Chef at Home

Archive for the ‘Anthony Bourdain’ Category

This Monday’s “special episode” is indeed, special. Meaning, not normal, out of the ordinary. Unique, one might say. It really is unlike anything we’ve tried before–and regardless of how well it goes over with regular viewers who tune in expecting another hour of me shoving food into my face in an international location–I’m really, really proud of what we’ve done. To those who have bemoaned the disappearance of the quality “stand and stir” format, this is for you.

We’ve preserved, on tape, in one hour, some of the best and most respected chefs in the world, teaching us (and I include myself in that “us”–because I learned a lot too) the indisputably “best” way to prepare some very fundamental, everyday dishes. You may think you know how to roast a chicken, for instance. But until Thomas Keller shows you how he does it, the matter, far as I’m concerned, isn’t settled.

Read the rest of this entry »

I wrote a book recently and in the months long period between putting the last period on the last page and publication, there’s a gathering dread.

What is it I’ve just written?

What’s it about?

Presumably, I’ll have to answer those questions soon — in interviews, on book tour, when the whole machinery starts up again and begins clanking away full-speed. I thought-when I was writing the thing that it was a gentler thing I was making, a reflection of my more……philosophical outlook these days: an examination of the changes in the world of professional cooking (and the changes in my life) in the ten years since I sat down to write “Kitchen Confidential” in a white heat each morning before going in to work at Les Halles.

Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve been to what? Eighty, ninety countries?
I’ve seen a lot of things.
But no place has so utterly confounded me, intimidated, horrified, amazed, sickened, depressed, inspired, exhausted and shown me–with every passing hour–how wrong I was about everything I might have thought only an hour previous. This is a country, founded by freed slaves from America–and intended to be very much in our image– but recently emerged from civil wars so brutal, so surrealistically violent as to defy imagining, where drugged gunmen in wedding gowns and wigs once shot hacked (and frequently cannibalized) their way into power. It is also a place where mothers and grandmothers stripped off their clothes and naked and unarmed, confronted those same gunmen mid-massacres, getting them to stop. It is now the first African nation with a woman president. It’s a country where you find 28 year olds proudly graduating from high school–the school system having evaporated during the many years of conflict. There’s a church on nearly every corner–but underneath it all, traditional “masked societies” still rule the hearts and minds and behaviors of many…

Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve talked before about how some of the best stuff happens once the cameras stop rolling and I’d have to say that once we were done shooting the meal scene with Bill Murray for Monday’s Hudson Valley show, what happened next was one of those times: He had to be in New York pretty quickly. I was headed home. Producer Tom Vitale had a rented SUV parked outside for just that situation and the three of us piled into the car, Tom at the wheel, me riding shotgun, Bill in the back.

Read the rest of this entry »

The early, pre-production stage of No Reservations, where we decide what our next locations will be, is a complex and deliberate process.

Actually…no. It’s not.

Read the rest of this entry »

I’m not kidding about the color in Brittany. Everything is blue. It’s a cinematographer’s wet dream, a palette of dark blues, light blues and blue grays that forces everyone to unconsciously dress to match the surroundings. Against a background of ocean and sky, I look around at my crew and realize that all of us are appropriately and exclusively garbed in near matching shades of navy and gunmetal. You don’t think about it. When you wake up in Brittany, somehow, the color orange never occurs to you. Heading out the door in yellow or bright green or even brown would feel disrespectful of the elements.

Read the rest of this entry »

The azure waters of the Caribbean lie flat and barely moving outside my window. Somewhere, a reggae band is tuning up. Elsewhere on the property, Eric Ripert, Jose Andres, Grant Achatz, Dean Fearing and David Chang are preparing delicious things to eat.
Read the rest of this entry »

There are two semicircular rings between my eyes where the skin is broken, the result of a telescopic sight recoiling off my skull, and my right shoulder is a yellow/brown/purplish color from the impact of the stock.
I’ve been blowing the heads off snowmen after a hearty breakfast of pheasant, moose, eggs and Crown Royal and this, I guess is what happens. Frosty’s Revenge as it were. But I’ve got no regrets about all the maiming and decapitating. I’m pretty sure they would have killed me if they could.

Read the rest of this entry »

There seems to be some understandable confusion with the announcement of our upcoming “web series”, ALTERNATE UNIVERSE. Reactions varying between “WTF!!??” and ” This time he’s jumped the shark for sure.” While shark jumping is always a danger–particularly since me and my partners take a perverse delight in flirting with just that with every new outrage (The family friendly Sardinia show being an example of a profoundly risky rub up against ‘off-brand,’ late-era Fonzarelli), these dark, nasty, frequently foul TWO MINUTE LONG web extras are not a replacement for NO RESERVATIONS. They are not a pilot for some new, family friendly, watered down follow on. They are instead brief, often violent, alt versions of NO RES–representing things we could never have done on the actual show-or the way things should have gone on the show–or animated acknowledgments of what already went terribly wrong on the show. Or, for example, my take on the network’s “Travel Bug” promo campaign–about which I was, shall we say…dubious.

They’ll appear on the fan site–for those who wish to click on them. I wrote the damn things–so there’s nobody to blame but me if they’re not as quick, nasty–and funny as I think they are. And I want to thank Andrew Zimmern and Samantha Brown in advance–for their extraordinarily good humored participation in one particularly lurid episode. I hope we don’t freak out their fan base.

anthony bourdain alternate universe new series web series tv show no reservations animated series comic
Go to Source

Saturday night at the 61st Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards, my long suffering friends and colleagues Todd Leibler and Zach Zamboni-who, for the last few years have sacrificed anything resembling normal lives to follow me around the world pointing cameras in my general direction-scored a major upset victory by bringing home the award for cinematography in the non-fiction category. Todd, who has garnered a not entirely undeserved worldwide reputation for stumbling into things, bounded up to that stage with astounding speed and grace-suddenly, a veritable Nijinsky, sure footedly making what was easily one of the smoothest, nicest, most coherent and entertaining acceptance speeches of the night. Zach, who hardly got a word in, managed to look very dashing in his tuxedo. The two of them spent the rest of the evening basking happily in the admiring praise of other directors of photography, camera operators and cinematographers, few of whom have likely had to make do with a bag of risotto on a skateboard as a camera platform. It was the greatest thing I’ve seen in a very long time and I am over the moon with happiness for them. Of the three Emmys we were nominated for-this was the one I wanted to win badly. All you have to do is compare the looks of season one-with those of recent seasons to see how hard these guys work, how monstrously talented they are-and how much they’ve been able to do with so very little.
Congratulations, my friends-with whom I’ve spent far more time over the years than with my family. And thank you.

Read the rest of this entry »