Shiny, happy Tony? Sort of.

He's traveled the globe and skewered more than exotic meats in the decade since his testosterone-fueled memoir, “Kitchen Confidential,” made him a hero to chefs everywhere.

Author, “No Reservations” TV show host and former New York chef Anthony Bourdain has become a sort of Kathy Griffin of the culinary world: a no-holds-barred storyteller, comedian, commentator, documentarian and lover and flayer of those who make their living in the food business.

These days, the 54-year-old raconteur is touring the country with a new best-selling book (“Medium Raw”), sitting in as a guest judge on “Top Chef” and doing stand-up shows (including one at the Holland Performing Arts Center on Sept. 11) that bank more on his sharp wit than on his knife skills.

He's also given up cigarettes and settled down with a second wife and a first child, further softening his long-time “bad boy” image.

In a phone interview last month from his home in New York, he talked about his life, his travels and his upcoming visit to an exotic place called Omaha.

Q: So, you're a dad now. Congratulations. How old is your daughter?

A: She turned three in April.

Q: Is that weird? Is it harder to be the “culinary bad boy” when you're somebody's father?

A: I was 44 when “Kitchen Confidential” hit, so I never took the “bad boy” thing that seriously. I'd already stopped a lot of that. . . . And any question of being a bad boy pretty much vaporizes the second you see your daughter's face doing that first turn.

Q: You quit smoking as well. Was that daughter-inspired?

A: Yeah. That was for no other reason. I was 50 when I had my first and only child. I feel a grudging responsibility to at least make an effort to live.

Q: How do you think traveling the world has changed you?

A: I think I'm more tolerant. Maybe a little more understanding, a little more hopeful. Much more humble or appreciative. I mean, I don't know whether (that shows) outwardly, but in my heart I feel very grateful always and very humbled by what I see. You feel very small when you see how big the world is and how hard other people work and how hard they struggle to get by. And grateful. I know how lucky I am.

Q: You've eaten all over the world, in temples of haute cuisine and in tents without silverware. If you had to pick a handful of meals, places or ingredients you'd do again in a heartbeat, what would they be?

A: Well, Italy — just eating at a very humble, local agriturismo in Italy or Sardinia makes me very happy. Street food in Vietnam. High-end sushi. Some good French cheese. That makes me happy.

Q: What's comfort food for you? What's the thing you want that you can't get when you're traveling?

A: When I'm away a long time — even if I'm eating really, really well — I miss a good New York pastrami sandwich.

Q: Do you get to cook much, even at home, these days?

A: Yeah. I'll cook a little pasta tonight. I'll probably be pan-roasting some steaks, maybe cooking a little calf's liver.

Q: Ah, calf's liver, the favorite meal of every three-year-old!

A: She has unusual tastes for a kid. We didn't mean to make her a foodie or anything. But you know, my wife's Italian. We spend a lot of time in Italy. The grandparents are Italian as well. So what my daughter sees on the table is, I guess, unusual for a lot of kids. She likes raw oysters and lobster, pecorino, anchovies, things like that. I mean she'll eat hotdogs and grilled cheese sandwiches, like any other kid, too, but she's been known to grab some pretty unusual things off the table and eat them and like them. . . . Who knows what she'll be like when she's six.

Q: You've done about 100 episodes of “No Reservations,” each one exploring the culture of a different city or region, at least partly through its food. When you head off for each new show, what are you after — to really capture a place, to find something unusual, to find a good story?

A: I'm looking to have a good time. To satisfy my curiosity about the world. To satisfy me and my camera crew and my camera crew's sort of cinematic obsessions. A lot of times we'll see a movie by a Chinese director with an amazing look to it and we'll go looking for a place where we can make a show that looks like that. Other times it's a historical obsession. Other times . . . someone sits at a bar and tells me, ‘Hey, you gotta go to Panama. It's really cool.' It's really not thought through.

Q: Fear, anger and the adrenaline rush of the kitchen seemed to drive you in the days you memorialize in “Kitchen Confidential.” What drives you these days?

A: I think still a lot of rage. . . . Righteous anger and curiosity in equal measure. And a passion for things.

Q: In the new book, “Medium Raw,” you mention you're no longer angry at restaurant customers. Why not?

A: I think the customers have changed a lot. . . . I grew up in a generation of cooks where you were punished for cooking good food. If you cooked it as well as you could or the way you believed it should be cooked, you were more often than not punished for that. It was rejected and you were punished, insulted, offended or fired. God help you if you tried to serve octopus or rare tuna or tripe or anything like that. Now you can get away with that. And people are interested. People are better informed. People care what the chef thinks they should eat. That's a huge shift — and a good one.

Q: But you say you're still angry. What about?

A: (Squeal in the background.) Hold on a second. (Bourdain to daughter: “I'll have my cheesecake after, OK, sweetie? I'm on the phone.”) She made me imaginary cheesecake. (Laughing.)

Q: That's adorable.

A: What am I still mad about? . . . I'm like a lot of chefs: Attack my friends or people I respect, you've attacked me. I'm loyal in that regard. Willful dishonesty, you know, willful ignorance, willful corruption to the detriment of perfectly good chefs angers me. I definitely felt obliged or free (in the new book) to call out a couple of people who I felt have victimized my friends for a long time. I'm in a position now. I have no reputation to protect. There's no way they can hurt me.

Q: How do you feel about your own celebrity? Is it something you still struggle with?

A: It's something I've kind of come to terms with. That's what a lot of the (new) book is about, making it official: I'm just not a chef anymore. I can't honestly sit down with a table of chefs and pretend that I'm one of them anymore. I'm not stinking of food at the end of the day. I don't feel the physical pains. I don't have callouses on my hands anymore. And I don't miss that. I'm living a good life that I'm very grateful for. What I am conflicted about is: When your whole adult life you identify work as being a physically exhausting thing involving working with your hands and your legs and your back, under pressure, as a team activity, there is a sense that this is somehow not honest toil, what I'm doing now. Writing or making television, for me, feel relatively easy compared to standing on my feet 14 hours a day.

Q: The culinary world has changed a lot in the last decade. Where do you think it's headed? What will your daughter be eating when she goes to college?

A: I don't know. I know ingredients are going to be a lot more expensive and scarcer. I do very much like the trend toward the democratization of fine dining, meaning good ingredients, cooked very well but at more reasonable prices and served in a very convivial and casual environment. I think that's a very productive, positive development. Food trucks, I think is a great thing. I hope that expands — you know, independently owned and operated food stands and carts or little mom-and-pop hawker stands. I'd love to see more of that.

Q: You talk a bit about the demise of fine dining. Do you see an expiration date on the three-hour dinner?

A: I expect and I hope there will always be room for a few masters of the form. My own ability to enjoy that kind of meal is waning. And I feel really bad about that. I mean there's something seriously wrong with you if you cannot enjoy yourself at a Thomas Keller restaurant. But I do think the direction of dining now, certainly in Paris, is toward more casual, quicker and cheaper without any diminution of quality.

Q: If celebrity Tony Bourdain could meet up with the cook Tony Bourdain who wrote “Kitchen Confidential,” what would the cook say?

A: I don't know. I think I would have listened to myself then. But if I could go back and talk to myself at 17 or even 22 and try to change my behavior, I would reject my own advice. I would say, “Screw you, Pops. I don't care. I'm going to take all the same mistakes right over again.” I can't complain. It has turned out pretty well. I'm on my third life, at least.

Q: So, tell me about the stage shows. How long have you been doing them? What will you do in Omaha?

A: It's been a few years now. ... I do 30 or 40 of them a year. Generally, I just walk out on stage. It's just me and a microphone. And I start talking for an hour, and hopefully it's funny and entertaining and occasionally informative. And then I open up the floor to questions from the audience, and we talk for basically as long as people want to keep going.

Q: Any chance you will bring your buddy, chef Eric Ripert, along? I noticed that he shares the billing on some of your tour dates.

A: No. Yeah, he's not booked for Omaha, sadly. But he'll be in the 100th episode (of “No Reservations” on Monday night.) He's co-starring with me. We go to Paris together.

Q: Sounds like fun. Any other projects in the works?

A: I have a graphic novel coming out next year with DC Comics. I think it's going to be called “Get Gyro.” It's about ultraviolent food nerds. It's a gourmet slaughterfest, sort of like “Fistful of Dollars” meets “Eat Drink Man Woman.”

Q: And are you writing any new fiction these days?

A: Yeah, the next book will be a crime novel, just to take a break from writing and talking about myself. I think that will be a healthy departure.

Q: What's the plot?

A: It's displaced New Yorkers in the Caribbean doing bad things to each other. Food will be involved.

Contact the writer:

444-1069, nichole.aksamit@owh.com

p.s. Don't miss "Where Tony should eat in Omaha" and "Local chefs' takes on Bourdain" in the "related" links at the top right of this page.

« Food & Dining

Share