What Anthony Bourdain taught us about food (and about style)

Anthony Michael Bourdain’s culinary awakening came when he was just a child, when he ate oysters for the first time during a family holiday in France. That experience so profoundly touched his deepest soul that he came to devote most of his life to food and related creative endeavours. His article “Don’t Eat Before Reading This” was published by The New Yorker in 1999. In it, Bourdain revealed in great detail what went on behind the scenes in the kitchens of New York City’s star restaurants. His respected position in the culinary world meant that this groundbreaking article also added weight to Bourdain’s subsequent writing.

BOURDAIN THE PERFECTIONIST

Our first, most lasting memory of Anthony Bourdain was his clear and in-depth overview of how to use garlic when cooking. How to slice the cloves paper-thin, like they do in the film Goodfellas, and heat them with solemn care without burning them. And how using a reprehensible garlic press ought to be grounds for a whipping. Bourdain’s account of how and why you should use shallots persuaded this author to swear his way through the laborious and time-consuming peeling of these small oval delicacies. Combined with variety of other root vegetables and spices, they slowly reduce into a homemade demi glace that instantly elevates any dish.

THE AUTHOR AND THE ARTISTIC SOUL

Both episodes were passages in Bourdain’s book Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly. In it, the author offers an in-depth, autobiographical account of his life in the kitchens of the world’s most exclusive restaurants. He recounts how his heroin-addicted baker, in the midst of his most heaviest high, called Bourdain and begged him to save his barrel of sourdough. How Bourdain himself spent days in a cold room, where he and his colleague, high on LSD, created a spectacular dinner featuring hand-carved sculptures of mushrooms. For such was his life: Filled with extreme passion and the ingenious personality that took Anthony Bourdain all the way to the top, heading up the kitchens of such top New York restaurants as The Supper Club, One Fifth Avenue and Sullivan’s. He eventually became head chef at Brasserie Les Halles, in 1998.



Books became TV series, and Bourdain also worked as a producer and travelled the world for his series A Cook’s Tour: Global Adventures in Extreme Cuisines, which later became a book. It was highly demanding life lived at a furious pace, balanced by the continuous use of various drugs, which led to the fate that has met so many other ambitious superstars. On 8 June 2018, Anthony Bourdain took his own life in a hotel room in Kayserberg, France. However, it should be noted that it has been established that Bourdain’s death was not drug-related.

THE PARAGON OF STYLE

We choose to remember Bourdain as the trailblazer who lit up the world with his warm humour and cold, hard truths about cooking, all while clad in an old worn canvas or suede jacket, glasses from Persol, boots and a t-shirt. At the time of writing, the documentary Roadrunner, about Anthony Bourdain’s life and work, has recently been released. Until you’ve seen it, we encourage you to read Bourdain’s books, and be inspired by his straightforward, honest style. The central building blocks of his look are worn jeans, high-quality watches like Panerai Radiomir or Rolex Datejust, heavy shoes or sneakers, and sunglasses (like his trademark Persol 0649s). So what has Anthony Bourdain taught us about clothing style? That just as with food, uncomplicated ingredients of the best quality and workmanship, combined with honesty and knowledge, create unforgettable experiences that the world will not soon forget.