In praise of Bourdain
A tribute to a chef, writer, TV personality, and adventurer
I have been writing quite a bit about salmon fishing in recent weeks. I suppose that’s fine, given the time of year and so much going on in the media. Last week I told the tale of B.C. friends having to pack up and leave their cabin on Crabbes River. I’m writing this column very early, June 8, because tomorrow morning bright and early I’m heading out to that very same cabin. The sun is shining and I’m packing my gear for a fishing trip. It is a good day, but there is both disturbing and sad news this morning.
First the disturbing news, I’m hearing on Twitter that the 2018 salmon licences are the same as last year’s, with the mere and expected exception, the dates. I have not seen the 2018 licence myself. I will by midday tomorrow in Deer Lake. If what I hear is true I will be flabbergasted. Why weren’t the bloody things ready by Jun 1, like every other year? We will see. By the time you read this we will know for sure. I hope there is somewhere a good explanation for all this mess. As I write I’m getting emails and texts telling me the licences are identical to last year. That is the disturbing news.
Sad news
Now for the very sad news, a little while ago a CBC news notification popped up on my smartphone. I couldn’t believe it, Anthony Bourdain found dead in his Strasbourg, France hotel room. He was just 61 years old with so much left to contribute to this world, so much more to do. He took his own life. It is so difficult to know what is going on beneath the surface in another person’s mind. Folks who knew him well were totally shocked.
My two daughters are very sad today. Both Allison and Megan are avid followers of Anthony’s work. Megan is a chef by trade and Allison is a dyed-inthe wool foodie. We have been following Anthony Bourdain’s writing and TV work long before he became a CNN superstar.
I first heard of Mr. Bourdain in 2007 while visiting Megan at culinary school. I had some time to kill and nothing to read. Megan had just bought his new book, “No Reservations” I think. I picked it up and started thumbing through the pages. I started reading and I just couldn’t put the book down. It affected my outlook on food and to some extent the travel and fly-fishing work that I do. I have quoted from that book. But more importantly it helped me appreciate the holistic side of life, culture, food, fishing, and
The best food isn’t always expensive and served in fine dining restaurants. It is about atmosphere, the season, time, people and an essence difficult to tangibly describe with words or even photos. Anthony Bourdain’s talent was in making obvious to us less gifted, that quintessential ingredient.
travel. Thank-you so much Anthony Bourdain, it is indeed about much more than the fishing.
This week, honouring Mr. Bourdain’s life in the best way that I can, although minor in comparison to the tributes that he will surely receive, I will write about food that I have experienced in my fishing travels.
But first, who remembers that show Anthony did in a lake fishing hut on the St. Lawrence River? That was a fantastic episode, a bunch of ice anglers cooking up simple food for themselves under crude conditions. Each guy had his own specialty. The best food isn’t always expensive and served in fine dining restaurants. It is about atmosphere, the season, time, people and an essence difficult to tangibly describe with words or even photos. Anthony Bourdain’s talent was in making obvious to us less gifted, that quintessential ingredient.
I will tell you about the closest experience I ever had to the goings on in that Quebec ice-fishing shanty. It was 2007 and Rod Hale and I were fishing Great Bear Lake in Canada’s North West Territories. One day Rod and I, along with a friend Dave from Arizona, and two guides flew out of the main camp on a Twin Otter to fish a tributary system flowing into the main lake. The guides were Pike Mike from Yellowknife and Terry from British Columbia. They were both interesting eccentric characters, hardcore anglers, and waterside foodies.
It was an amazing day of fly fishing. We caught Arctic grayling until we were literally sick of catching them. We hooked and released many but kept some for a fish fry. And besides that, Terry caught a nice lake trout just the right
size for eating. Only the guides had eaten grayling before, and neither Dave nor Rod had ever tasted lake trout. By the end of fishing we were hungry, excited, and had two hours for feasting before the plane was scheduled to pick us up. And the flight usually ran a bit late anyway.
The big question was, who would cook the food. You have to understand that shore lunch is a very big deal at Plummer’s Arctic Lodge operations. The guides take great pride in their culinary skills. We all had experienced both Mike’s and Terry’s campfire cooking skills. Both were exceptional outdoor master chefs. So, Dave suggests that the boys have a cook off, and we would be the judges, along with keeping the fires going, fetching stuff and so on. Anthony Bourdain would have loved this scene. Here we were, in the middle of the wilderness, hailing from farflung places, coming together in fishing and food.
The pictures will tell most of the tale here, but it was the fish fry of my life. These guys could really cook up a storm over an open fire in a steel skillet My words cannot do justice to the smells and taste. The boys had separate fires and their own boxes of spices and special ingredients. All this culinary delight was evolving from many years of outdoor cooking. Mike and Terry were the best. They prepared two styles of fried fish each, all tantalizing, aromatic, and masterfully cooked exactly the right amount. I think these guys could adjust temperature better with an open fire than I can on a propane burner. Wow what a feast it was. Mike finished it with kabobs. It is a meal seared in my memory forever.
Anthony Bourdain, I don’t understand why you needed to leave early, but your life has been a wonderful contribution to what is good about humans and our existence on this blue rocky Earth. Let’s all occasionally think of Anthony when we are enjoying food with friends and family. That way his legacy will live forever.