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A review by emergencily
A Cook's Tour: Global Adventures in Extreme Cuisines by Anthony Bourdain
5.0
rest in peace to a chainsmoking, shit talking legend. i almost considered dropping the book after the first 1-2 chapters - we all love the guy, but frankly he could be a bit of a dick, and sometimes bought into american chauvinism beyond the ironic sense. his tv show host charisma didn't at first translate as well on page as on the tv screen for me, but i forced myself to keep reading. once i made it to the france chapter where he visits his childhood town with his brother, it made me remember his charms and continue reading with a more forgiving, open mind.
he had a lot of respect and admiration for the people and places he visited. the way he talked about other cultures' food with so much genuine admiration of their knowledge, and open-mindedness to their practices as a white american tv show host in 2001 was probably pretty singular at a time when racist dog eating jokes were commonly accepted as hilarious. he gives other cultures, whose food and practices are often disdained, their flowers. what other white guy in the 2000s was proudly telling the world that vietnamese baguettes could be better than french ones? his philosophy of nothing being put to waste, and of using all the ingredients and cuts of meat that the west turn their nose up at, rings truer than ever today.
i dug up the old 2001 show that he was filming while writing this book to watch in accompaniment, which made it much richer. watching certain sequences was much funnier, knowing that he was so drunk he could barely hide his slur when forced to reshoot establishing shots in russia, or when he got sick out of his mind after eating cow’s head. i've only seen him in CNN's parts unknown when he was much older and jaded, so it was both refreshing and wistful to watch his first show and see him young with a pep in his step and a sparkle in his eye.
i think everyone knows him primarily as a tv show host (apart from being a chef, ofc), but i think he would much rather be identified as a writer than "the guy on TV." his love of writing really shows in this book, and i was surprised by how simply beautiful his prose could be at times. also, he's really fucking funny - he might be even funnier in writing than he is on tv.
he had a lot of respect and admiration for the people and places he visited. the way he talked about other cultures' food with so much genuine admiration of their knowledge, and open-mindedness to their practices as a white american tv show host in 2001 was probably pretty singular at a time when racist dog eating jokes were commonly accepted as hilarious. he gives other cultures, whose food and practices are often disdained, their flowers. what other white guy in the 2000s was proudly telling the world that vietnamese baguettes could be better than french ones? his philosophy of nothing being put to waste, and of using all the ingredients and cuts of meat that the west turn their nose up at, rings truer than ever today.
i dug up the old 2001 show that he was filming while writing this book to watch in accompaniment, which made it much richer. watching certain sequences was much funnier, knowing that he was so drunk he could barely hide his slur when forced to reshoot establishing shots in russia, or when he got sick out of his mind after eating cow’s head. i've only seen him in CNN's parts unknown when he was much older and jaded, so it was both refreshing and wistful to watch his first show and see him young with a pep in his step and a sparkle in his eye.
i think everyone knows him primarily as a tv show host (apart from being a chef, ofc), but i think he would much rather be identified as a writer than "the guy on TV." his love of writing really shows in this book, and i was surprised by how simply beautiful his prose could be at times. also, he's really fucking funny - he might be even funnier in writing than he is on tv.