 and World Travel: An Irreverent Guide in 2021.
‘Bourdain in Stories’ is a biography presented in the form of interviews with the various people in Tony’s life. A few names that people may recognise are Nigella Lawson and Dave Chang. The interviews are structured in a way that a specific moment in the life of Bourdain can be simultaneously viewed from the many angles of close friends, coworkers and family. This is important, because each and everyone’s perspective about a person is different, and also the way one person interacts with various people may not be the same.
For people familiar with his story, his entire life journey can be divided into two parts: before Kitchen Confidential and post his well-deserved fame for uncovering the truths of the culinary industry for everyone to know. In the pre-Kitchen Confidential years, the reader is taken through the story of his childhood days with the help of in-depth interviews with Tony’s mom (Gladys Bourdain) and brother (Christopher Bourdain), followed by his days in Vassar College and his early days as a chef as well as his struggles with addiction. I had read Kitchen Confidential a long time back and still remember falling in love with his writing style. I promised myself that I’d buy and read his cookbooks as well, as soon as I could afford to, and hopefully that day is coming soon.
In the post Kitchen Confidential part of Bourdain’s life, the reader learns about how he landed his first food documentary show, A Cook’s Tour. Stories about life on the road, all the highs of the adventures and the lows of days on end without spending time with your family. Instances where he couldn’t just walk into a restaurant for a quick meal without being greeted by crowds of fans, and a round of quick pictures with everyone there. Stories about the intensity of the TV show shooting life, and the drama that happens behind the scenes. Stories about the intensity with which Anthony committed to things, be it work or love.
The pace of the book is slow, almost as slow as sitting and watching these interviews occur in front of you. And though the format of the book is interesting, it does become repetitive in cases where the people in Bourdain’s life felt more or less the same way about him. It also tends to get conflicting at times, and that makes it difficult to gain as much clarity about Bourdain as one would from a brief and tightly-drafted biography written by one author alone.
Halfway through the book I found myself completely ignoring the names of the people being interviewed and just focusing on the content (but maybe that’s just me). Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely do not feel that this book should have been shorter or needed editing, I could go on reading about Bourdain all my life. However, the reading experience wasn’t as good as I was expecting it to be.
Now that I’m done griping about the book, let’s get to a small summary of quotes I liked from the book, quotes that made me say “Relate max!” and underline them for future reference:
He (Tony) wasn’t the kind of teenager who ran away. He just wanted to be everywhere, but he was home for dinner every night.
Gladys Bourdain, mom
Tony was somebody whom I considered 100 percent trustworthy. He would never betray a friend. He would never hurt another person. He had a very keen sense of right and wrong, in the way that matters. Not, ‘Oh, I can’t break that rule’, but ‘Be a decent human being’. I never saw him hurt anyone with his words or his actions. He could be very cutting, but he would never pick on someone who was vulnerable.
Helen Lang, college friend
He’d really picked up the classic French idea of “the job must get done” no matter what, no matter how you feel or what’s going on.
Alex Getmanov, a.k.a. Dimitri in Kitchen Confidential, kitchen colleague
Before I forget, this book is a good book to read after you read Kitchen Confidential, because you get some insider snippets which are hidden / disguised in Kitchen Confidential. The inside scoop, if you must call it that for the sake of a pun. More importantly, you get to know Tony as more than just an incredible writer whose content is brutal, irreverant, yet honest and fun: also as a vulnerable human being who loved a good story and a good meal.
Tony… was so much more multi-dimensional than just your average chef. He was just so much broader than that. He had his interest in literature, and culture, and life in general… he wasn’t from New York, but he just embodied that global citizen thing, before he had all his stamps on his passport…
Hillary Snyder, kitchen colleague
There’s all these letters from young Tony to Joel Rose (writing collaborator), where he’s so fucking hungry… I’ve gotten these emails from people. I used to write these emails myself. It’s the young writer who is trying to sound brash and casual, but actually is super needy and wants affirmation. Playing it cool, but hitting the jokes a little too hard. And he’s all those things that I didn’t associate with Tony, but he was that guy.
Patrick Radden Keefe, writer
The stories were so good, and they were so polished. They were the kinds of stories that he had clearly told a thousand times to friends; they were tested the way a comedian tests a set, you know, over and over. The beats were there, and the moments were all there. The editing was fun. There were no structural, fundamental changes that had to be made.
Panio Gianopolous, book editor on editing and publishing Kitchen Confidential
Ninety percent of applicants in the restaurant business, in the last ten years, have Anthony Bourdain to thank for going into that job.
Fred Morin, ched-restaurateur
The more you travel, you come back home, and you feel like you don’t speak the same language. You’ve had these interesting experiences, and for everybody else, it’s just been another week that’s passed. And maybe they went out to dinner, or saw a movie, or whatever it was they did during that week, but in that week you’ve gone to, say, Kashmir, and you’ve shot all this stuff, and had all these interesting experiences. And there’s a disconnect, and at certain times your friends kind of fall away, because you’re never around, and then, when you come back, the stuff that they’ve been doing just seems mundane, and it’s hard to connect.
Anderson Cooper, CNN anchor
I think he had more stories to tell than time to tell them.
Karen Rinaldi, editor and publisher
The last paragraph of this book is a tribute written by Ariane Bourdain, Tony’s daughter, which is heartfelt and touching and a perfect way to wrap up this book. The way Ariane describes the times she spent with her dad made me mist up a bit.
Apart from the above brief glimpse of what you’re signing up for when you buy a copy of this book, there are a few standard things left for me to cover. Yes, there is a list of all the people mentioned in the book, and yes, there’s an index to identify and read through everything that a particular person has said in the book. And yes, there are coloured photos in the book of various moments in Bourdain’s life.
All in all, the collation of narratives was obviously a tedious task, so full props to Laurie Woolever for that. It wasn’t the experience I was expecting, but a beautiful one nevertheless.
Mithila Menezes 
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