CASE STUDY 01

Anthony Bourdain Loved Kwa Mei Mei
(A Case Study on Anthony Bourdain and the connection between cuisine, location, emotion and words)

Introduction

Anthony Bourdain (June 25, 1956 – June 8, 2018) was an American chef, author and documentarian. Best known for his show Parts Unknown, which explored foods of virtually every corner of the globe. Bourdain’s work was focused on the exploration of culture, cuisine and the human condition.

Raised in New Jersey, Bourdain first took an interest in food when he ate an oyster as a young boy on a trip to France with his family. He attended Vassar College for two years before ultimately graduating from the Culinary Institute of America in 1978. Bourdain later moved to New York City, where he ran the kitchens at a series of respected restaurants. While working as a chef, he began to try his hand at writing, which resulted in two crime novels: Bone in the Throat (1995) and Gone Bamboo (1997). In 1999, while he was working as the executive chef at Brasserie Les Halles, Bourdain published an exposé of the restaurant industry in The New Yorker, called “Don’t Eat Before Reading This.” The article became something of a cause célèbre, as many of the ugly inner workings of the restaurant world were brought to light to the wider public for the first time via Bourdain’s caustically witty writing. He expanded his article into the popular memoir Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly (2000), which contained not only additional accounts of the inner workings of restaurant kitchens but intimate details of Bourdain’s personal life as well, including his long battle with heroin addiction. That’s when it all changed.

Bourdain would go on to expand on the success of Kitchen Confidential and enter into television with, A Cook’s Tour (2002–03). He then took the basic concept of A Cook’s Tour—Bourdain providing a humorous guide to a locale with a focus on local cuisine and offbeat cultural features—and developed it into an hour-long cable program, Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations (2005–12). He would frequent various other television programs before establishing the CNN show: Parts Unknown.
Case Analysis

Food & Nostalgia

It was no secret that Chef Bourdain had a very unique and vibrant way with words. His descriptions of foods often resembled culinary symphonies. Buffets of paragraphs so detailed, fluid and descriptive you needn’t even look at the screen to see just exactly what he was eating and you needn’t ever try it to know just exactly how it tasted. So effortless and poetic he was at painting vivid portraits of cultures, cuisines and the human condition.

Growing up, I would always turned to the cooking channels whenever I was hungry, it never did me any good to watch people eat really tasty looking food, in fact it only ever aggravated my hunger. Guy Fieri, Gordon Ramsey, Bobby Flay, these were all hosts to some excellent food shows but Parts Unknown felt very different from other food shows even at a very young age it stood out. I couldn’t make out quite why that was at that age but now I know it wasn’t so much what Chef Bourdain was eating but how he described it. There was a set structure to the way Bourdain would speak about where he was and what he was eating. Majority of the time he painted the political and social landscape of where he was; Singapore, Bangkok, Rio de Janeiro and this was followed by the development of the local cuisine because of this context. Reflecting back, this context and the way he worded it provided such a vivid identity and richly descriptive background to the food that it was practically palatable. Hainanese Chicken Rice, Spicy Shrimp Soup, Feijoada, foods I had never tasted suddenly felt like home, cuisines I had never heard of, suddenly sounded familiar and spices I had never smelt suddenly became nostalgic.

Retrospectively, this is what made Anthony Bourdain so special to me, food is so much more than just food, the human condition and cultural traditions are so deeply intertwined with food that it is practically blasphemy to try to remove the context of food and repackage it in a different one. Bourdain understood this, he respected this and as such he was a moving storyteller who used the context of food as his medium.

Food & Travel

“It’s an irritating reality that many places and events defy description. Angkor Wat and Machu Picchu, for instance, seem to demand silence, like a love affair you can never talk about. For a while after, you fumble for words, trying vainly to assemble a private narrative, an explanation, a comfortable way to frame where you’ve been and what’s happened. In the end, you’re just happy you were there — with your eyes open — and lived to see it.”

In my own travels I recognise glimpses of what Chef Bourdain repeatedly made clear on his show(s). There is an innate beauty in your personal unknown and there should be a strong desire in us all to travel, to see, to explore parts unknown. Through food, he saw a universal language that transcended borders, bridging gaps between people from all walks of life. Travel, in his eyes, offered a firsthand education in empathy, compassion, and humility, as it exposed individuals to diverse perspectives and ways of life. Bourdain saw the dinner table as a sacred space where strangers become friends, where barriers were broken down, and where meaningful conversations flourished. He believed that by sharing meals and stories with one another, we could foster understanding, tolerance, and appreciation for the rich tapestry of our world. For Bourdain, travel and food weren't just pleasures; they were powerful tools for fostering cultural exchange, promoting peace, and embracing the beauty of our collective humanity.

Bourdain's Legacy

“Meals make the society, hold the fabric together in lots of ways that were charming and interesting and intoxicating to me. The perfect meal, or the best meals, occur in a context that frequently has very little to do with the food itself.”

Anthony Bourdain's impact on the culinary world and popular culture is nothing short of transformative. Through his fearless exploration of global cuisines and cultures, Bourdain transcended the confines of traditional food media, revolutionizing the way we view cooking, dining, and travel. His candid storytelling and unfiltered authenticity brought a refreshing honesty to the culinary landscape, inspiring a new generation of chefs, food enthusiasts, and travelers to embrace the adventurous spirit of culinary exploration. Bourdain's influence extended far beyond the kitchen, as he used his platform to shine a light on social and political issues, championing marginalized voices and advocating for greater understanding and empathy.

It was very shocking and heartbreaking to learn about his passing back in 2018, the loss felt very personal because here was someone who saw the beauty in his work, who was so passionate about food and its context that he was able to describe it to me so vividly I could taste it. What Bourdain leaves for me is an indelible desire to be intentional and honest, in my words, in my travels, in my work and in my food.

Every opportunity I get to eat my ou tani’s tomato gravy and frikkadels, I do it so intently because if it is the last time that I ever eat it at least I can explain it to someone with so much detail that they can taste it.

“Drink heavily with locals whenever possible.” - RIP ANTHONY BOURDAIN

Credits:
CD + Photography: Klein Muis + Ruaan Vos
Model: Rayan Ally
Production Asst: Thuli Sekati