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b8abc87
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We are, after all, citizens of the world - a world filled with bacteria, some friendly, some not so friendly. Do we really want to travel in hermetically sealed popemobiles through the rural provinces of France, Mexico and the Far East, eating only in Hard Rock Cafes and McDonald's? Or do we want to eat without fear, tearing into the local stew, the humble taqueria's mystery meat, the sincerely offered gift of a lightly grilled fish head? I know what I want. I want it all. I want to try everything once. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt, Senor Tamale Stand Owner, Sushi-chef-san, Monsieur Bucket-head. What's that feathered game bird, hanging on the porch, getting riper by the day, the body nearly ready to drop off? I want some.
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travel
food-writing
eating
food
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Anthony Bourdain |
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5436822
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I'll be right here. Until they drag me off the line. I'm not going anywhere. I hope. It's been an adventure. We took some casualties over the years. Things got broken. Things got lost. But I wouldn't miss it for the world.
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food-writing
restaurant
cooking
chef
kitchen
food
|
Anthony Bourdain |
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cc8aaef
|
Look at your waiter's face. He knows. It's another reason to be polite to your waiter: he could save your life with a raised eyebrow or a sigh.
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food-service
waiter
food-writing
restaurant
food
|
Anthony Bourdain |
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31b528a
|
Prior Preparation Prevents Poor Performance, as they say in the army - and I always, always want to be ready. Just like Bigfoot.
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ready
food-writing
preparation
cooking
food
|
Anthony Bourdain |
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23d8df0
|
Garlic is divine. Few food items can taste so many distinct ways, handled correctly. Misuse of garlic is a crime. Old garlic, burnt garlic, garlic cut too long ago, garlic that has been tragically smashed through one of those abominations, the garlic press, are all disgusting. Please, treat your garlic with respect.
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delicious
garlic
food-writing
kitchen
crime
food
|
Anthony Bourdain |
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4cf56fd
|
The life of the cook was a life of adventure, looting, pillaging and rock-and-rolling through life with a carefree disregard for all conventional morality. It looked pretty damn good to me on the other side of the line.
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cook-s-life
food-writing
cooking
kitchen
food
cook
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Anthony Bourdain |
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ddd1f19
|
Too lazy to peel fresh? You don't deserve to eat garlic.
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fresh
garlic
food-writing
eating
kitchen
food
|
Anthony Bourdain |
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94b5612
|
There has ling been a happy symbiotic relationship between kitchen and bar. Simply put, the kitchen wants booze, and the bartender wants food.
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relationship
food-industry
food-writing
booze
restaurant
bartender
cooking
kitchen
food
|
Anthony Bourdain |
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1272ab6
|
Good food and good eating are about risk. Every once in a while an oyster, for instance, will make you sick to your stomach. Does this mean you should stop eating oysters? No way.
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risk
good-food
oysters
food-writing
eating
food
|
Anthony Bourdain |
|
9ec950b
|
Who's cooking your food anyway? What strange beasts lurk behind the kitchen doors? You see the chef: he's the guy without the hat, with the clipboard under his arm, maybe his name stitched in Tuscan blue on his starched white chef's coat next to those cotton Chinese buttons. But who's actually cooking your food? Are they young, ambitious culinary school grads, putting in their time on the line until they get their shot at the Big Job? Probably not. If the chef is anything like me, the cooks are a dysfunctional, mercenary lot, fringe-dwellers motivated by money, the peculiar lifestyle of cooking and grim pride. They're probably not even American.
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|
cooks
food-writing
cooking
kitchen
food
|
Anthony Bourdain |
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15e2cf1
|
Food, it appeared, could be important. It could be an event. It had secrets.
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food-writing
secrets
food
|
Anthony Bourdain |
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14c7109
|
As an art form, cooktalk is, like haiku or kabuki, defined by established rules, with a rigid, traditional framework in which one may operate.
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cooktalk
food-writing
restaurant
cooking
kitchen
|
Anthony Bourdain |
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fa2a333
|
What most people don't get about professional-level cooking is that it is not all about the best recipe, the most innovative presentation, the most creative marriage of ingredients, flavours and textures; that, presumably, was all arranged long before you sat down to dinner. Line cooking - the real business of preparing the food you eat - is more about consistency, about mindless, unvarying repetition, the same series of tasks performed over and over and over again in exactly the same way.
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professional-cooking
food-writing
cooking
kitchen
food
|
Anthony Bourdain |
|
f8e2aae
|
To want to own a restaurant can be a strange and terrible affliction. What causes such a destructive urge in so many otherwise sensible people? Why would anyone who has worked hard, saved money, often been successful in other fields, want to pump their hard-earned cash down a hole that statistically, at least, will almost surely prove dry? Why venture into an industry with enormous fixed expenses (...), with a notoriously transient and unstable workforce, and highly perishable inventory of assets? The chances of ever seeing a return on your investment are about one in five. What insidious spongi-form bacteria so riddles the brains of men and women that they stand there on the tracks, watching the lights of the oncoming locomotive, knowing full well it will eventually run over them? After all these years in the business, I still don't know.
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food-industry
food-writing
restaurant
cooking
chef
kitchen
|
Anthony Bourdain |