Raising a glass to my soulmate chef

I never took much notice of Anthony Bourdain, the American TV chef who’s just tragically died.

But I wish I had. Because reading his obituary I came across something astonishing from a food and drink expert. An attack on lager snobbery.

“I was in San Francisco, desperate for beer, and I walked into this craft beer place, and it was filled with people sitting with five small glasses, filled with different beers, taking notes,” he said, aghast. Then thought: “This is not a bar. This is the Invasion of the Body Snatchers. This is not what a bar is about. It’s about going to get a little bit buzzed and not sit there f***ing analysing beer.”

And I suddenly felt a genuine loss, and a certain anger for never watching a man who was clearly a soulmate. RIP.