He was, in my opinion, the best food guru in the world – an American celebrity chef, author and television host who traveled the globe 250 days a year to discover and showcase the world’s  most interesting and delectable food. As I was driving down Short Street in Kernersville, I looked right and saw that someone had painted a mural of him on a wall of the Short Street Kitchen (a shared-use commercial culinary site). I suddenly had tears in my eyes because I loved the guy, pure and simple, as well as how he celebrated all kinds of food front and center. One of the most beloved modern food and travel writers, he circumnavigated the planet on his shows “A Cook’s Tour,” “No Reservations” and “Parts Unknown” to sample dishes that much of his American audience had never encountered or even imagined in the farthest reaches of their imaginations. Widely respected in the culinary industry, he spoke openly about the often unappealing realities of the restaurant industry, wowing us with his raw honesty, exuberance but always overarching love for food – whether it was spit-roasted pig (babi guling) in Bali, blood sausage in Cologne, Germany or his one-and-only fast food favorite – hamburgers with everything on them – at In-N-Out Burger in Los Angeles. 

Bourdain’s cooking skills gave him a legendary reputation, in no small part garnered from 28 years in the culinary industry. Known for his humility, he said he was only “a journeyman chief of middling abilities” although perhaps the owner of Brasserie Les Halles, an esteemed French fine dining bistro in New York City where he was the executive chef thought differently. Watching him on TV made you inveterately excited about food, too. He famously said “Food is everything we are. It’s an extension of nationalist feeling, ethnic feeling, your personal history, your province, your region, your tribe, your grandma. It’s inseparable from those from the get go.” His exhortation to “find out how other people live and eat and cook. Learn from them – wherever you go” personally inspired me to enlarge my rather pedestrian palate, newly leaning into Indian, Thai, Ethiopian, Greek, Vietnamese and other cuisines. Still, I didn’t know anyone who could match his extreme adventurous palate – sampling cobra hearts, goose intestines, durian and seal eyeballs, pig brains and (unbelievably) fried rice with maggots.  

Bourdain had strong opinions, memorialized in his two most famous books, Medium Raw and Kitchen Confidential which often reflected the habits of his earlier years. A former heroin addict who continued to drink until his death in June of 2018 by suicide, he criticized the fast food industry and various prominent chefs like Paula Deen. But, he also freely revealed his humanity – that he was a real person with normal problems including depression, agoraphobia, anxiety and bipolar episodes. In his 40s, he successfully shifted from chef to food travel host, moving away from his early angry years when he was the profanity-spewing, cigarette-smoking epitome of the bad boy chef, emphatically delivering controversial opinions. His cookbook, Anthony Bourdain’s Les Halles Cookbook (2004) and later work, Appetites, gained him legions of fans and also revealed his love of ordinary French brasserie cooking. As a person with French ancestry myself, I marvel at his spirit and artistic genius and am deeply impressed by his compassion and ability to empathize with people, wherever he found them, whether in the most luxurious neighborhoods of Paris or at the hovels which lined street markets in Hanoi.

Although he was not shy about expressing his distaste for fast food, he also wasn’t beneath enjoying it. He lived in New Jersey but eagerly loved going to California where he went to Popeye’s and had his favorite mac n’ cheese (intentionally hiding away from the intrusive eyes of the camera people who followed him (paparazzi) everywhere. When asked about some of his very favorite dishes, he mentioned ceviche (an iconic raw fish from Peru) and French fries (blanched first, then fried twice immediately and always served with steak). His most famous dish was Boeuf Bourguignon, and his favorite sandwich was five-ingredient fried Mortadella sandwiches. In New York City, there was a place that he was addicted to which served hot dogs with sauerkraut, and he was always grateful when, at friends’ homes, he was served hard boiled eggs. Like folks in North Carolina, he loved barbecue and said that it “may not be the road to world peace, but it’s a start.”

Anthony Bourdain helped audiences think differently about food, travel and themselves. He  advocated for marginalized populations and campaigned for safer working conditions in the food industry. He inspired me to cook. As for me, he’s one of my heroes, and I’m glad to see his spirit living in downtown Kernersville.