Table of contents
What this thing is
A charismatic dude flexing about how cool he is, the places he managed to work, how much he shot up, and how the whole thing started.
That dude is Anthony Bourdain: chef, writer, TV host. You might have run into him (I certainly did) in the memes where he offers to beat someone to death with his bare hands1. Despite a pretty tragic ending, he lived an incredibly vivid, full life. Which is exactly what he writes about.
The book covers a huge chunk of Anthony’s life: from a childhood trip to France with his parents, the cold soup and the first oyster, all the way to insane stories like the one that made him DEFINITELY want to be a chef:
There was a fenced-off garbage stockade right outside the window by the dishwasher, that concealed the stacked trash and cans of edible waste the restaurant sold to a pig farm up-Cape, from the cars in the parking lot. Soon, all of us-Tommy, Lydia, the new dishwasher and I were peering through the window, where in full view of his assembled crew, Bobby was noisily rear-ending the bride. She was bent obligingly over a 55-gallon drum, her gown hiked up over her hips. Bobby’s apron was up, resting over her back as he pumped away furiously, the young woman’s eyes rolled up into her head, mouth whispering, ‘Yess, yess . . . good . . . good . . .’ While her new groom and family chawed happily on their flounder fillets and deep-fried scallops just a few yards away in the Dreadnaught dining room, here was the blushing bride, getting an impromptu send-off from a total stranger. And I knew then, dear reader, for the first time: I wanted to be a chef.
And there are plenty of stories like that, and the whole thing reads in a single sitting. There’s even a chapter I can’t describe as anything other than a “prototype of The Bear”2…
The more I think about how to describe this book, the harder it gets not to spoil it. And on the one hand that almost feels like a downside - like it’s just a list of stories and events.
Not even close!
It’s worth reading, and you should read it, for Tony’s talent for infecting you with a love of life, for prose that’s almost punk, almost gonzo in places! For that 90s vibe, the kind of parties that could have come straight out of an Irvine Welsh novel. For that contagious hunger for life. Honestly, just for something life-affirming and beautiful.
Verdict
A week ago my wife and I went to see Tony - a film based on this very book, still in theaters as of writing this. If you’re not up for slogging through the book, at least go watch the movie. And then read the book too. Because as Bourdain put it:
Your body is not a temple, it’s an amusement park. Enjoy the ride
Take care of yourself and your loved ones!
Footnotes
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That’s a mangled version of a line from his second most famous book, about Kissinger and his influence on Cambodia ↩
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I mean the show The Bear ↩