raw - special guest edition

1

INSIDE THE BRAIN

OF BOURDAIN

RAW SPECIAL GUEST ISSUE: ANTHONY BOURDAIN

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SUMMER 2011 SPECIAL GUEST EDITION

A NOTE FROM THE GUEST

EDITOR

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CONTENTS

I know what you are thinking, “what

does this guy know about designing

a publication? Doesn’t he just travel

around the world eating food and

complaining about things?” And you

are right. I don’t know anything about

designing a publication and I do infact

travel around the world “complaining”

about everything, but isn’t that the fun

of this whole thing? Trying something

new? Something you have never expe-

rienced and taking the best out of the

worst? It would be boring have the same

people doing the same thing over and

over again. I’m here to throw a wrench in

this system.

Now, I am a writer and chef, so that isn’t

to say that I don’t know anything about

how to compose something in a unique

way to make it appealing to someone,

but this is definitely foreign territory. Which is something I embrace and you should too.

I am not trying to tell you what to do (ok,

maybe I am), but just give this issue a

shot and if you don’t like it, fine, we can

both move on to bigger and better things,

but we can both at least say we tried.

That being said, I wanted to approach

this task from the angle of “use what

you know;” and that I most certainly did.

I centered the content around what af-

fects me the most and what ultimately

affects all of us in the long run. The

aspects of life that are ever present that

all of us have experienced, hopefully, at

some point in our short lives.

Taking a look at the diagram below, you

can see all that the issue entails and how,

as said before, they all come together. I

started with the thing that I am engaged

in the most currently: travel. I can only

hope that my experiences from traveling

around the world will influence any of

you to get out there and explore cultures

beyond your own and make yourselves

uncomfortable. After all, life itself is

rarely comfortable. The next aspect is

something near and dear to me, but you

will have to flip through to find out that

one (and you wont be disappointed).

I rounded out the issue with my first

passion of food and a little description of

how I arrived to where I am now provided

by my friend Euan Ferguson. Hopefully,

the fruits of my labor are appreciated. If not, just go ahead and use this issue as the collector for your dog’s crap.

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TRAVEL CHANGES

YOU

For the past five or so years I have been

living out of suitcases, enjoying the com-

fort of a less than luxurious hotel bed, and

experiencing sicknesses and pain that I

would not wish upon anyone, friend or

enemy. Oddly enough, I wouldn’t change

anything; these experiences of travel and

culture have made me what I am today. It is

for that reason that I share a few words on

travel, hoping that you will get out there

and experience the world and find some-

thing out about yourself in the process.

Travel changes people for the better. The

more you walk around in another person’s

shoes, the more you’ve seen of the world,

the better a person you are. If I can convince

somebody who’s got the money to do it, the

freedom to do it, and if one of our shows

has inspired them to, then sure. I hear it a

lot. People come up to me a lot and say, “I

went to Vietnam, and I tracked down some

of the same business that you ate at and I

had a good time.” Sure. That makes me hap-

py. I grew up with books and movies and I

dreamed of seeing places like those I’d read

about. It’s unimaginable to me that people

wouldn’t yearn for a peek at the other side

of the world, an undiscovered beach, a tiny

little food stall that serves the perfect bowl

of noodles.

If you see how other people live – particu-

larly when people who come from very

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AS YOU MOVE THROUGH THIS LIFE AND THIS WORLD, YOU CHANGE THINGS SLIGHTLY; YOU LEAVE MARKS BEHIND, HOWEVER SMALL AND IN RETURN, LIFE - AND TRAVEL - LEAVES MARKS ON YOU.”

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TRAVEL

people live, how hard their lives are…how

different – and how similar. To see a Saudi

family behind closed doors…to get drunk

with Vietnamese rice farmers…presumably

expands one’s horizons and level of tolerance.

I choose locations based on books I read,

movies I’ve seen, the recommendations of

chef friends, idle bar room conversations.

If you meet someone who’s been living

abroad and traveling for decades at the

Heart of Darkness Bar in Phnom Penh and

they tell you that Belem de Para is the most

awesome place they’ve ever been – that’s

worth making note of. Of course, my moti-

vation is professional. I make travel televi-

sion after all.

different backgrounds, with very different

belief systems are kind and hospitable to

you, particularly when they have few means

to do so – or their generosity comes at great

cost. To be the recipient of random acts of

kindness from strangers, to see how other

But really? It’s all about me. The TV show is

just an excuse. My network enables me to

do what I always dreamed of doing. Often,

I choose locations based on the “look” of a

place – the notion that I can copy the cin-

ematography of a film I loved and return

home having helped “make” something

beautiful and thought provoking.

Lastly, don’t forget about trying to local

food of where ever you are traveling. This

may be a biased tip considering that is

what my show is about, but seriously, if

you miss the local and street food experi-

ence, you have missed everything there is

about that place. Street food is the best of a

country – and strangely, much safer for you

than the spaghetti bolognese at the Hilton.

Sure, there is always risk in eating the street

food, but that is part of the experience.

Expand your food horizons to uncomfort-

able bounds. If you are going to travel well,

you’ve got to eat well.

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”

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SUMMER 2011

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Ah, the local dive bar. Perhaps one of my

favorite places on earth. Unpretentious,

dirty, cheap, and completely bursting with

personality. It is always one of objectives

where ever I happen to be to find this local

watering hole where stories, much like the

drinks, are constantly flowing. Sure, the

place is grimey and it smells of toilet clean-

er and vomit, but this is where memories

are made, friendships are formed, and lives

are changed. It has always been a dream of

mine to open a dive. If I could, these are the

guidlines I would follow.

SPECIAL INTEREST

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WHAT CAN I SAY, I HAppEN TO BE AN AFICIONADO OF THE DIVE BAR ”

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Now, these aren’t the set in stone rules

for starting and maintaining a dive bar,

but these are just a few things that I (and

my liver) have noticed in my many nights

spent in the dark underbelly of any city’s

bar scene. Also, of course a dive bar cannot

simply be set up automatically; that would

be like opening a restaurant like TGI Fridays

and claiming that all the random crap on

the walls is authentic and has been there

for years before the restuarant even came

around. The essence of the dive bar is time

and excessive use. To open a bar and called

it a dive before it has even had one local

cross the threshold is doing a disservice to

dimly lit local watering holes all around the

earth. Cheers and go to a dive. Right now.

SPECIAL INTEREST

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IS

AND

It’s strange really, how much we take

something for granted, especially when

we are so caught up in the constant

movement of life. We forget that sitting

down and tasting something delicious,

something that was made by hand and

passed down from generation to genera-

tion, can make us feel that much better

and sometimes bring us to tears. I think

this is finally coming back. A return to the

respect of food. Thank god.

How did we even lose this respect? I think

it’s not high-mindedness. Post World

War Two, we got lazy. We got spoiled.

We could eat 20-ounce steaks. There

were restaurants everywhere. It’s all

about excessive portions and meat and

potatoes. We lost touch with having to

cook well because we didn’t have to. The

nation had just been through a war, and

suddenly there was a period of incredible

prosperity, relatively, and it was all about

convenience and things other than food.

American culture is all about assimilat-

ing and moving away from your roots,

moving away from your small town or

your poor background. Families changed,

populations moved, and everywhere we

went there were cheap hamburgers and

chicken without skin or legs.We weren’t

forced into a situation where we had to

find ingenious ways to make something

that was not very good, and there wasn’t

very much of it, into something delicious.

Where people have to cook well, or are

forced by circumstances to cook well, they

learn to make the most of it. It was just

as easy to go out to a Howard Johnson’s

or a Horn & Hardart back in the ‘50s than

it was to eat at home, in fact you were en-

couraged to do it. The TV dinner was seen

as a godsend for people who had more

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FOOD

important things to do than feed them-

selves. That’s changing. We’re much more

aware of where our food comes from.I

hate to say it, but I think we will see it. As

the price of raw ingredients rises, we’ll

reach a point where a lot of working fam-

ilies will have to figure out how to cook

again to make the most out of what they

have. A lot of foods we take for granted

now are going to be out of reach. We very

well might have to start cooking eventu-

ally more like the Chinese, where meat,

for instance, is less the main event than

the garnish, the condiment, the flavoring

ingredient. So we might be forced to eat

better, cook better, and eat healthier just

by virtue of these food items we take for

granted being out of reach economically.

Even at mid-range restaurants, any chef

could put a big fat fillet of wild salmon on

a plate. Now? Not so much.

What would happen if we were stripped

of all the commercial food commodities?

Would we respect everything alot more?

Would we be calling our grandmothers

more often to find out just how the hell

they made it work when they didn’t have

a supermarket or fast food chain wait-

ing for you just minutes away from the

house? I think so. We would get closer

to our cultures and our land, because we

would simply have to in order to survive.

This would make us appreciate each

flavor, each step taken to prepare, each

ounce of effort used to create a meal that

would ultimately keep us from starving

and in fact bring us all together. Which is

another point that I want to address.

Food is a bonding experience. Sure, many

of us eat alone, and this fine for whoever

wants to do that, but like most things,

food is best when it is shared with some-

one. Not only is the experience of the

food shared, but life experiences in gen-

eral. Stories of times past, flavors similar

to the ones being experienced at the

moment. Food is a gateway to emotions

that peole sometimes supress or just

plain forget about. Stuff your face and let

those feelings out, people! Get to know

your food and understand where it comes

from. Or if you so choose, walk blindly

and blandly into a world of food without

personality and respect. The choice is

yours. Choose wisely.

fooD IS AN exteNSIoN of NAtIoNAlISt feelINg, your perSoNAl hIStory, your provINce, your regIoN, your trIbe, your grANDmA”

“

12


latin americaninfluence on food industry not getting enough credit

vegetarian? VEGAN? why bother?

food as culture and history

celebrity chef phenomenon and its impact on the culinary worldThere was a time when chefs were invisible. They weren’t your best friend, their opinions didn’t matter and they, in turn, could care less about the opinions of others. Times have changed. People like Rachel Ray have taken over with their endorsements and “cooking techniques” that lead the world to believe that it’s the right thing to do. Sure, I milk the celebrity chef angle for all it’s worth, but for the opposite reasons that the food network flaunts to the masses. The best thing to come out of it: the greater appreciation of food. For that, I am thankful.

People have differing opinions on what we should do about immigration in the future. How open or how closed our borders should be. Fine. But let's be honest, at least, about who is cooking in America NOW. Who we rely on--have relied on for decades. The bald fact is that the entire restaurant industry in America would close down overnight, would never recover, if current immigration laws were enforced quickly and thoroughly across the board. Everyone in the industry knows this. It is undeniable.

cVegetarians are the enemy of everything good and decent in the human spirit, an affront to all I stand for, the pure enjoyment of food. The body, these waterheads imagine, is a temple that should not be polluted by animal protein. It's healthier, they insist, though every vegetarian waiter I've worked with is brought down by any rumor of a cold.

Food is everything we are. It’s an extension of nationalist feeling, ethnic

feeling, your personal history, your province, your region, your tribe, your

grandma. I guarantee that there is a culinary tradition that follows your

family back for generations. Without food, history wouldn’t be the same

No, I want to tell you about the dark recesses of the restaurant underbelly-a subculture whose centuries-old militaristic hierarchy and ethos of “rum buggery and the lash” make for a mix of unwavering order and nerve-shattering chaos-because I find it all quite comfortable, like a nice warm bath.

Ah, food and alcohol, could there be a better pair? I think not. Sure, both alcohol and food can leave you hurting the next morning, but ultimately they are the saving graces of any

bad party, event, or travel experience. The food and alcohol act in symphony

complimenting one another and creating taste experiences that leave you craving

more. Oh and it definitely helps that one can be the cure for the pain of the other

Methodologies of cooking cover a broad spectrum from the contemporary practices of

molecular gastronomy to the ages old method of charcuterie and everything simple

in between. It’s important to realize that all are good ways to prepare a meal and to not

get caught up in just one of them. The foundations will never leave and there will

always be a maverick in the kitchen. It’s vital to understand and appreciate both

Whether hot dogs or squid balls, street food is the quickest way to discover the nuances of a culture. Sure, the food may not look to be the

safest to eat, but looks can be deceiving. These vendors make this food because their life

depends on it and it shows. The quality is better than that of any tourist trap restaurant and a

much better experience

what really happens in a restaurant kitchen

13

latin americaninfluence on food industry not getting enough credit

vegetarian? VEGAN? why bother?

food as culture and history

celebrity chef phenomenon and its impact on the culinary worldThere was a time when chefs were invisible. They weren’t your best friend, their opinions didn’t matter and they, in turn, could care less about the opinions of others. Times have changed. People like Rachel Ray have taken over with their endorsements and “cooking techniques” that lead the world to believe that it’s the right thing to do. Sure, I milk the celebrity chef angle for all it’s worth, but for the opposite reasons that the food network flaunts to the masses. The best thing to come out of it: the greater appreciation of food. For that, I am thankful.

People have differing opinions on what we should do about immigration in the future. How open or how closed our borders should be. Fine. But let's be honest, at least, about who is cooking in America NOW. Who we rely on--have relied on for decades. The bald fact is that the entire restaurant industry in America would close down overnight, would never recover, if current immigration laws were enforced quickly and thoroughly across the board. Everyone in the industry knows this. It is undeniable.

cVegetarians are the enemy of everything good and decent in the human spirit, an affront to all I stand for, the pure enjoyment of food. The body, these waterheads imagine, is a temple that should not be polluted by animal protein. It's healthier, they insist, though every vegetarian waiter I've worked with is brought down by any rumor of a cold.

Food is everything we are. It’s an extension of nationalist feeling, ethnic

feeling, your personal history, your province, your region, your tribe, your

grandma. I guarantee that there is a culinary tradition that follows your

family back for generations. Without food, history wouldn’t be the same

No, I want to tell you about the dark recesses of the restaurant underbelly-a subculture whose centuries-old militaristic hierarchy and ethos of “rum buggery and the lash” make for a mix of unwavering order and nerve-shattering chaos-because I find it all quite comfortable, like a nice warm bath.

Ah, food and alcohol, could there be a better pair? I think not. Sure, both alcohol and food can leave you hurting the next morning, but ultimately they are the saving graces of any

bad party, event, or travel experience. The food and alcohol act in symphony

complimenting one another and creating taste experiences that leave you craving

more. Oh and it definitely helps that one can be the cure for the pain of the other

Methodologies of cooking cover a broad spectrum from the contemporary practices of

molecular gastronomy to the ages old method of charcuterie and everything simple

in between. It’s important to realize that all are good ways to prepare a meal and to not

get caught up in just one of them. The foundations will never leave and there will

always be a maverick in the kitchen. It’s vital to understand and appreciate both

Whether hot dogs or squid balls, street food is the quickest way to discover the nuances of a culture. Sure, the food may not look to be the

safest to eat, but looks can be deceiving. These vendors make this food because their life

depends on it and it shows. The quality is better than that of any tourist trap restaurant and a

much better experience

what really happens in a restaurant kitchen

FOOD

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FROM THE STREETS TO THE kITCHENAnd in being that selfish I must have dis-

appointed people, and all my regrets are

about disappointing people - as a friend,

as a lover, being a letdown. Cooks. That

explains why a lot of us go into the busi-

ness in the first place. In there, there was

something you could control, a way you

could feel good about yourself.”

Anthony Bourdain is not your average

chef: crass, opinionated, world traveler

and suprisingly nice guy. However, his

beginnings were much like that of any

other chef, starting at the bottom and

working his way to the top. I met with

Tony, that’s what he prefers to be called

after a drink or two, at a local pub and

had a casual chat to discuss his path

through life. The diagram gives a sim-

plistice view of his path during the past

few decades, if you dont want to read

the discussion.

Being a dishwasher, succeeding that

night as part of a group - that was the

first time I ever went home feeling proud.

“

I miss the chef talk. Five or six chefs, all

talking away about someone who’s a

backstabbing treacherous psycho, all

agreeing, completely, and then into the

anger someone just says, yeah, but he

can cook. I miss that. Cooking is such an

intimate thing. There’s no lying in the

kitchen. You can’t spin your ability: you

can’t even lie about your personal life,

because problems come through.”

His own personal life began to fall apart

not long ago. You could blame the success

of the book only in part: it was because of

one physical place that success got him,

and that was Vietnam.

I’d read Greene. Conrad. Maugham. And

Vietnam was just like the books, just like

the movies, only better. The guileless

generosity of strangers, waking up smell-

ing those smells, seeing those sights. And

having, once, one perfect meal, a con-

fluence of everything good, a source of

perfect happiness; I was almost ready to

believe in God.

But there was quite a big downside to all

of that.” His eyes are intently on me now,

the background chatter receding. “I knew

that my whole previous life was doomed.

It was no longer going to be normal. I had

seen that ... colour... and I knew that that

had changed me, altered the way I would

look at things. And the first time I went

back to America, I found I was right. Ev-

erything was flat. Everything.” He doesn’t

go into too many details, but his marriage

to Nancy broke up shortly afterwards.

She was the love of my life. But every-

thing changed. But ... look ... yes, there

are regrets. But, also, and never mind this

extraordinary change in life, the book - I

have had so many things. So many other

things. I have loved with all my heart, and

I have been loved. I knew better people

than I deserved. I had more fun than I de-

served. What I do regret is letting people

down. Not being able to be a complete

human being. Long before I was even on

TV I was always, somehow, seeing myself

as if I was in a movie: selfish, narcissistic. “

“

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AND bACk AGAINSTORy by EUAN FERGUSON

LIFE

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MAYBE THAT’S ENLIGHTENMENT ENOUGH: TO KNOW THAT THERE IS NO FINAL RESTING pLACE OF THE MIND; NO MOMENT OF SMUG CLARITY. pERHApS WISDOM...IS REALIzING HOW SMALL I AM, AND UNWISE, AND HOW FAR I HAVE YET TO GO.”

“

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