Image via Complex Original
Often misunderstood, Anthony Bourdain is one of Hollywood’s most mischaracterized and contradicting personas. He’s lazy yet busy, iconoclastic yet conforming, and charming yet extremely arrogant. Unabashed and willing to speak his mind, and most often crudely, he has positioned himself against a number of food critics and TV personalities including Rachael Ray and Paula Deen.
Besides serving up some of television’s finest food and travel shows, he also boasts an impressive cooking repertoire, once serving as the executive chef of a New York fine restaurant. Despite the notorious attention for his crude behavior, he is as real as it gets. Here is a man who readily acknowledges that nearly 30 years ago he was working on the clock at New York’s finest restaurants but now prefers to host some of TV's best travel series like CNN's Parts Unknown.
To understand Bourdain's confounding personality a little better, here are 25 things you didn’t known about Anthony Bourdain.
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25. Anthony Bourdain loves when his daughter sings Katy Perry.
It seems that the power of fatherhood has allowed him to see the beguiling charm in his daughter singing Katy Perry. Underneath the megalomaniac and slightly exhibitionist attitude is a sensitive guy deep down. "One of my biggest joys is actually watching her singing along to Katy Perry videos," said Bourdain. "She knows all the words, she mimics the moves, she thinks Katy Perry is absolutely wonderful, she thinks Snoop Dogg is like her kindly uncle because she saw him in the "California Girls," video. I'm absolutely charmed by that."
[via Youtube]
24. Anthony Bourdain thinks smoking makes you cool.
Bourdain is notorious for being an all out renegade, bad boy, and a past avid smoker. And as expected, he thinks that smoking can make you cool. "I don't want to encourage anyone to quit smoking," said Bourdain. "I mean, in my experience, it really does make you cool in school. Chicks love it."
[via TIME Magazine]
23. Anthony Bourdain thinks being a heroin addict was great preparation into becoming a celebrity.
Somehow, Anthony Bourdain thinks that his early years of heroin addiction provided a good mental preparation into becoming a celebrity. "Well particularly in the world of television, there are a lot of people out there who are full of shit," said Bourdain. "When you're a junkie, you're surrounded by hustlers. You just develop a sixth sense and become a pretty good judge of character."
[via Youtube]
22. Anthony Bourdain had a really bad experience at the Kalahari.
Let's pray that none of us actually have the privilege of eating the rear end of a wart hog like Anthony Bourdain did. "Let's put it this way, sanitation in the Kalahari isn't that much of a premium, especially when you're eating the business end of a wart hog," said Bourdain to David Letterman. "It's not good: sand, fur, and crap in every bite."
[via Youtube]
21. Anthony Bourdain ate a live cobra's heart.
On his show, "No Reservations," Anthony Bourdain has been known to do a number of crazy and questionable things. One of which includes eating a live beating heart of a cobra. On The Late Show with David Letterman, Bourdain gave some insight into the experience: "It was in Vietnam. It's a table side dish and they bring the cobra by and let him kind of strike at you or hiss and then they zip it open with a pair of gardening shears," said Bourdain. "The little heart drops onto a plate and you eat it. It is in fact beating all the way down."
[via Youtube]
20. Anthony Bourdain used a fake identity.
After being the executive chef at Brasserie Les Halles in New York for some time, his profuse drug usage caught up with him and he had to check himself into rehab. After rehab, he jumped around a slew of jobs including line cook, oyster chucker, brunch cook and caterer. He even said he worked under a fake identity Napoleon Bourdain.
[via Reserve Channel]
19. Anthony Bourdain hates foodies, but thinks they're beneficial for tourists.
Although Bourdain hates foodies, often calling them "contentious psychos," he thinks they are a tourist's best bet in finding a restaurant in an unknown city. "Never ask a concierge. Long before you arrive, go visit annoying foodie websites," said Bourdain. "Chances are if you go through the threads, you'll find some consensus or opinion emerging. The responses you get are often really impassioned and really informed.
[via Travel Channel]
18. Anthony Bourdain likes cartoon shows.
Despite Anthony Bourdain's overly crude persona, he still has a soft spot: his daughter. Whenever given an opportunity to talk about her, he gets a shiny glint in his eye like any dad would. In an interview, he gave some small but unexpected details into his domestic life with his daughter: "I'll make a bowl of spaghetti and red sauce and we'll sit down and watch some Nick Jr. or Phineas and Ferb...God I love those shows."
[via Travel Channel]
17. Anthony Bourdain still loves fast food joints.
It's true. Despite his overly critical attitude for fine eatery, Bourdain still loves his typical fast food joints. "I'm on record for loving Popeye's, macaroni and cheese, and if I can get in and out without anyone seeing me, I have an unholy love for KFC." He also mentions his nostalgic love for the TV dinners.
[via Travel Channel]
16. Anthony Bourdain had a profound experience on LSD.
Although Kitchen Confidential is a brazen account of Bourdain's culinary journey from a dishwasher boy to a head chef, the book also touches upon Bourdain's usage of drugs such as pot, heroine, cocaine, and LSD. In an interview, Bourdain described his most profound drug experience on LSD: "Early exposure to LSD had a profound effect on the way I saw the world and continue to see the world. It changed the way I looked at myself, reality, and the world I lived in. I think, unlike most drugs, which are taken to kill pain or to numb you, I took LSD for all the right reasons. It was like sailing away on a pirate ship for me."
[via Travel Channel]
15. Anthony Bourdain's last meal choice would be roasted bone marrow.
Whenever you come into acquaintance with a renowned foodie, one question you're bound to ask is, "What is your favorite meal." Although roasted bone marrow or tuna belly may not be his favorite meal, those dishes would be the last he would want to savor before he ever kicks the bucket. "I like roasted bone marrow for my last meal,"said Bourdain. "You know a few lengths of veil leg bone roasted with some toasted baguette, a little sea salt, a little parsley, and some caper salad, and smear all that onto a toasted French bead, and that is a delicious meal."
[via TIME Magazine]
14. Anthony Bourdain's first respectable job was a dishwasher boy.
Saving himself from an indulgent lifestyle of drugs and alcohol, Anthony Bourdain went up to Cape Code and secured a job as a dishwasher boy at a restaurant. Although his statements may be slightly exaggerated, Bourdain insists that had he not become a dishwasher boy, he would have eventually wounded up in "petty crime loserville and wouldn't have made it out of his 20's."
[via TIME Magazine]
13. Anthony Bourdain always picks on Rachael Ray.
Bourdain has never been shy to pick on people whom he genuinely dislikes. One of his most obvious targets has always been the American maven Rachael Ray. In an interview with TIME, he said the reason why he picks on her is because she can take it and that she genuinely offends him. "I think when Rachael tells you that it's O.K. to buy a pre-chopped onion from the super market...I mean how hard is it to chop an onion?" said Bourdain. "To take away from Rachael Ray is 'I could cook that. I feel better about myself now. I'm not gonna cook that but I will finish these Cheetos and this giant gallon jug of diet Pepsi before dying of diabetes."
[via TIME Magazine]
12. Anthony Bourdain really respects Julia Child.
Bourdain's mother for the most part may have spurred Bourdain's interest in the culinary world. Besides cooking French dishes and taking her kids to the French bistro, Tout Va Bien, Bourdain's mother, like most moms, kept Julia Child's cookbook on top of the refrigerator. As Julia Child became a part of Bourdain's early childhood, it should come to no surprise that he has much respect for the once aspiring cook. "When you watched Julia Child, you would see her make some classic French dish, and say 'Wow, that's not so difficult. If Julia could do it, I'm going to try that,'" said Bourdain on Child. "And it made people aspire to do more."
[via TIME Magazine]
11. Anthony Bourdain and Eric Ripert made a chocolate bar, and it's really rare and really good.
One of the many things resulting from Bourdain and Ripert's friendship is a joint culinary collaboration on a chocolate bar titled the Good & Evil Chocolate Bar. According to Ripert, the chocolate is made from Peru "in a secret canyon that has been found, and the trees produce this chocolate which is amazing." And supposedly, "nothing tastes like it." Coming from two food aficionados, don't expect this chocolate to be like Hershey's though. In the first run of production, only a few thousand bars were produced, and each one sells for $18.
[via Vimeo]
10. Anthony Bourdain was the executive chef at Brasserie Les Halles in New York.
While Anthony Bourdain is known for his celebrity personality on his shows 'No Reservations,' and 'Anthony Bourdain Parts Unknown,' he was an executive chef at New York's renowned restaurant Brasserie Les Halles in 1988.
[via Reserve Channel]
9. Anthony Bourdain dropped out of college.
College isn't for everyone, and Bourdain is a perfect example of that sentiment. Although he dropped out of college, he attended a prestigious culinary school in America and graduated with honors. "I hated college," said Bourdain. "So I eventually went to Culinary Arts of America. Not only was I a pretty good student, I was working weekends in New York."
[via Reserve Channel]
8. Anthony Bourdain is really good friends with Eric Ripert.
Even though one is a renowned French chef (Eric Ripert) and the other a culinary cynic (Anthony Bourdain), both Bourdan and Ripert are the best of friends. After reading Kitchen Confidential, Ripert immediately called Bourdain and invited him to lunch. "I called him and said, 'I read your book, and I would love to know you," said Ripert in an interview with Hamptons Magazine. "That was the first time I met Anthony, and we have been friends ever since." Ever since then, it seems that their friendship has blossomed into some sort of brotherly love. According to MensJournal, their first meal together at Le Bernardin has resulted in a number of memorable meals together, "including a long outlawed French delicacy."
[via Hamptons Magazine]
7. Anthony Bourdain practically lived like a rock star.
After landing a job in Providence, RI as a dishwasher, Bourdain ended up as a cook in a SOHO restaurant called Work Progress. During his short stint at the debauched restaurant, he had delved into the prototypical life of a rock star: sex, drugs, and rock n' roll. "There was a lot of humping in the dry-goods area... 50-pound flour sacks being popular staging for after-work copulation," recalled Bourdain. "A squadron of punk rocker junkie guitar heroes at for free at Work Progress- so we got free tickets at CBGB and Club 57. And when the clubs closed it was off to after-hours where we'd drink and do more drugs."
[via The Guardian]
6. Anthony Bourdain's life was forever changed by eating an oyster.
Before delving off into his promiscuous rendezvous as a young cook in 'Kitchen Confidential,' Bourdain first gives some insight into his childhood. In an excerpt from the book, Bourdain gives an incredibly detailed account about his life changing experience of eating a raw oyster. "It tasted of seawater... of brine and flesh...and, somehow...of the future," recalled Bourdain on eating the oyster. "I had had an adventure, tasted the forbidden fruit, and everything that followed in my life- the food, the long and often stupid and self-destructive chase for the next thing, whether it was drugs or sex or some other new sensation- would all stem from this moment."
[via The Guardian]
5. Anthony Bourdain disliked Paula Deen before it was cool.
Always beating us to the punch, Anthony Bourdain had a feud with Paula Deen long before her recent debacle regarding her racist remarks. While on TV Guide, he had a few harsh words to give to the Southern food connoisseur: "She is the worst, most dangerous person to America." Even though Deen fired back, claiming "not everybody can afford to pay $58 for prime rib or $650 for a bottle of wine," Bourdain gave another statement regarding the feud on ABC News: "There is a lot to admire Paula Deen, and her life. But I think the cynical decision to one hand sell people- you know, her brand was excess without guilt and was for many years. And to know all along that she- in a personal way- knew what this might very well lead to and then turn around and roll out a 500 dollars a month diabetes treatment, I find that in excruciatingly bad taste. It's cynical and greedy. 30 million dollars a year- how much more do you need?"
[via The Huffington Post]
4. Anthony Bourdain's old enemy used to be the 'GQ' food critic Alan Richman.
After Alan Richman gave an unfavorable review to Brasserie Les Halles, where Bourdain was once a chef, and of New Orleans' post-Katrina restaurant scene, Alan Richman directly aligned himself in Bourdain's fire. In response, Bourdain dedicated a whole chapter of his book, Medium Raw, to the GQ food critic. Unsurprisingly, it's titled 'Alan Richman Is a Douchebag."
[via The Village Voice]
3. Anthony Bourdain had a cool childhood.
Bourdain seemed to have really cool parents. Growing up circa Mad Men era, Bourdain was raised by cultured parents: his mom liked Julia Child and French dishes and his dad had a weird enthusiasm for smelly cheese. Additionally his dad had a really good taste in music. "My dad was a guy who liked music no matter where it came from," said Bourdain to the MensJournal. "He came home from work with Sgt. Pepper's, Disraeli Gears, Janis Joplin. He took me to shows at the Fillmore East-Hendrix, the Allman Brothers, Frank Zappa-and would sit there with me, surrounded by pot smoke."
[via Men's Journal]
2. Anthony Bourdain sent an article in on a drunken whim.
Before the novel, Kitchen Confidential was actually a short story Bourdain sent to New York Press editor, Sam Sifton. But after weeks and weeks of the piece going unpublished, Bourdain- on a drunken whim- sent the piece to The New Yorker, and they liked it. In an interview with Delta Sky Magazine, Anthony Bourdain gave a detailed account: "No I'd written the piece for the New York Press...You know, look, I targeted them because I figured they had standards low enough to accept it. I just wanted to be in print and amuse my colleagues in the business...And in a moment of drunken, late-night hubris, I just said, 'You know, f*** it. I'm taking the piece back.' And I stuffed it into an envelope and sent it to The New Yorker, period... But I guess about a month and a half later, I was working at [Brasserie] Les Halles, and the phone rang, and it's David Remnick. And the rest was literally immediate-the day after that article came out, I had a book deal."
1. Anthony Bourdain kept weird ingredients in the kitchen.
In his book 'Kitchen Confidential," Bourdain gives an unabashed and personal account while working in the 80's culinary industry of New York. One interesting fact in the book is a list of ingredients he kept in the cupboard: "Pot, quaaludes, cocaine, LSD, psilocybin, mushrooms soaked in honey and used to sweeten tea, Seconal, Tuinal, speed, codeine and increasingly, heroin, which we'd send a Spanish-speaking busboy over to Alphabet City to get."
[via Men's Journal]