Dining industry loses a giant in Bourdain
What makes a hero isn’t an emblem and matching cape, but the vigorous and vigilant capture and release of human truth.
Perhaps no one in the hospitality industry met that standard as did the truly great and sadly late Anthony Bourdain, whom we lost to suicide last week.
He was 61. Bourdain last came to Oklahoma City in 2012 on his Guts and Glory Tour. The host of successful programs on Travel Channel and CNN and many books, Bourdain burst onto the scene in 1999 with an article published in The New Yorker.
Throughout his career, he expressed a point of view previously unheard to the general public: the unvarnished view from the restaurant kitchen.
In a time when chefs were quickly being hoisted on shoulders for feats of culinary derringdo, Bourdain kept it real. While Food Network shaped a narrative of chefs as TV heroes, Tony sketched the pirate ships they came from in words.
His consistent focus on humanity in the kitchen spread to the table and around the world, making him a star.
A natural-born writer, Bourdain found his work ethic in the kitchen and had the guts to share the good, bad, ugly and delicious by order of his conscience.
Here’s what he wrote in the article entitled “Don’t Eat Before Reading This” in 1999:
As most of us in the restaurant business know, there is a powerful strain of criminality in the industry, ranging from the dope-dealing busboy with beeper and cell phone to the restaurant owner who
has two sets of accounting books. In fact, it was the unsavory side of professional cooking that attracted me to it in the first place. In the early seventies, I dropped out of college and transferred to the Culinary Institute of America. I wanted it all: the cuts and burns on hands and wrists, the ghoulish kitchen humor, the free food, the pilfered booze, the camaraderie that flourished within rigid order and nerve-shattering chaos.
The article became the impetus for his seminal first book “Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly,” which launched Bourdain into the stratosphere as culinaria’s most important new voice.
That voice, equal parts loud and precise, made him a local in every kitchen. At every table. He is missed here like a local because he understood the kitchen, the table and the people who tended and attended were no different regardless of time zone or language.
He understood whether food is plentiful or not, humanity is innately hungry and instinctively covetous of knowledge and wisdom.
What set Tony apart was his refusal to pay homage to manufactured authenticity.
In a time when loud has passed true as the litmus test for gaining attention, Bourdain rarely misused his ample pipes to blow smoke where it didn’t belong. And he wasn’t afraid to apologize when he did.
Here’s hoping his death will inspire a movement toward frank conversation about depression and mental illness that helps remove any stigma.
We all suffer, folks. Every one of us. Those who claim they’ve never made a mistake or never failed at anything suffer the most.
Thanks for the memories and rest in peace, Tony.
Old Germany will reopen
CHOCTAW — Looks like Old Germany Restaurant will get a second chance thanks to local angel investors.
Owner Mike Turek was forced to close back in April at the order of the Oklahoma Tax Commission.
But response to the closing of the 42-year-old restaurant opened by Turek’s parents got the ball rolling.
According to a report in the Choctaw Times, a local couple have stepped up with the capital needed to reopen Turek’s Tavern and Old Germany plus rekindle Choctaw’s annual Oktoberfest.
Look for Turek’s Tavern, 15920 SE 29, to be open in time for Mike to don his Germany kit for the World Cup. Word is the mother ship will remained closed for renovations until August.
As for Oktoberfest, look for a four-day affair starting Aug. 30 at Choctaw Creek Park.
Will have plenty on the story between now and then.
The Art of Brunch scheduled
Here’s an unusual idea for Father’s Day: Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center is hosting The Art of Brunch at 10 a.m. in Campbell Art Park, NW 11 and Broadway Avenue.
I’m told more than 300 guests attended this new brunch tradition and arts fundraiser.
The event includes bottomless mimosas paired with a tree-shaded brunch prepared by the chefs of Hatch Early Mood Food, Packard’s New American Kitchen, Stella Modern Italian Cuisine and The Pritchard Wine Bar.
Also included is a VIP tour of Guerrilla Art Park’s sculptures, doughnuts from Holey Rollers, coffee from Coffee Slingers, poptails and wine from Water’s Edge Winery or a Prairie Artisan Ale in the West Elm lounge, live music, art-making and creative elements from local artists.
Proceeds from The Art of Brunch
go toward making Oklahoma Contemporary art exhibitions free to the public and open year-round. Cost is $75 per person.
For tickets, go to oklahomacontemporary.org/ events/art-brunch/ or call 9510000.
Comings and goings
First things first, made it into
The Eatery and Cocktail Office at The Union, 616 NW 5, also known as The Union@SOSA, twice last week.
The kitschy indoor-outdoor dining hall and bar opened a couple of months ago on the western edge of downtown under the ownership of Zach Foster, Stephen Marco and Drew Mains.
Inside the former Union Hall buttressed by an old Air Stream Trailer, you’ll find an eclectic menu and full bar.
Had lunch one day and dinner another, and I found both experiences to be worthy of a return. Blackened grouper sandwich was on point as were the queso with wonton chips, fried goat cheese and poke bowl.
This place is in a bit of a no man’s land right now with development pending all around, but it’s a terrific destination with plenty of parking, good capacity and live music on the weekends.
For more information, check out its Facebook page: keyword Union at SOSA.
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