I started a seven-year journey through kitchens as a professional pastry cook after reading Kitchen Confidential. I'm not much of a fanatic for anything, but Anthony Bourdain was one of very few...
Exemplary
I started a seven-year journey through kitchens as a professional pastry cook after reading Kitchen Confidential. I'm not much of a fanatic for anything, but Anthony Bourdain was one of very few celebrities I followed enthusiastically.
I cried my eyes out when he died. I felt that in so many ways, he'd been an inspiration and guide to the way food informs and joins humanity; he'd also been a guide to persevering through a profoundly disordered life and spinning it into a brilliant gift for others.
I'm grateful to Eric Ripert and Jose' Andres for moving the focus to Bourdain's birthday. His death hit at a particularly low point for me, and was contributing to the nasty "he couldn't make it, so why should I think I can" thought process that represents a potential suicide trigger.
To celebrate Anthony Bourdain's life is to celebrate cultural globalism and the amazing diversity of ways that people have found to sustain themselves. He showed how myriad cultures embroider every aspect of their lives - family, art, faith, science, diplomacy, and so on, with the fundamental process of preparing food and eating.
As our private memorial, my spouse and I went to our favorite tiny, inconspicuous mom-and-pop Honduran/Guatemalan restaurant and had a baleada feast. This year, to commemorate Bourdain, we found another family-run restaurant specializing in "tacos" of tandoori naan filled with amazing Indian curries.
And these were perfect, jewel-box celebrations, with the private warmth of hospitality and hedonic satisfaction, lively companionship, and reminders of why life is most worth living when you serve, commune with, and delight others.
I love the sentiment from Ripert and Andres here - most people remember the day he died but it is much better to celebrate his birthday, if we are to remember him at all. I'm sure I am not alone...
I love the sentiment from Ripert and Andres here - most people remember the day he died but it is much better to celebrate his birthday, if we are to remember him at all. I'm sure I am not alone in saying that he was hugely inspirational to me, so I won't pass up the opportunity here to acknowledge that even in a small way.
I started working as a dishwasher in a commercial kitchen at 14, and read Kitchen Confidential right around then. He was hugely influential on me as well. I haven't worked in restaurants for more...
I started working as a dishwasher in a commercial kitchen at 14, and read Kitchen Confidential right around then. He was hugely influential on me as well. I haven't worked in restaurants for more than 10 years but re-reading Kitchen Confidential still has a special place in my heart. I did it last year after his death, I'm going to try to do it again over the 4th of July long weekend.
Today would have been Bourdain's birthday, and there's been an enormous outpouring of support and stories about him. Anthony Bourdain Asked Us to Have a Greater Sense of Obligation—to Trauma, to...
Today would have been Bourdain's birthday, and there's been an enormous outpouring of support and stories about him.
I started a seven-year journey through kitchens as a professional pastry cook after reading Kitchen Confidential. I'm not much of a fanatic for anything, but Anthony Bourdain was one of very few celebrities I followed enthusiastically.
I cried my eyes out when he died. I felt that in so many ways, he'd been an inspiration and guide to the way food informs and joins humanity; he'd also been a guide to persevering through a profoundly disordered life and spinning it into a brilliant gift for others.
I'm grateful to Eric Ripert and Jose' Andres for moving the focus to Bourdain's birthday. His death hit at a particularly low point for me, and was contributing to the nasty "he couldn't make it, so why should I think I can" thought process that represents a potential suicide trigger.
To celebrate Anthony Bourdain's life is to celebrate cultural globalism and the amazing diversity of ways that people have found to sustain themselves. He showed how myriad cultures embroider every aspect of their lives - family, art, faith, science, diplomacy, and so on, with the fundamental process of preparing food and eating.
As our private memorial, my spouse and I went to our favorite tiny, inconspicuous mom-and-pop Honduran/Guatemalan restaurant and had a baleada feast. This year, to commemorate Bourdain, we found another family-run restaurant specializing in "tacos" of tandoori naan filled with amazing Indian curries.
And these were perfect, jewel-box celebrations, with the private warmth of hospitality and hedonic satisfaction, lively companionship, and reminders of why life is most worth living when you serve, commune with, and delight others.
I love the sentiment from Ripert and Andres here - most people remember the day he died but it is much better to celebrate his birthday, if we are to remember him at all. I'm sure I am not alone in saying that he was hugely inspirational to me, so I won't pass up the opportunity here to acknowledge that even in a small way.
I started working as a dishwasher in a commercial kitchen at 14, and read Kitchen Confidential right around then. He was hugely influential on me as well. I haven't worked in restaurants for more than 10 years but re-reading Kitchen Confidential still has a special place in my heart. I did it last year after his death, I'm going to try to do it again over the 4th of July long weekend.
Today would have been Bourdain's birthday, and there's been an enormous outpouring of support and stories about him.
Anthony Bourdain Asked Us to Have a Greater Sense of Obligation—to Trauma, to Triumph, and to Food
Bourdain Day Is About Turning Grief Into Celebration, Say the Chefs Who Created It
On the Antarctic Ice With Anthony Bourdain: He didn’t come for the food. He wanted to know about our climate research
How suicide prevention is becoming part of Anthony Bourdain's legacy