Reading this book

>reading this book
>literally admits to carrying around holstered nunchuks and a katana on a daily basis during college
>thinks he's a legend because he pulled off some amateur-at-best feat of pastry work when he was a caterer (basically made seafood stew in a bread bowl except maybe 20x larger)
>writes like an edgy teenager
>hurr durr never fuck with a cooks towels
>hurr durr if you mince garlic then you are a peasant
>hurr durr if your saucepan isnt heavy enough to kill someone then its a piece of shit
>hurr durr japanese knives are best knives and everyything else sucks

is this guy the original fedora or what

sounds like you either didn't read the book, or you went into the book hating bordain and blocked out anything humble about the guy.

It's entertaining but yea into a writing is a verbose to the point of cringeyness and its pretty annoying how on his show he constantly tries to act like this wordly, well informed traveler when you can tell down he's just some baby boomer shitlib.

Either way, his show is pretty entertaining, he gives different countries a fair shake and I generally like the stuff he puts out.

Why would anyone go into this as a biography about this chucklefuck, instead of picking up on literally every thing else like the amusing anecdotes about the characters and industry, which make it a good read? And you're only about 1/3 of the way in.

That being said, don't read A Chef's Travel or anything by him other than this book. Now THAT'S some self-serving, fart-sniffing bullshit.

He was definitely paid off to endorse Global knives, and yes, his entire shtick in the book that made him a celebrity was to be a complete edge lord, but the part about kitchen towels is completely legitimate. If you've ever worked in a busy restaurant kitchen you'd know that kitchen rags are a coveted resource, and not having one when you need one is fucking death - especially knowing full well that the guy next to you probably has a couple stashed away but will deny it, despite helping you out in every other possible way.

Basically this. I figured out where all the dickheads would hoard and hide all the towels and now raid them on the regular I have collected at least a month of rags and nobody has even noticed. Its almost a game lmfao

It's too bad the show with Bradley Cooper didn't make it. It's actually pretty good. Only like 10 episodes so it's easy to get through and actually kind of funny.

He's a product of his time, place and the accident of his birth. And he's also such a dinosaur that you really can't judge him by today's standards.

He was an upper middle class kid with European family who grew up speaking French and going there for vacations. He was a soft suburban kid who dreamed of being a badass. And his first experience with people he considered badasses was in a kitchen, so that's where he went. He was very into the rock and roll aesthetic, so sex, drugs and rock and roll became his credo when he moved to NYC, which was still a tough town and a bit of a shithole back then. So he developed the attitude most old school New Yorkers had st the time as both a badge of honor and a means of survival. And he made his living for years in the very absolutist worlds of French and Italian fine dining.

The fact that he fancied himself a writer on the side was what made him a celebrity just at the point where he was really aging out of the game. By 2000 the celebrity chef was a thing, and NYC was becoming more and more genteel. The time was perfect for a memoir/expose of the cocaine fueled craziness that occurred in the back of house in fine dining establishments during the 80's and 90's. And he was the former junkie with delusions of grandeur to write it.

Then it turned out that the camera loved him, and a new career was born.

Truth be told I love the guy, but his moment has kinda passed. He stopped being in line with the zeitgeist a decade ago. Pop culture moves fast. Now he's kind of a relic.

My feelings exactly.

What the fuck are you doing on Veeky Forums? You're a good writer. Go do something with your life, and get the fuck out of here.

>Implying everyone is like you and does nothing with their life except constantly post on Veeky Forums

If you mince garlic you ARE a peasant

PEASANT KEK PEASANT KEK PEASANT KEK

He's not all that far off. I used to be a food writer, then got into other things. I do burn off a lot of the energy I used to put into food writing posting here, probably way more than I should. And the wife does give me some grief about it.
lol, thanks!

>a bit of a shithole back then
>back then

He was a spoiled rich kid, and his first time ever being around poor/lower class people was when he worked in a kitchen. This led him to believe that kitchens are crazy places to work filled with rebel badasses when in reality most workers in fields comprised of poor/lower class all behave in a similar fashion.

he's also a nu-male sadly

You sound like a spoiled rich kid

>nu-male

Oh and I bet you're an "old-male", right? Fuck off and kill yourself

the proper term would be neo-male since I follow the neo masculinity ideas.

though the concept is not quite used because being a neo-male is just being normal, on the other hand the nu-male is the feminized white guilty craft beer drinker single mother married version of a man.

You have no idea. !980's NYC was a total shithole. You had to step over junkies on the street, you had a good chance of getting mugged, and putting up an asshole tough guy front was a matter of self preservation. It was kinda fun in the 90's, but since the early 2000's it's pretty much become a playground for the rich, with a few token projects and a ring of immigrant neighborhoods.

It's a fucking lovely place to be if you have a lot of money or live in one of those immigrant neighborhoods (or both). Especially in terms of food. Anything you could want is here if you know where to look and/or can afford the cost of entry.

And because there's so much money floating around here you can get paid for doing things no one would actually pay you for in other places. I make decent money and I don't even have a fucking job. I just chase after shit that interests me in the music, food and wine businesses, and as long as I remember to invoice people for the shit I do the money comes in. There aren't too many places in America where you can live like that. I haven't had a job since 1996, yet I've been around the world a couple times, own my apartment, have a couple gold records on the wall, have had my food writing published AND still do the list for a local (and very successful) wine bar. This life couldn't really exist anywhere else. And if I want to piss a day away posting here I still can.

Fucking love New York.

KYS

not the nigger you replied to either

>Gold Records

PLEASE dude do elaborate

have you ever, by chance, listened to the "No New York" compilation?

I'm a craft beer drinking product of a single mother and I would curb stomp a fat beta like you, keep trying way too hard with your buzzwords champ

>if you are verbose you are bad
dog, theyre just words dog. calm down.

I agree but I don't have a problem with relics, who gives a fuck what the innovators and early adopters are doing? just because I like an old thing doesn't mean I have to not like new things.

Rather stay user, though there's enough information is my post to figure out who I am if someone had nothing better to do. Let's just say I was on the NYC music scene in the early 2000's. Didn't get rich, but made a living. Then while I watched most of my peers move out of the city I just bought a cheap place in an immigrant neighborhood, rekindling my love affair with the city. (And cutting my monthly nut down to so little that earning a living is a matter of working when I feel like it).

Agreed. I'm just a little concerned for Tony, because it looks like he's throwing everything he's got at the giant Westside food court thing, and he may be out of step with the times on that. Batali beat him to the punch years ago with the Eataly thing. And the Westside already has a food court destination in the form of both the Chelsea Market and Gotham Market. Will a $60 million international food market serving Hainanese chicken rice cut it on Pier 57?

I wish him the best, but this could be a spectacular disaster.

>giant Westside food court
no idea what any of that is. last I heard he was just fucking around with a show on craftsmen. maybe it will be awful, I dont know, but I try not to worry about someones financial situation like bordain. They get to do so much more than me and if they blow it its only going to be their fault. Bourdain knows how risky the restaurant buisness is.

I like his work and we have some mutual friends, so I root for the guy. And from where I'm sitting I can't tell if building a 100,000 sq ft, $60 million hawker-inspired food court on Pier 57 is visionary or pure hubris. Or both. I just wish him luck with it, and will sure as fuck check it out if he manages to pull it off.

alright, if you wanna stay user that's cool. I feel the exact same way.

what kind of work do you do now? obviously you're not employed, but I really would love to live a lifestyle similiar to this maybe in twenty, thirty years.

what's the most important thing? the connects/ your network? your skills/resume/experience? how'd you even get into food writing? how does one get published?

who is the greatest NY rapper and why is it Big L, not Nas, Rakim or Biggie, who might be the best rapper of all time? how was NY in the 80s? were you deep into the scene?

and now for the last question which I could not omit: ever done heroin? If so, was it worth it?

I really doubt it friend, and if anything the beta is you, acting this mad and feeling offended just because I expressed my personal views.

We live in completely different worlds, and yours sounds awful.

>U MAD? xD
>lmao TRIGGERED!
>hurr

all he said is that he could fuck you up. i'm betting a hunna bucks you're a scrawny piece of shit manlet.

I enjoyed this book, but I'm also a huge fan of his travel shows and extremely envious of that lifestyle. That said, Bourdain is and always has been a bit of a pompous, arrogant prick, and that generally comes through in his writing. If you don't like his television personality, you probably won't like his books.

>Bourdain is and always has been a bit of a pompous, arrogant prick
That's why I can identify with him so well, methinks.

It's honestly why I like him. He doesn't fuck around with pomp and circumstance, but he's extremely polite and respectful in general.

>what kind of work do you do now?
I'm in the producer's chair most of the time now. Still play a little. I know enough people in the music business that someone is always working on something, and sometimes I get the call to work on it with them.
>how'd you even get into food writing?
Always was a home cook and food nerd. Did the blog thing, then ran some ideas by a journalist friend who hooked me up with a gig at his paper.
>the best rapper of all time?
I'm much more of a rock guy than hip hop.
>how was NY in the 80s?
Dangerous, but the rent was much cheaper.
>were you deep into the scene?
My "scene" was East Village in the 90's and early 2000's.
>ever done heroin?
Only snorted.
>was it worth it?
If puking and then nodding off is your thing then it's great. Drinking and blow were more my thing back in the day. After burying a number of friends who miscalculated their drug use now I just drink.

Nothing wrong with good vocabulary senpai it's just misused and comes off as cheesy. Hearing him narrate his show, while entertaining, sounds like listening to that one kid who was clearly better at English than the rest of the class so he used a whole bunch of big words in his essay even though they don't add anything to the story or his point.

>I'm in the producer's chair most of the time now. Still play a little. I know enough people in the music business that someone is always working on something, and sometimes I get the call to work on it with them.

that's cool. producing ain't easy, mastering and mixing sure as fuck isn't, but i reckon creating something that goes on to go gold is a feeling that makes it all worth it.

>Always was a home cook and food nerd. Did the blog thing, then ran some ideas by a journalist friend who hooked me up with a gig at his paper.

alright, i guess it's time for me to start!

>I'm much more of a rock guy than hip hop.

whaddya like, anonymous stranger? we can play the exact same game if you're into that: what's the best NY rock band and why is it The Velvet Underground? I will also take Sonic Youth and Talking Heads as an answer, but that's it!

you familiar with Swans or the no-wave scene in general?

>Only snorted.

me personally i'm deathly afraid of putting shit into my veins. never gon happen.

>If puking and then nodding off is your thing then it's great. Drinking and blow were more my thing back in the day. After burying a number of friends who miscalculated their drug use now I just drink.

cocaine would never be my thang, much too expensive. i dig anything psychedelic, opiates and, most of all, regular ole weed.

I'm sorry you where traumatized as a child by your autism when someone was too good at english around you and started using fancy smanchy words. I suggest getting the autistic help you need because ordinary people do not care about someones word choice as long as they are not an asshole.

Agreed. It's weird cause he has this subtle-ness to his arrogance and he somehow manages to come of as a likeable guy more often than not.

The Johnny Thunders solo stuff was great, too. As for drugs I have no real nostalgia for those days. Too many people I knew and loved/liked either died or almost fucking died because of that stuff. Some really good people died way before their time over stupid shit. Actually makes me kinda angry, and thankful at the same time that I wasn't one of them.

Good luck with the food writing. If you're anything like me you'll probably end up writing something OK to start with, then make it good by reducing the word count by nearly half. (Because if you don't your editor sure as fuck will).

what do you think of the strokes?