AT THE TABLE TO BE REAL
generation of food writers, travelers, photographers, and foodies,” said Barbara Lynch, Boston’s award-winning chef-restaurateur behind No. 9 Park and more.
His 2000 book, “Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly,” a memoir-slash-expose that offered diners a rare and salacious behind-thescenes glimpse at the good, bad and gnarly of professional kitchens, detailed “twenty-five years of sex, drugs, bad behavior and haute cuisine.” Many young chefs inspired by Bourdain mimicked his charismatic rock-star persona. Far fewer have been able to capture what really made him special.
Whether sipping soup with locals in a Laotian village or sharing noodles with then-President Barack Obama in Vietnam, we saw someone genuinely engaged with the political, cultural and environmental context of what he was eating.
Last month’s Armeniaset episode of “Parts Unknown” drew strong praise for bringing attention to the country’s under-recognized genocide.
“Bourdain’s recent visit to Armenia made millions of Armenians around the globe proud and humbled that their story, their history, their conflicts, and their food was communicated and represented masterfully,” said Raffi Festekjian, owner of the Armenian-Lebanese South End eatery Anoush’ella Saj Kitchen.
Bourdain was never shy about using his celebritychef status to take public stances on other important issues within and without the restaurant world. Recently his girlfriend, Asia Argento, has been among the many actresses accusing movie mogul Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault, and Bourdain has been a vocal supporter of the #MeToo movement, working to root out misogyny in all industries, from film to food.
And “Kitchen Confidential” helped kick-start more robust conversations about the darker side of an industry Bourdain once called “the last refuge of the misfit,” raising awareness of issues such as substance abuse and mental health in a world of frequently brilliant creatives whose talents are too often overworked, underpaid and exploited.
“Bourdain’s impact on the food community cannot be measured,” said Michael Scelfo, acclaimed chef of Cambridge’s Alden & Harlow and Waypoint. “This is a great opportunity for all of us in the Boston area cooking community to come together in kindness and support of one another . ... Bourdain’s gift was to bring us all to the table. This community should do the same, in his spirit.”
In the endless buzz of modern being, Bourdain made us hungry to be more human.