DELVING INTO THE NEW UNKNOWN
Cooking for his daughter inspired latest cookbook
Author, television host, former addict and former chef Anthony Bourdain has taught President Obama to slurp noodles in Vietnam, got a scorpion tattoo with rock stars in Nashville and drunk snake-infused liquor with karate masters in Japan. But cooking at home for his 9-year-old daughter and her young pals is what inspired his latest, Appetites: A
Cookbook. Don’t think Bourdain, 60, is becoming soft. The book is, as expected, laced with profanity and proclamations about the stupidity of brunch and that third slice of bread in a club sandwich. Plus, the book’s darkly cartoonish cover — designed by Ralph Steadman — was too outrageous for two major U.S. retailers, according to Bourdain, and had to be wrapped in paper like an adult magazine before it could appear on shelves.
The book itself includes family favourites, easy mains, sandwiches, food from his travels, and the occasional rant. And while his wife is featured prominently in Appetites — which he has described as a “dysfunctional family cookbook” — the couple reportedly separated just weeks before the book was released this week.
New York-based Bourdain is the author of 13 books, including five works of fiction and the bestselling confessional Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly. He’s also the Emmy-winning host of CNN’s Parts Unknown, which takes Bourdain on the road for 250 days of the year.
The Star chatted with the outspoken, erstwhile chef en route to Philadelphia during a speaking tour he’s calling “The Hunger.” Bourdain appears at the Sony Centre on Nov. 1. Your last cookbook was out more than 10 years ago. Why did you decide the time was right for, as you’ve said, a cookbook for “normal people”?
I’m a father now. That’s been my audience for the better part of nine years, cooking for a little girl and her friends. That’s a major adjustment in priorities, how I live my life, and what I am cooking. It goes beyond taking into account the fact I’ve got a little girl sitting there. More often than not she is deciding what we’re eating. The book is reflective of that.
I never really cared whether what I wrote was useful or not. This is maybe the first thing I wrote that was intended to be useful. (The book is dedicated to) Ariane, and she insisted I acknowledge her best friend, Jacques, as well.
What is her favourite meal and what is your favourite meal to cook for her?
I like cooking pasta. It makes me happy. It’s therapeutic for me to cook pasta. She likes my carbonara a lot. She likes macaroni and cheese. She likes to make ratatouille because she gets to use a knife a lot. She likes cooking with me — veal Milanese, and anything sort of squishy she can get her hands in and get all messy, like meatballs. She loves octopus. Anything that looks kind of gross, she likes.
At what age did she start handling a knife?
She was pushing me and pushing me to do it. Finally around age 6, I stood next to her and walked her through very, very, very carefully how to properly hold and knife and use one. I wasn’t happy about it but there was no putting her off any longer. She was insistent and determined and I had to respect that. It filled me with terror and still does but I handed her a knife and put her to work.
A lot of the recipes in the book seem like pushback against food that is unnecessarily fussy. What are the food trends that irritate you at the moment?
When you try to improve on something that is already pretty flawless — a good hamburger, for instance. You can change it, you can add things and make it more expensive and novel, but can you improve it? That’s what I am always asking myself. The urge to put truffle oil or lobster in macaroni and cheese is really a destructive impulse.
I also question the usefulness of the word “authentic” because the word becomes more ridiculous and irrelevant every day. In the cookbook, this is food that should be approachable, that home cooks can reasonably be expected to do and be good at. It’s reflective of my taste. Most chefs you talk to in their off hours, what they crave is simple food they can experience emotionally rather than something that will technically impress. That’s exhausting.
Something else you rail against is
brunch, which is a favourite pastime in Toronto, and New York for that matter. People love it, chefs hate it.
But you’re getting into making pancakes for your daughter and her friends?
Yeah, I actually like cooking eggs and breakfast now since I’m a dad, but only after many years of hating it on a cellular level. Do you ever get tired of being referred to the “bad boy” of the culinary world?
I don’t care. I got that from the beginning with Kitchen Confidential, but the period of time I was writing about, even back then, had already passed. I didn’t see myself as a “bad boy” then, and I never took it seriously. I don’t care to either reinforce that or disprove it.
Do you think restaurant culture is changing? There’s been a lot of coverage about sexual harassment in kitchens and a discussion about better wages for cooks.
The culture is changing. I’m glad about that. It’s long overdue. It’s become de-testosteroned over time. People are talking about living wages and benefits, which is good.
A lot of that is coming not necessarily because of social justice or pressure to do things right.
I think a lot of it is because of the prestige of the chef and the cook has really risen over the last 15, 20 years and the people who are entering these workplaces are better educated, have higher expectations and aren’t willing to put up with the same cycle of abuse that passed from one generation to another. The people who are entering the mix have changed and (are) changing the workplace.
Are you on a hiatus from the show to do this book tour?
No, I am squeezing our tour in between shows. I just got back from Laos a couple days ago and I’m doing a show in the New York area and then flying out to the Middle East shortly after that. I’m right in the middle of shooting season.