Anthony Bourdain’s new season of “No reservations” started last week on Travel Channel. First episode was Singapore. The material wasn’t exactly new, since the ‘die die must try’ Singaporean Makan was already covered in his book “Nasty Bits”.
I absolutely dig Anthony Bourdain. He is raw, in-your-face and has no tolerance for BS. Other TV food personnel are often the butt of his jokes, Rachel Ray, Bobby Flay, Emeril Lagasse to name a few. I started watching Bourdain’s show when he was still with Food Network and doing an half hour show called “A Cook’s Tour”. I read some of his books (the non-fiction ones), Kitchen Confidential, A Cooks Tour and Nasty Bits. Some fascinating stories were told and it was an eye opening experience into the ‘underbelly’ of the culinary world and different cultures around the world. Bourdain is a CIA graduate and has bounced around NY restaurant scene for many years before he was made head chef, and later executive chef of Les Halles in Manhattan. Sometime after he realize his age and mental state is no longer fit for the daily grind in the kitchen, he started doing shows for Food Network and later for Discovery/Travel Channel. He travels around the world with a TV crew and make a show out of his travel log and him trying local delicacies as well as some not so appetizing stuff. Traveling, exploring different cuisines and get paid? Wow, where do I send my job application? I might just pull a Radical Sabbatical!
Note on the Singapore episode: Bourdain declared Singapore his favorite place to Makan, due to the nice mix of Indian, Chinese, Malaysian and Indonesian cuisine. But how could he, a native Newyawker, say that when NYC is the biggest melting pot of all cuisines from all over the world, done by the people from those region???
I absolutely dig Anthony Bourdain. He is raw, in-your-face and has no tolerance for BS. Other TV food personnel are often the butt of his jokes, Rachel Ray, Bobby Flay, Emeril Lagasse to name a few. I started watching Bourdain’s show when he was still with Food Network and doing an half hour show called “A Cook’s Tour”. I read some of his books (the non-fiction ones), Kitchen Confidential, A Cooks Tour and Nasty Bits. Some fascinating stories were told and it was an eye opening experience into the ‘underbelly’ of the culinary world and different cultures around the world. Bourdain is a CIA graduate and has bounced around NY restaurant scene for many years before he was made head chef, and later executive chef of Les Halles in Manhattan. Sometime after he realize his age and mental state is no longer fit for the daily grind in the kitchen, he started doing shows for Food Network and later for Discovery/Travel Channel. He travels around the world with a TV crew and make a show out of his travel log and him trying local delicacies as well as some not so appetizing stuff. Traveling, exploring different cuisines and get paid? Wow, where do I send my job application? I might just pull a Radical Sabbatical!
Note on the Singapore episode: Bourdain declared Singapore his favorite place to Makan, due to the nice mix of Indian, Chinese, Malaysian and Indonesian cuisine. But how could he, a native Newyawker, say that when NYC is the biggest melting pot of all cuisines from all over the world, done by the people from those region???
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