Anthony Bourdain A Cooks Tour Season 1 Episode 17: Los Angeles My Own Heart of Darkness

welcome to my world to escargot pate freeze two green salads okay lamb chops stay screeched shouldn't you be doing something twofold fillet and a pepper snake come on make the dessert chocolate tart please as a cook tastes and smells are my memories and now i'm in search of new ones so i'm leaving new york city and hope to have a few epiphanies around the world and i'm willing to go to some lengths to do that i'm looking for extremes of emotion and experience i'll try anything i'll risk everything i have nothing to lose [Music] los angeles los angeles why god why am i here i'm the worst possible guy in the world to do you know a los angeles adventures and food show i'm an east coast sort of a guy i'm a bundle of deeply held prejudices morbid fears and apprehension about this town have palm trees ever look more menacing more sinister this is where bad things happen to people like me my worst nightmare about going to l.a is that i do not have the strength of character to survive there it's where people way more talented than i go and screw up their lives completely first i start believing the complications then my agent will give me some compromising offer to write a very special episode of dharma and greg and it'll sound pretty good [Applause] finally i'll take my tv money and settle into some fancy hollywood hotel then i really start to screw up next thing you know i'm coughing up my last on a cold bathroom floor or i wind up face down in the hotel pool [Music] the message is always you shouldn't be messing around out here so what's the first thing i do when i get to los angeles i ran a classic 67 to 68 red mustang convertible and i like it i like it a lot oh yeah styling it begins corruption in increments while i'm in this town i want to see what the locals are really eating is it really all avocados and light cooking and non-smoking zones and no animal fat i want to get my hands dirty i want to eat every day ciao the first thing i notice is there seems to be a remarkable number of fast food restaurants out here for now i'm looking to ease into the california thing i'm on a hot dog quest i just want a dog like i know and love i mean what unifies us in america more than the beloved hot dog how is the california particularly the southern california hot dog different than the new york hot dog it's different we are now approaching the fine gourmet emporium tale of the pup we'll check out that east coast versus west coast hot dog thing here the standard dog automatically comes with chili on top where's my weenie what do the zen buddha say to the hot dog vendor make me one with everything the ultimate experience okay i asked for the ultimate hot dog exp west coast hot dog experience chili cheese dog with tomatoes crunchy the squeaky and crunchy dog the tail of the pup dog is good the skin's a little thick to me a little crunchy but that seems to be a selling point out here they're looking for a good snap crackle pop now when stalking the elusive hot dog i mean i like to taste the hot dog itself the essence of the dog proper so i think next time around we'll be i'll be avoiding the chili or other adulterants pink's by popular consensus seems to be the apex of the la dog makers art they've dreamed up hot dog toppings that we in new york wouldn't conceive of in our most fever nightmares to my mind it's california at its best and at its worst my guide to the hot dog kingdom and pinks is appropriately enough gloria pig we're getting a sample including something called the millennium dog i believe there's guacamole involved which confirms of course my most deeply held prejudices and fears about this area see we finally encountered the avocado and in close conjunction with a hot dog too here we go here are some of our specialties gloria sets me up with a full tasting of some of their more classic and some of their more bizarre hot dog variations lovely we've got our millennium dog which is the giant 12-inch jalapeno dog with guacamole and tomatoes and grilled onions and lettuce we have our legendary chili cheese dog right the classic we've got a bacon dog and we've got a fajita dog cool does the hot dog snap when you bite into it yeah this is really breaking the law this is a complete rule breaking this goes against everything i i believe in you want to call the waiter over excuse me wait this guacamole on my hot dog awesome but terrifying god help me i like it [Applause] this fits right in perfectly with my whole culinary philosophy but you can never have too much pork about an hour ago i would have made a fervent argument that all hot dogs should essentially be this and no variation but but now my whole world has been changed i feel a little bit ashamed i'd be afraid to order or eat this in new york i'm free to do it in california as everybody seems to be eating weird hot dog variations once again it's kind of good it's overkill or the finest kind that was a magnificent hot dog which truly was crunchy but not uh not troublingly crunchy and then is always a bridge too far okay world famous cookie dog oh man i'm confused what's the difference between an oaky dog and a hot dog okay it's got two hot dogs pastrami chili and cheese wrapped in a flour two tea it's like a burrito all right i'll try that that sounds strange this is really deranged i regret that i have only one life to give to my network maybe next time i'll go for the teriyaki steak burrito something normal i don't think i'll be uh traveling down okie dog road again that's uh that took me right out of the game the okie dog has shattered my newly found faith in california you see they lure you in then cram them they pull this crown i wonder what other fiendish traps they've said i think this is beverly hills oh man this this is it this is like this is the heart of darkness the wands are too green the palm tree is too high the house is too nice don't look tony don't look i'm trying very hard not to picture myself seeing one of these fine homes getting the beverly hillbillies live there all i need to do is discover some bubbling crude i can live here the real reason i'm in la is that i've been invited to be the guest chef at the swank la restaurant campanile we're at campanile restaurant with chef owner mark peel i was worried about this i've been talking under range hoods my whole life we're in the early planning and execution and prep stages of uh tonight's special event here how do you pronounce that one uh we're doing an old school very familiar french menu in which believe it or not i'm the guest of honor i've been out of the kitchen way too long so this should be fun looking at this menu it's like uh sliding into a nice comfy warm bath nine hours till uh zero hour next shopping first we head over to mark's fish purveyor to pick up the fish for tonight look at the size of that guy you see this i like this place it's not too weird giant clam legs this place has got top of the line ultra fresh stuff i've seen most of this stuff before and in a pinch i could cook it it's a perfect place to take refuge from the oaky eaters this is the fish i was thinking about first tonight this is the uh spanish uh spanish dorad they're really nice nice and fresh we got the 36 of the sea bream nine of those we're looking for about 60 orders so we're gonna have to get like a 20 of uh spanish snapper or something a snapper is a very gray area basically the entire fish business conspires to call anything that they can possibly call a snapper snapper everybody wants it so of course they add the snapper name to anything they can that even barely resembles snapper so that therefore they can get that top dollar for it and sell it that's so pretty beautiful it's from new zealand new zealand what is this called golden eye see we call it golden eye snapper you could charge another buck a pound for it hey he knows again this is always my favorite job right uh cleaning cleaning the squids we don't skin these no holy no we you know we leave skin on okay um and it comes out real good real nice well i got 16 pounds the thought occurs to me that i haven't been in the kitchen for a long time now and this being la who knows what unexpected disaster awaits me okay we're gonna take that box these two boxes the red snapper and the squid these guys load for you or uh are we gonna haul beautiful i'm notoriously uh worst case scenario sort of a guy now we bought i believe 60 pieces of fish that's assuming then with 120 plus reservations at least half will go for red meat but there's a little voice in my head saying you know what if all of these communist non-red meat-eater hollywood types what happens if everybody goes for the fish what happens if they all go for the fish [Music] next stop on the tour santa monica for some produce oh i hope i see david hasselhoff the thing that's great about this market is that we can get all this stuff in new york but here it doesn't have to take the red eye so it's that much fresher so mark you do this about once a week you come here what every wednesday every wednesday yeah oh i love these look at this is this not sexy blood orange is that not cool there's a hollandaise variation called sauce maltese made with blood orange juice it's like a red hollandaise oh it's so sexy oh yeah this is what chefs do now that's really sexy we're talking about yes we have tiny little baby fennel that's great we're just using for the uh for the squid right yeah oh asparagus over here so sexy this place will put a fire in your lines i'm thinking well listen to the whole fish uh but you know two spears of green one spear of a purple per fish times uh what 40 yes 60. yeah i like them i like them big but sometimes they get too big that's a little too big yeah that's a palm tree okay that's it we're off this chef business has kept me from my convertible much too long so i tell mark i'll meet him back at the restaurant and head out in search of health food don't know why but i'm susceptible to crappy and subtle advertising and promotional gimmicks for some reason i feel like a donut can i get uh one glazed doughnut one with uh like a raspberry filled and one of those uh with the sprinkles on it in the end now i like the french kind of but you know what i say can the french do this i don't think so when you're standing in the shadow of the big donut every mouthful is magical but you know the donut i've had so far just not big enough look at that you know my mother always told me never eat anything bigger than your head but mom's been wrong about just about everything so far what do you call that big monster donut do you have a name for it the big one basically texas blaze yeah right everything's big in texas that's not false advertising [Music] intoxicating [Music] oh i love this engine god i love this car i'm already thinking you know what outrage would i not perform or commit to hang on to this fine piece of material paulie shore in hamlet sure i can write that there's a battle for my soul going on right now time to head back to campanile to make like a chef i mean a guest chef but the smell of fresh bread lures me next door mark's wife nancy silverton started la brea bakery as part of campanile back when they first opened but now she's making bread for half the country it smells really good in here but you knew that already what are you gonna show me well you know i knew you were coming in so i stayed up all night and i baked a few loaves of bread what do you think oh man that's a lot of work oh formed all of these with your own hands every single one all right [Music] this one has fresh rosemary and this has both kalamata olives and moroccan oil cured this is a rye currant oh that's really good a big big hunk of stinky cheese with this i'm there i wish i could bake yeah bread no it's it's way too late for me it's a it's a state of mind in addition well i'm chowing down on bread the able staff of company is busting their butts in the kitchen trying to make me look good as guest chef i get to throw on my chef bites at the last minute and prance around like i have something to teach these guys you toss the order stack a little spoon or squeeze bottle action if i was them i'd be thinking how soon can we drag this miscreant into the alley and feed on his eyeballs so i think i recognize the steely look in these guys eyes as i instruct them on french fry placement sack of fries on like at 12 o'clock so my strategy is to stay the hell out of the way and let these guys do their job [Music] [Music] basically this menu is very close to what we do at layout we specialize in old-school authentic brass me bistro of the most rustic and heavy on the animal fat kind it's classic bistro fair coat debuff which is a flintstone sized piece of beef you're not getting enough red meat out here that's why you know it's not that same level of naked aggression and rage of course if they don't want the beef we're serving the roasted rod and golden eye snapper we picked out at the market i have no idea how los angeles are going to like layout my expectation is that they're all going to go for the fish first course a shark replay it's a terrine of veal and pork it's sweet bread scott i love sweet breads a little salami it's calamus and serrano ham the king of hams by the way serrano is sort of the spanish prosciutto uncooked simply cured not smoked with just a touch of sweetness so the calamari salad and the most critical to french fries we have problems when the oil is fresh you know when oil is too clean uh when the potatoes too wet i mean there's all sorts of magical factors that work let's see how we do here [Music] turning to my humble roots right cook now unlike the mosh pit in my kitchen in new york this staff is about as polite and nice as any staff can be expected to be under these conditions or either chef i would have run my ass right out of this kitchen how are people ordering their meat in general where is their consensus here all good there is hope for humanity yeah i feel good take a picture oh it is a picture then comes the most surreal part of the evening where i get to swan around the dining room accepting compliments for all the fine work being done by other people in the kitchen and marveling at all the reasonable looking customers who seem to have read my book and yet aren't running for the door at the first sight of me maybe they're just being polite it's tough working in someone else's kitchen but in this case i'm not really working so it's not that bad it seems my expectations are unfounded the yoga crowd likes the meat and they even like it a little bloody fries up ready on that fish right you know you're in a professional kitchen when you can walk in turn the whole menu upside down and still get results like they've been doing it that way since day one what's a trip to la without a celebrity sighting i'm lucky enough to meet tony shalhoub star of the best restaurant movie ever big night really really pleased to meet you pleasure brooke's been reading me from your book out loud i i have to tell you that this subject comes up a lot uh with a bunch of chefs sitting around late at night having way too many cocktails everybody universal degrees the best restaurant movie ever no american movie has ever gotten it right i mean the moves the the priorities the the look it was all it was just dead on i mean you're a cult hero to chess and cooks everywhere great meeting you all in all i'm impressed i thought they'd all be crying for arugula encrusted tofu they eat meat like heavyweights and training they can't all be new york transplants i really gotta rethink this town the evening of my guest jeff gigg is finally at an end happily i've escaped without injury so spectacularly went well right no no senseless victory no violence uh happy customers where are we going now fred62 call [Music] the seduction is nearly complete i love this car it's gonna break my heart giving up this car [Music] i want to die in this car i want this car to be my funeral pyre the burning wreckage of a 67 mustang convertible one more honorable way to die that burger boy that looks good had nothing but beer vodka and cigarettes well those are essential parts of any sensible person's diet and not a lot of bulk there not a lot of filler so i'm looking for the greasiest meatiest meal i could find this answers the question what do chefs eat after work crap no it's not crap you know what i mean but it is burgers no squeezed bottles involved no oh no you're right [Music] so maybe i made a ghastly mistake it's not all bronze blonde bimbos and new age cultists feasting on alfalfa sprouts and wheatgrass juice yeah sure la's still a surreal place but i like the beach i like the sun now i know i won't go hungry i wonder what i'll miss most about new york yankee games at the stadium or finding sushi at midnight yeah it seems i had it wrong all these years or maybe that's just what they want me to believe [Music] you

Channel: GoTraveler

Views: 552,186

Keywords: travel, gotraveler, anthony bourdain, bourdain, master chef, cooking show, a cook's tour, asian cuisine, tokyo, tokyo food, anthony bourdain japan, anthony bourdain a cook's tour, anthony bourdain food travel, travel off the beaten path, a cook's tour season 1 episode 1, A Cook's Tour Streaming, Anthony Bourdain Netflix, Anthony Bourdain Parts Unknown, CNN TV, travel show full episodes, bourdain los angeles

Id: PJboLGsXnYc

Length: 21min 15sec (1275 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 15 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/[deleted]]

RIP Mr Bourdain

[u/lolnomnomnom]

I haven't been able to watch anything with him since he passed.

Sucks ☹

[u/stefstars93]

He came back a few years before his death or maybe even the year before and had tacos with Danny Trejo. I miss him ❤️

[u/_its_a_SWEATER_]

I wish in his first filmed trip here that he went to more legit local spots. Roscoe’s, as iconic as it is, is but merely the tip.

[u/scrappy-coco-86]

Video not available?