Why I'd Have Trouble Making It As a Real Magazine Writer

I'd have trouble writing lines like this one from Washingtonian's profile of Anthony Bourdain:

Despite his undying hatred of celebrity-chef culture, Bourdain, still affiliated with French bistro chainlet Les Halles, has reached Emeril-like levels of popularity. Tickets to what was essentially a book-promo talk on Wednesday night sold for $28 a pop, and most of the 1,490 seats at Lisner Auditorium were full. Known best for Kitchen Confidential, his best-selling 2001 exposé on the knife-flinging, drug-addled subculture of restaurant kitchens, Bourdain now eats his way around the world for Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations, his show on the Travel Channel. (A picture-heavy book based on the series was just released.)

He hates celebrity chef culture, but he's a chef who's written a best-selling book, has a cable television series, lectures to audiences of over a thousand, and sits down for magazine profiles in which he riffs on Nigella Lawson and the Barefoot Contessa. Plus: he appears on Top Chef. But he's managed to achieve all this despite his hatred for celebrity chef culture, a truly remarkable achievement!

It seems to me, though, that eight-five percent of celebrity profiles I read feature some line about how much the being-profiled celebrity loathes the limelight.

UPDATE: Look, I like Bourdain: Kitchen Confidential is a great fun book, I watch No Reservations sometimes and Top Chef always, etc., but we just shouldn't take his affected disdain for celebrity chefs all that seriously.

Comments

This is like George Bush saying he does not like partisan politics.

Posted by Pritesh | November 9, 2007 1:38 PM

But he does it all with so much charm (and at least enough self-awareness to make the behavior seem excusable).

Posted by Tom | November 9, 2007 1:39 PM

The difference with Bourdain is that, if you ask him, he'll identify himself as a food journalist. Kitchen Confidential is filled with comments along the lines of, "I'm a decent chef. I'm never going to be a GOOD chef."

So when he slags on, say, Rocco DiSpirito, it's mainly because Rocco was what he considered to be a great chef, and then became a pseudo-chef celebrity.

Bourdain doesn't get by on the reputation of his cooking prowess, but on the quality of his writing.

Posted by radar | November 9, 2007 1:49 PM

Bourdain's sort of outside of a certain amount of celebrity chef culture. He's on the Travel Channel, not Food Network (or Fine Living). Likewise Top Chef is on Bravo. He also dislikes the petty corruption between the celeb chefs, top crits, food magazine writers, etc., and he isn't a part of that.

Kitchen Confidential, I should point out, is a really, really good book, which has a chapter that details the criticism.

Pritesh also makes a good point.

Posted by Nicholas Beaudrot | November 9, 2007 1:50 PM

Chefs are like art critics. There is no pleasing them. On a different note, Nigella Lawson is quite a dish.

Posted by 2cynicalbyhalf | November 9, 2007 1:51 PM

I would like to "riff on" Nigella Lawson.

Posted by Woody Bombay | November 9, 2007 1:55 PM

I think he has a good amount of self-awareness (and quite possibly some self-loathing).

Also, he doesn't have a cooking show, he has a travel show which features him eating previously thought to be indigestible local delicacies (i.e. porcupine).

Posted by bob | November 9, 2007 2:02 PM

Top Chef was definitely a self-loathing mistake.

That said, Bourdain's public profile ain't celebrity chef. In other words, he is not on TV preparing slag food as PR to (1) put butts in seats of his satellite restaurants (that he's never been in), or (2) sell a line of crap, dumbed-down kitchen products.

In fact, Matt, you guys are similar in many respects.

Posted by sy | November 9, 2007 2:10 PM

Despite his undying hatred of celebrity-chef culture

Oh, give me a f*^%ing break. Bourdain doesn't hate the celebrity-chef culture. He hates some celebrity chefs... and he likes some others! The classic Bourdain on the Food Network chefs is here. He loves Batali and likes Flay. He doesn't even really mind Emerill and Giada DeLaurentiis. He just can't stand Rachel Ray and Sandra Lee. How is that a hatred of the "celebrity chef culture"???

PS - Speaking of Bourdain, I suppose you saw this? Very, very funny. Because it's true.

Posted by Al | November 9, 2007 2:10 PM

Al's right -- Bourdain doesn't hate celebrity chef culture at all, at least as long as the chefs have chops. He slagged Emeril in Kitchen Confidential, and has since come around after being told by other chefs he respects that Emeril is a good chef when he's not bamming through worthless recipes. He still slags on Rachel Ray and Sandra Lee, but they deserve it, and he slags on them not for being celebrity chefs but for not knowing how to cook.

Posted by Alex | November 9, 2007 2:25 PM

I thought Kitchen Confidential was dreadful. Chefs as swaggering macho bucaneers, worthy of the attention, respect and admiration we might accord great authors and artists. So much self-infatuation that I don't know how he found time to take his hands off his dick and on the keyboard.

Posted by Gene | November 9, 2007 2:54 PM

Guess I'll join the dog-pile - Matt, you are spectacularly wrong on this specific point. :)

That being said, I've given up on No Reservations. It's complete drek compared to the first season of "A Cook's Tour." Probably because that show was actually based on a book, and not made explicitly as a travel/food show. Bourdain is just mailing it in now as far as I'm concerned.

Posted by Chris | November 9, 2007 3:02 PM

I think this is similar to musicians who claim to hate fame (I'm looking at you, Kurt Cobain). They claim that they're only in it for the food/music, but they continually put themselves in front of the audience.

Food, like music, need not be done in public or on a large scale in order to be done. If they truly hated the celebrity, they would continue to do these things on their own, for the enjoyment. But, they choose to do it in front of the largest group possible (sure, to support themselves financially. But you've gotta take the good with the bad).

Posted by anonymous | November 9, 2007 3:39 PM

Anthony Bourdain rules, no one should ever say anything bad about him. That's all from me.

Posted by Sam | November 9, 2007 4:04 PM

Bourdain is droll, irreverant, and has this touching dark side to his cynical, snarky self.

I like his travel oddesseys because he uses all those qualities in analyzing the food of a culture in context of the culture, how he as an American abroad fits in. He shows us what the locals eat as much as possible, extolls the people (even when showing Iceland as a gastronomic frozen hell in darkness eating tidbits of fermented shark - the people are great). And at the same time, while showing the new and off the beaten track, deeply appreciative of America (his trip to Lebanon was derailed by the Hez-Israel War and became an ode to the wonderfulness and professionalism of US Marines and Navy sailors, if not their chow. But showcasing their chow as nevertheless wonderful as it was given with kindness by proud troops to all the Beruit refugees onboard.)

He is quite watchable. He is a journalist of culture PLUS food. His other two writers on No Reservations doing material make for good synergy, and even when the road less travelled turns out to be a crappy one, Bourdain is happy because there is booze to turn to and the knowledge that others on his crew are suffering worse.

He also makes other shows more watchable - like Top Chef. His guest appearances were the highlight of an otherwise bad 2nd season - "The dish was quite innovative in a pathetic Flintstonian manner that touches true genius in it's deliberate absurdity. A flipped middle finger to judges and the universe. I like it." And 3rd season of Top Chef when his ripping into a chef was derailed by the chef quoting from one of his books saying what he did was what Tony recommended...."You son of a bitch!"

Posted by Chris Ford | November 9, 2007 4:22 PM

Mega-dittoes here. For the commenters, not the proprietor. Bourdain's red line is respect for food: if you have it, you're OK; if you don't, you suck. Some chefs become celebrities and stop being chefs. There are kids coming out of culinary school now who would rather get a guest shot on Oprah than get three Michelin stars. Bourdain paid his dues for 20 years before he got famous. For writing a book. Plus, he's always been very humble about his own abilities: he ranks himself a top-notch cook and a mediocre chef.

I will agree with Gene, though, that his badder-ass-than-thou attitude can get pretty old.

Posted by Chris Conway | November 9, 2007 5:52 PM

Everyone lighten up. Bourdain created a persona that worked very well in his books and he's transferred that persona to a decent travel show that has more than the usual respect for foreign cultures. It's entertainment, not culinary science. He's got a pretty good gig going and he seems to be enjoying himself.

Posted by Randy Komisarek | November 9, 2007 7:05 PM

Christ, everybody gives a shit about "celebrity chefs and the people who hate them."

What did the waitress say in the next blog entry? Something about "with the Iraq war and the price of oil"...?

Last time I saw a chef bit was the Corrs on some morning show. Later I saw a picture taken before the bit where Andrea was holding a huge butcher knife, looking at the chef with an evil expression...The fans call it the "Dangerous Andy" shot.

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