Medium raw. Anthony Bourdain in conversation

well hello I don't think I have to add any welcome to Anthony after that that's fantastic thank you and but welcome yourselves to V 2011 Sydney writers festival my name is Jill do you play and I'd like to welcome you to medium raw which is in conversation with Anthony in fact it's going to be a bit of a grill so we'll probably get to a medium raw sort of situation fairly quickly I think and I'm hoping to that it's going to be well done I'd also like to thank our event sponsor Middleton's law firm for their support of the festival and in particular this session and I'd like their top libel people to be on red alert if that's ok in the corners and please wish me luck - because mr. boudin tweeted on Thursday that the last moderator was somewhat of a slow-motion colonoscopy a little bit of housework mobile phones and pagers off please we don't care who needs you yes there will be a QA at the end of the session no there will be no tastings and Tony will be signing his book after the session which is the very reason we are here after all the book and books and writing and reading I was looking for a very quick introduction to Anthony for you and I found the most ideal one online existing on the Urban Dictionary and I quote Anthony Bourdain noun adjective empty Bodeen is an author chef and television host this is ironic because he is also Satan he is one of the baddest to Grace television his books are well written conscious and can be quite humorous his restaurant Lazar serves amazing French cuisine and is located in New York ladies and gentlemen Anthony Bourdain I'm not sure who's going to have as much much fun up here I think it's going to be me okay you wrote your first book Kitchen Confidential in the year 2000 and it hit the New York Times bestseller list and you followed that with a Cook's Tour with the nasty bits with crime novel with TV shows and now this latest book medium raw is a sequel in effect to Kitchen Confidential ten years on part expose a memoir trekking life since leaving the kitchen how have you changed in that last 10 years Oh when I wrote Kitchen Confidential I was a completely broke stressed-out 44 year old working as he had always worked his entire life in a not particularly great or a famous restaurant kitchen and you know standing next to a deep fryer I'd you know I never had health insurance I'd never owned a car I'd never pay my rent on time I owe that I hadn't filed my taxes in ten years I was a frightened angry desperate character who seen almost nothing of the world outside of kitchens you know it's ten years later eleven years later I had it almost ten years of the best job in the world traveling around I go anywhere I want I stayed a lot of nice hotels I've eaten in some of the best restaurants in the world I'm friends with a lot of the greatest chess I've seen like high and low I've lived a life of incredible almost overnight from who I was back then my life changed so drastically and maybe my you know I'm older I don't know that I'm wiser but I've seen a hell of a lot more that I never thought I would have seen I've become corrupted by the process in the sense that I become you know one of those TV characters that I you know had no understanding for at all when I was in the kitchen and maybe largest difference you know I'm a daddy now you know I have a three-year-old little girl at home and that's you know all the cliche is about Parenthood are of course absolutely true so the one of the big changes is of course you're you were a chef and now you're a celebrity I don't work for a living I mean you making it sound good right I mean writing I have no sympathy for anyone fortunate enough to get paid any kind of money to write whining about writer's block or how hard it is or some sort of internal torture you're doing it in a sitting position so right away you know I spent my whole adult life on my feet I feel very very lucky that anybody even gives a what I think it's not something I'm used to and and the privilege is a privilege to be able to write and have even eight people care what you're saying hmm there's a great line in medium rule where you said being a heroin addict was fantastic preparation for being a celebrity yeah did she please explain well particularly in the world of television but it's also true I think at any media there are a lot of people out there who are full of um they you know people will tell you especially in Hollywood you know they tell me you know we love your work we you know we really want to work with you were terribly excited about this new project all of those things you know when you're a junkie it is necessary that you very quickly you know because you're desperate you you you only have ten dollars and you need to get well with it and you're buying it on the street for some pretty hardcore characters who are also you surrounded by hustlers with a real imperative to hustle you just develop a sort of a sixth sense you become a pretty good judge of character or is this person reliable or are they full of are they the sort of person who is going to do what they say they're going to do and you develop this almost feral sense which i think is true of chefs as well you look at someone's eyes and you ask yourself aren't there you know you believe there are only two types of people in this world they're the type of people who say they're going to do something tomorrow and they actually do it and then there's everybody else and having been a heroin addict you you have to develop that some skills as far as judging which type of person that might be you're dealing with or you end up dead or well not you you don't you don't read up on this be very long do you think that's why you were drawn to the kitchen or to the restaurant industry in the first place to get some sort of structure I think I fell and I fell into the business accidentally but I it was certainly the only time in my life that I responded well to any kind of structure I was I was grateful for it it was the first time that I went home with any reason to be proud of myself it was the first time that I cared about anybody else's opinion of me it was the first time I respected myself or anybody else I definitely it was a perfect mix of romance and you know piratical attitudes and sex or drugs of rock and roll that's true but but you're absolutely right he was that structure was the first hierarchy and structure and quantifiable you know organization and system of value system that that that I thought I I recognized that I needed it and I was grateful for it and I I liked it obviously I fell in love with the life long before I started to get serious about food hmm but it's that anger isn't it that that you've brought to your writing in a way and that's what made the writing so compelling because it was very short very direct very short order in a way very direct very no about your life and your life was it you had looked at a lot of hyperbole um you know in the kitchen uh as a chef with you're angry at a cook or a waiter they are for the moment the worst most miserable rat bastard on earth but five minutes later I love you I want to bear your children you know you're the greatest human being who ever worked walk the earth those feelings can coexist or change pretty pretty pretty quickly but you know I am angry clearly that fuels me but I like to think that that like a number of other authors I can think of you know that the flip side of that is a sense of of spoiled Romanticism a disappointment with the way the world turned out you know it was supposed to be far more beautiful and romantic and and gentle and and you know I learned pretty early on it wasn't going to be like that and how you punish people yeah well you know it doesn't make everything better that you know to insult somebody but it helps I'm I'm going to throw you another question about this whole celebrity chef caper because it is so much a part of our world at the moment then we had market pure white in town this week you described him the other night as an icon an iconic figure in our gastronomic universe and yet here he was in Australia flogging continental stock cubes and which broke my heart because I fell in love with him when he was so at the beginning of the iconic he was the hottest young chef I'd ever seen in my life and his food was just so beautiful and his head was in a very great place but he's a up character too well we all are yeah yeah yeah um but I found that a bit depressing I mean he's probably thinking he's good doing good business and he's running around the world and doing all that but do you think that that is the trajectory of why should I hold chefs cooking is hard it's really hard it breaks you down you chefs used to life-span used to be into the 30s was 37 years old it is now about 57 why do we demand or insist or expect chefs to die behind the stove broken asked flat footed varicose veins at 57 why do we hold chefs to a higher standard that Keith Richards or Iggy or or anyone else who's incredibly cool and changed the world you know Marco we're here what I would compare in the Orson Welles Orson Welles made Citizen Kane if he wants to end up making commercials for bad wine good for him I wish he'd been paid more money for it he still made the greatest goddamn movie in American history to that point he changed the world for the better Marco has done his good works what I admire about Marco in particular is that he reached the mountaintop he got three stars earlier than just I think anyone else in the world that ever done it in an Englishman he never been to France cooking French food and he didn't want it anymore he gave his stars back and said I don't it's I've done my thing I want to spend my days cash and checks and walking around in the kind glish countryside shooting animals and and you know what god bless him yeah who better deserves to sell out anyway they want make a little money in their old age than chefs okay but I mean I'll say this I I feel a lot better about Marco Pierre White cashing paychecks now for whatever he made you than Paris Hilton getting paid for anything it's true however where do you draw the line do you have a personal line in the sand that you will not cross or is there some level of behavior that you go that ship can do this can do that can flog bad one et cetera is there a line where you go I all haven't we well let's make it personal I there is a line for me uh you know Olive Garden or Kentucky Fried Chicken you know I would have a very hard time personally standing there saying this food is really delicious when I know it's crap I mean I personally been dying I personally know I'm happy to lie it is not it is not it for ought to be on it is not an integrity issue with me it is a vanity issue it is strictly I don't care how much money in the world I will just I've had plenty I know what it's like to wake up in the morning to be ashamed of what I did yesterday and I don't like that feeling it's just I don't want to look in the mirror and see you know the you know the the Olive Garden to TGI Friday guy I just like its vanity it doesn't have anything to do with integrity okay my my line for that that what again if they cross that I lose sight of them at the point of no return going on Dancing with the Stars ah well I've been offered twice outfit twice twice I'm gained probably a vanity issue yeah I mean I'm not going on Celebrity Rehab yet either but but you know talk to me in ten years you know I mean I'm doing well now yep it's true and I will okay as a ship uh what's your idea of the customer from hell the customer from how the worst customer on earth is the customer who's decided beforehand they're already miserable a minute they walk in the door and they've decided that they're going to feel better if they bully speak condescendingly to or mistreat floor staff this is an unforgivable act to me I mean you if we go out to lunch together and you're rude to your waiter and treat them like a piece of talk down to them or blame them for the kitchen's mistakes we will never our relationship is dead and will always be dead that sort of just you know person working through personal issues who's there not there that should - relax get a little drunken and let things happen to have a meal there they're just a miserable person who probably bring that same misery to ruin every experience whether it's a musical performance or the food a dinner or the sex act what and do you have an idea of a shift from him the chef from hell is the chef who choose who's been broken and just doesn't care you know they have no pride they're unhappy they don't they don't like their customers they don't like their owner they don't care whether their customers are happy anymore they've I've been there you know you just you know all pride is gone you know a heartbroken chef is the the chef from hell because almost all of them start out wanting to make good food for many many years you were punished for that you know you if you dare to try to serve food the way you knew it to be great and that you'd had it in France or the way you know your training and taught you your you get slapped down by the customer no there's still blood in this stink tuna that's for cats you know uh you know squid it's - its okie uh fish is oily and dark you know these were very much the common attitudes back in the 70s and 80s so it's a you know I think it's been a good side effect of this you know admittedly annoying celebrity chef phenomena is that people actually give a what the chef thinks now and are willing to give them a shot but the one who's out there toiling just kind of slopping it out doesn't really care that's the chef from hell mmm and is this such a thing as a novelist or a writer from him for you I don't know I I don't really know many writers I don't hang out with writers I don't I mean you know ask yourself you're on a lifeboat adrift in the sea about to wash up on an island which would you prefer to be marooned on an island with a bunch of kooks or a bunch of writers you know I enjoy a good book as much as if not more than anybody but that writers I have mixed emotions okay well related to that I guess restaurant critics you've been you've said a few main things about restaurant critics in your day well in general it is a degraded profession I don't I mean I've known a lot of bent you know you said in addressing their venal sins versus or well as we got into a bit of trouble for calling restaurant critics a corrupt and I actually said I don't know I've never met any restaurant critics that are venal II financially corrupt but I have met some who are what I'd call socially corrupt so that they do have relationships with chefs restaurateurs so there's a there's a difference first of all there are plenty of food writers I know that the New York Times critic year after year after year they make extraordinary measures to insulate themselves from the swamp certainly Jonathan Gould is a hero of mine you know a lot of people who I think a lot of people offhand who who I would exclude from that description but there are those who I mean I know food critics also who demand free vacations for it said I would like a free vacation in the Caribbean for my wife and myself of demanding from the subjects of their reviews and imagine you know like I'd like you know I'd really like a five-day Vicki I you understand you're working with a hotel in the Caribbean you know you know my wife and I would really enjoy a week down there all expenses paid with bungalow and free room service you know could you arrange that about anyone in particular mmm that's type of ethical speaking you have but your libel laws here I think it's libel tourism right you know you could sue if you get a bad review so I'm going to leave that alone there are people who back in the day and some of these characters are still around we can we'll remember shake and restaurateur is down for cash and then but much more common are the people who become corrupted by what is inevitably a corrupting process if I were if I wouldn't be impossible for me to be a food critic okay I all my friends are chefs I am I am I've been compromised by my personal relationships of these chefs over the year my my palate has become corrupted because unlike most of you I've eaten it a bully a lot I've eaten at Robin Shaw I've to me a 12-course tasting menu one of the great restaurants in the world is is often a burden I'm bored with truffles what kind of critical ability can I you know what what can I say that is meaningful to an ordinary person when I've lost my sense to my ability to be delighted by things that that to most others would be a once-in-a-lifetime and incredible experience but the most common form of corruption is of course just like reporters will get a White House Correspondents you know it's the pressure is on a food writers you know I don't want to write about you know my favorite lemon meringue pie every week I don't want to write muffin recipes I want to go to restaurants and live a good life and write interesting things in order to do that I need access I need people in that life to tell me things now these people have their own interests which is I want bread food critics to write good things about me so I'm going to send you a few extra snacks I'm going to take you for a little private tour of my kitchen you're gonna have will have special little candlelight meals together while I preview my new menu you know maybe I could be a backrub you know invite you over to my house you know at the end of the day you're going to be less likely to say anything bad about me you know there's a popular food guide in New York it's the industry standard every high-end restaurant in New York buys them by the tens of like that by the thousands five six thousand copies of this guide and if they don't buy five or six this year they get a call saying how coming up behind as many well I wasn't you know you know you were kind of you weren't so nice to me this year that's okay we'll fix it that ain't right you know so it is it is a it is a when when journals means access and the only access they're going to get and all basically they're very especially when they're not getting paid eat at these restaurants a lot they don't have much as much of a budget and say the times to go out to fine dining restaurants and they rely on their subjects to give them good stuff whether that's money or free food or extra courses but more often than not just access and if they don't get it some of them tend to get cranky and and then there's payback involved so I don't think it's necessarily the most evil thing in the world but I think it's useful if you're writing about food certainly if you're partying you know maybe there should be term limits today limits meaning after five years you should gracefully move on to some other sector because you've you've you've been swimming in the same sort of blood temperature hot tub for a long time something's got it you're going to catch something well I suppose the restaurant critic is in a position between the restaurant industry the chef the kitchen and us the diners and it's just trying to explain one to the other a little bit in many ways and that is your unique position as well because as a chef you know what's going on out there and yet as a writer you're at the front many times observing quite rigorously what's going on one story in medium raw my favorite that is simply a morning in the life of a fish filter in a restaurant in New York called la Bernadin the fish comes in in the morning this guy's got his knives he fell it's a fish he places it in the way the chef's want it ready to go for the lunch that's it that's the entire story but it's actually had a chef written us with all the the knowledge of what had to go down it could still be boring if a writer a journalist and rigorous observer had written it it could still be boring but somebody who if who confused those two things with with respect so much respect with coming off the pages about this guy because he's so good at what I was in town of fish this guy cleans its four hours every day off the bone and into perfect three-star Michelin portions it takes 3 train to sous-chefs all day long 7 hours three of them working together to replace this guy when he goes on vacation but this is a perfect example I would never been able to write that I never would have had access to this guy I never would have known about him had I not been best friends with Eric repair and and been in this weird compromised the very thing that allowed me to write that was the fact that I should never be trusted to to to be a critic of a restaurant you know I'm you know I live in a half world you know yeah yeah yep between heaven and hell there's a chaos wife is good I like my job I like the urban dictionary because they went on to say on his TV shows he's known for eating way too much yet being tall and skinny smoking excessively so this was written a few years ago and getting drunk most everywhere he goes he can also be extremely obnoxious and arrogant when doing any of these three things but you you're not are you I mean I cannot he's been so well mannered we're all so disappointed um I can be I can be really obnoxious ya mean you're not exactly biting the heads of chucks or screwing the waitress over the hot grill you know that's so last week you know I mean I'm older now you know I'm you know I'm I'm a first of all I'm the father of a little girl that that means a lot to me you know I'm not going to apologize for my previous life that's what daddy was that's what daddy did but I'm very I don't want her weeding you know terrible about me on the internet behaving badly to women for instance that would I'm not going to do that yeah um you know the I was referred to what Kitchen Confidential came out as a bad boy chef now I was 44 years old when that book came out so already it was ludicrous I never really took it took it that seriously um and I'm certainly not that bad I'm certainly not a boy and I'm not even a chef anymore but but I'm one of the reasons I wrote this book is to kind of correct that impression or mmm but I think I benefitted very much in the fact that Kitchen Confidential was so over testosterone and so obnoxious that because that it was written I didn't think anyone would read it outside of the restaurant business so it was written for the consumption and entertainment of my fry cook essentially that's the only person I could imagine ever buying a copy so it was intended to be entertaining and amusing to a very tiny group of people were working in New York restaurants and the tone reflected that it would it would sound softer and more familiar to them but I benefited from you know because the book was so obnoxious people are surprised when I can eat with a knife and fork and not bark obscenities you know indiscriminately at least uh you know I benefit very much from low expectations the voice in all the books is very strong we born with that voice is this your natural voice do you write as you speak speak as you write or did you have early influences did you have something to model your cell phone I'm going to tell you something that the you know spiring writers or writers you really hate me for I've never written anything in my life that hasn't been published yeah we ever and never toiled away in a garret for years writing unsuccessful or unpublished manuscripts if I had a you know I wrote the article that Kitchen Confidential was based on for a free paper in New York I figured that was you know they were lame enough to buy my piece it ended up in The New Yorker on it I I got lucky I've always talking telling stories being a little provocateur with a way with words with something that was true of me when I was a little kid I've always used that skill to get the things I want to manipulate events to my liking to get myself into trouble to get myself out of trouble to hurt my enemies to seduce people like you know or make people you know do things that I would would like them to do so I was always always a you know my parents very early on said you know you should really be a lawyer you know we see got such a way with words I write like I talk but yeah I pretty much yeah boys been like this right if there were influences writing influences who really turned on the light for me I always did read a lot certainly you could hear Hunter Thompson and my writing what I was typing 12 years old I opened Rolling Stone magazine and where they were serializing what then became fair Loathing in Las Vegas and not clicked for me yeah he's his rage that someone could write could could could could put into words the way I felt this bitter disappointment with the way the 60s turned out I just did the the hyperbole the the lush violent language the humor clearly that was an influence but but he was and maybe not the best role model for 12 year old I sought to emulate him in all ways but actually writing you know I just figured maybe if I take a lot of drugs for the next 30 years I'll be able to write like that but he was also a cautionary tale because I think I learned it by the time of the book hit I realized I don't want to end up like Hunter Thompson either you know I'm not going to go out there and and play that I'm not gonna play the bad boy chef you know and get paid for it I'm just you know you'll notice a number the most perverse thing I've been able to do the last few years I'm very proud of is done a couple of really fuzzy warm family-friendly shows I some play that'll really stick it to my fans they'll be so disappointed yep you've also eaten some very strange things in your life and I don't want to say okay what's the worst thing you've ever eaten big so instead I'm going to give you a list groove you know the some of the nasty require love that in the world okay and you just tell me if you've had them and if it's relevant what they tasted like because you might have swallowed some you might is bad I don't know okay sheep testicles haddem delicious good texture much better than beef nuts good to know seal eyeballs good when fresh like like good quality sushi did context it could be a heartwarming family experience the beating heart of a giant Cobra is that fits it like I've said it's like an angry over athletic waster is it food or is it some sort of weird boner medicine for anxious Asians I kind of regret it I regret that not much going on there flavor well you know what are your expectations yeah it's more like a weird male bonding you know is it medicine or is it food kind of a situation if I wouldn't do it again it wasn't bad I wasn't an unpleasant experience but it you know for Cobra yeah yep and the unwashed ricktum or anus of a warthog okay uh it tasted exactly like you would expect it to taste yeah that's photos but this was a sure I knew I was going to be ill I did get very ill I knew it was going to be terrible but this is a tribal situation I'm a good guest yeah on our tribal tribal situation the whole tribe er looking at me the chief is handing me the best most treasured part it's taken two three days to track this thing I'm taking one for the team oh yes I am actually polite in such circumstances yes and you know I do something called the grandma rule you know if if I'm a grandma's house I will eat what grandma offers and I will say yes grandma it's delicious I'll have seconds I passed on the seconds this time but I I did my best to soldier through that was in Numidia you know Kalahari with the Bushmen yes and in Iceland there's a thing goda a stinking rotten things rotten shark that you can smell from like ten kilometres yeah it's unspeakably vile Gil and I were both like Al and I were about that some the other day what's the worst thing you've ever tasted we both agreed that it's just far and away it's it is that the the reek of ammonia you then you're in and it's just it's beyond it they handle it with gloves I mean they don't even touch the stuff and they serve it yes but let's nicely to smell surely know the flavor if you do it unlike durian for instance which smells like halibut to my mind tastes awesome has some real something going for it will something wonderful this is taste just as bad as it smells and even I don't think I don't I don't think anyone actually likes it it's a it's a it's a nod to there are proud Viking roots and and harder for us to hear times when they this was the only way they could preserve protein during the summer months and I mean you see they're handling it with gloves and they're put it in their mouth and they chase it with a big shot of like rocket fuel you know how good could it be well you would yeah yeah um all right now I do have to ask you what's the worst thing apart from all those I have heard I have heard you give a different answer well I mean would I eat rotten shark before I ate a Chicken McNugget yeah I'd feel better about myself eating that rotten shark mr. hood you know you I feel compromised in a part of a an evil empire when I eat a McNugget there's this something there's something morally wrong about it and it's just what is it what part of the chicken does it come from all those other things we talked about you knew exactly what they were and we're particularly where they had come from but and so the thing that scares you the most is three I'm scared of my daughter my the thought of my daughter eating one just fills me with their liking it is just fills me with terror it's it is it is we we should feed our enemies Chicken McNuggets you know Osama bin Laden wouldn'ta lasted anywhere near this long if we just you know if he just had like a regular McNugget diet II you know Tora Bora he wouldn't been able to squeeze his fat ass into a cave we would have seen him from space what the drones wouldn't yeah and so you you spend your life traveling around the world now do you feel an urgency at the moment to get out to certain countries relatively quickly before their street food they're authentic regional food all the things that you're going for to try while they're still around and before they start turning into Chicken McNuggets I don't know I'm kind of optimistic about our future the world it's one of the things like you know the Chinese are increasingly you know buying everything in America and you know eating up our you know violet real estate certainly all of our debt you know at a lot of people are frightened you know whether they come over here and you know pretty soon they'll go they'll be all over the place well we will be eating a lot better a lot better so I think the expanding Asian influenced this this power shift away from the west to the east this probably is to me at least food in arguably a good thing I mean Singapore maybe Disneyland with the death penalty is I think RW Apple called it but it is a foodie Wonderland and they figured out they are the nanny astone Annie states and they've got all of the same concerns you have here about hygiene and zoning and you know what if oh my god it might hurt you we better make it illegal then I like the cheese situation here which is so shameful or the oyster situation here which is so shameful but they figured out that the food court in Singapore to me is a shining beacon of how we could live in a perfect world who knows so I'm encouraged the places that I feel I like to rush to or I'm rushing to before they change I mean I'm not sentimental about communism I'm not no big fan of the regime in Cuba but I sure as hell wanted to see it before it changed and it was indeed you know it is indeed something you know extraordinary but you know the food scene there you know they're not so great I mean that people are really really hungry I'd like to get to Burma then Myanmar but that's a situation I'm waiting for the government to change I'd like to get to Tehran as soon as possible but again you know not right now yeah exactly p.m. so you've been like a canary really that we can send out no I keel over you oh yeah don't go there um but okay if you are that canary and you're nosey at one of the first to note in our food world there is changes or drops of temperature or cultural sort of shifts and what is there anything that your nose is telling you at the moment that Harris is fun again you know you could eat really really well in Paris you know 15 years ago they were rude and particularly to Americans and it would cost you 40 euros for a bowl of soup at a really good restaurant you know and you know spectacularly expect now you could eat a terrific world-class music quality meal for 40 euros 30 euros 50 euros and they'll even be nice to you it was a financial crisis today but it's these young chefs the young men of astronomy movement is really exciting David Chang is a big influence in Paris your French chef saying oh yes we like to spend David Chang from New York this was unthinkable of 15 years ago that you know any French chef would even acknowledge that Spain existed much less New York so that's an exciting place to eat uh you know certainly I see Singapore is a hopeful culinarily a hopeful example as an alternative you know that's fast food - it's also good food places that I've been excited on turkey is amazing I'd like to see more good Turkish food you know a wider range of Turkish foods and the usual suspects Brazil Colombia just in general go to Colombia it's awesome I went to medic ten years ago was the worst place on earth the murder capital of the world and now does this really I came out I came out of Colombia like really optimistic about the world wow it's possible to improve or really up place in a short period of time you know there's no excuse for inner city Detroit you know having been two million I think I think the beautiful girl on Modern Family's done an awful lot for Colombian to it but tell me I mean if Ament they export all their coffee beans to here amongst other places did you get a decent coffee in Colombia yeah but it was the food and the people I mean these are inseparable I love listen I love food I'm guilty of being a food pornographer I fetishize it but it is it is only one part of a full life you know I recently you know I married into a large Italian Sardinian family and seeing how they live their relationship with alcohol and with food and ingredients is really a bit at education you know good food is a medic whatever income level is a birthright to them gotta have it wine it ever with every meal you know must have but you never see drunk ass Italians staggering around vomiting in the streets that the they see they do everything in proportion you understand that it's about good food good liquor but also hopefully you know you're getting laid on a regular basis and you're having good conversation and there's music somewhere and company and you know those are all part of a thing the life the reason you like Paris at the moment is he said that next generation of chefs are you picking up that this generational change is actually changing all the cities around the world and all the different food cultures restaurant cultures well look how differently you know look how different the kinds of businesses that are popping up here now you know you see you know a lot of these people who are opening up small places or pop ups or just little little you know you know strip to the bone casual eateries they're cooking your hearts out with maybe one other cook or a dishwasher listen in the end of course they're going to open they'll give in a little open a 300-seat restaurant and and they will have a place in a casino and they will have a cookbook and a boil at a bad dinner line you know Robert Shaw and all the great friends a Roger Vale Jay all of those people started out that way too but what we're getting is a lot more of them and you know it's just good times it's part of cyclical wave and that we're we're eating it's certainly new to us in the english-speaking world so you know to my way of thinking there's never been a better time to cook in the english-speaking world and there's certainly never been a better time to eat no the Adrian Gill was talking the other day about that most depressing term fine dining you know the chef likes to serve this warm etc and and he said in terms of sort of in this voice of wonderment and we let them get away with it which I thought was gorgeous so as chef hat back on what do you think of this current restaurant trend towards fusing art and landscape and technology on the plate it depends I mean are you asked yourself before you start dabbling with what somebody somewhere is calling molecular gastronomy am ia genius am i Ferran adrià am i anywhere near as talented and as visionary and it has firmly rooted in a place with as much food culture as Catalonia or mi might just kind of jerking off here you know I love Jimi Hendrix can I will I ever play guitar as well as Jimi Hendrix because you better if you're going to mess around with that stuff my way of feeling is don't don't try find what your own style a lot of those techniques are going to end up standard practice in the industry you know sous-vide fish or a few others if you people misunderstand Andreea for sure but but you know short answer some of the very worst most painful meals of my life have been people talented young Chefs who come over impressed and over enthusiastic about a cargo cult version of what they believe to be happening at places like El Bulli and they're just playing out of their death but there is an opportunity surely for those young Chefs to adopt the technology but then turn around and use where they are and who they are to create something new young I'll come back to Dave Chang Wylie Dufresne and people like that who you know they cherry pick hey that that looks really interesting we can make a really delicious dish you know that's actually soulful and reminds people of their childhood and but we're using a technique de Ferran adrià developed you know nothing nothing wrong with that it's what it becomes like an eye gouging experience you know it's something hanging on the edge of a of a long prong and it's not very good if it takes your waiter you know ten minutes to describe the dish and two minutes to eat it is it fun that's all about is it fun you know it is it delicious if the answer is yes that I'm for it you've recently written not quite an episode but scenes but the sort of a stream for an amazing television series called Treme which must be on your face lights up every time anyone says Tremblay it must be a thrill I'm gonna thrill to watch the bloody thing so it must be Israel to write for it I found I suddenly I don't know when it happened but but I found myself at this weird point in my career where I realized that I opportunities will pop up to work with really amazing people who I you know really admire or worship it and you know I can actually you know just to hang out with some of these people is you know I'm stammering here so out of the blue I think to me the wire was the greatest thing ever in the history of television I mean there's never been a better use of the television medium never been a better dramatic series so to get a call out of the blue from David Simon was just his that happened like that you just rang out of the blue would you be interested in doing so early for me it was like you know your football fan you're holding a little kid your football fan of David Beckham calls up and says you know let's kick the ball around I mean I I you know I teared up I used to hyperventilate and I I I would have done it for free and and in fact there are a few things that I'm doing in my life right now where it you know it's not about the money it's it's really fun it's the most fun I've ever had writing or doing any kind of work working with people much smarter than they these incredibly creative people it's just you know it's like you get invited to join the cool kids and uh so I am I'm doing a graphic novel with a really amazing artist and they might even Foss and a friend of mine named Joel Rose because no it's not going to meet rich it's do it because I can and because it's fun and I like comics and it's you know it's cool you um and you've set up your own TV production company for your own TV I I'm partners in a production company that I started with the camera people on my first series of Cook's Tour and I all quit Food Network at the same time because we set up a show with Ferran adrià and the network was not interested so they go who is this guy talks funny he's from Spain it's too smart for us we're not in a so we all reach our own pot we figured while we've set this up we're getting this this is history here we have incredible amazing once-in-a-lifetime access we're getting this shell we had no customer no money we just reach in our own pockets went out and shot a documentary about the experience and that was the beginning of this entity that then it could that continues to create reservations the same same group of people so really we owe it all to fair on you know if he hadn't said you know yes I invite you to come into my life and then film it I might be riding a pony from barbecue you know competitions to barbecue competitions or food network is or something yeah we look forward to that the Bourdain burger line yeah this is not gonna happen no um it's time for questions from the audience I hope you got some good ones there are microphones that you if you have a question run to a microphone can we see where they are please they're on the side you meantime if you have your up here you shout it out all report yeah or if you're in the middle of just about yes and we'll try to yep the new the new El Bulli show we are we went back because Cal Bulli is closing in August forever and firaon let us go back and shoot every single course from it's very beginnings in prep service we shot me and him and Jose Andres eating every course a staff meal we shot all of the animations and graphics and plans and blueprints for what comes next in that space the mysterious El Bulli foundation think tank Yee historically speaking because of the access he gave us and the things he let us see and just because Spain is Spain I think it's probably gonna be the most awesome thing we've ever put on tape yeah wait a we go to see it it'll be episode of No Reservations fantastic this one thank you and when you said that you were bored with them truffles that are made me quite sad and we have many people here initial um with a view to recalibrating your perspective on food would you be interested in coming to a barbecue I'm going to one now we won't make you fool comments I wish I could thank you thanks okay you eat a lot of food Anthony how you know OB um it's I'm what it is I'm one of those I was one of those really annoying people who could eat and drink with with wild abandon and not give a and never ever gain weight till about ten twelve years ago and then you know it's star that started to change it's something I have to think about but I'm I don't eat breakfast I don't waste real estate on you know you only have so much real estate in your life your stomach I leave the breadsticks at the table I'm not eating bread I don't I'm not snacking I'm not laying around on the couch eating crisps or or Cheetos or something like that uh leave you only what's good and you know you actually get out of the chair once in a while at that that helps but I do eat strategically if I know I'm eating a ten-course Chinese meal on camera tomorrow at noon I'm not eating a big dinner tonight you know and I'm certainly going light on the potatoes and I'm also a guy who really doesn't give a about dessert or sweet stuff I don't I could live the rest of my life without sweet stuff I'm all about savory salty spicy pork it what about chase those chilies that I cannot live without that gee oh that I need yeah god I need a lot of yeah but good cheese is the new visit if it's not good cheese that there's perfect you know is this good cheese if it's not there's no point you know is it some just magically reeking thing at the perfect point of ripeness all over that map and Chili's evasive Chili's that's an addiction you know it's uh that the pleasure pain ratio you know I've talked about this I never really understood sadomasochism the idea of being spanked by anyone is completely alien to me in tow I went to Sichuan where I you see customers it does su chuan hot pot restaurants doubled over an agony mopping their faces you know say oh I go to these are locals are you so sick tomorrow so sick so sick and they're eating and eating loving it yeah I think we can stand here again um you just mentioned that how much you love cheese and you were saying before it's a shame that we don't have a wide variety here no no you have a wide variety but you insist on forcing your jar seasonal cheese makers on you on you know you do not allow raw milk cheeses you're aging and processing and handling rules are really restrictive and it put out of business err or restrained some really amazing cheese makers and cheese visionaries or these Richard Thomas is that his name who you know he should be you're walking Buddha and all matters gems and unfortunately King on it on the passenger is Asian thing I was wondering what you thought of food as a whole in Australia or where you've been what what do you think of the quality of food and it's been very high since I first came here in about ten years ago it was great it's even better now just you know quickly I'll tell you that the worst thing that I've seen here that filled me with rage I was at the fish market and you had these beautiful beautiful some of the world's best oysters and they're rinsing them I mean I wanted to leap across the counter and say stop stop one of the best things I've seen here was at Victor Churchill's butcher shop yes Wow you know that just mind-boggling what a force for good in this world to see of space that beautiful meat that amazing and to the love and respect for old-school charcuterie traditions and cured meat traditions I mean it was boudin noir made on premises mind-bogglingly awesome fabulous we lost three minutes through technical difficulties so I'm taking it back we're going on where am I Anthony you touched on the likes of the Royal cheese and raw milk I would like to know where your opinions are on these and also the likes of the traditional foods that you talked about you'd stated that likes of washing the oysters is what if it's a malpractice yeah but um just sim again if there is sin against God you know she just touched upon Beauty Churchill butchery um a lot a lot of people like myself now going to the likes of farmers farmers that allow their cattle was to to graze on grass people don't realize when they go to restaurants that he may say grain-fed but she candles be really eating grain little fatty should be munch hunter I'm not here I'm not a more I was a chef I was in a pleasure business I wanted to be good I wanted to be the delicious I never felt any obligation to serve you there was moral or cruelty free organic or anything else I just wanted I mean those are concerns it's nice I'd like the all of our alternatives that you know people are thinking about organics and and what a more aware of where their food is coming from but ultimately I don't really care is it the most delicious goddamn steak as what I want to know I don't think that government owes you an absolute guarantee of a hundred percent cleanliness and safety in everything you put in your mouth who has ever had that guarantee in the world before why should we ask for doubt I would like to know if you're putting you know feces or radioactive material in my hamburger meat please include that in the ingredient list but I I think you spin the wheel a little bit certainly when you travel and I think it's perfectly appropriate to make personal info hopefully you form decisions about your food one of the good things about people with concerns about how their cattle is raised or fed or how they live is that you you increasingly have those options and that is surely a good thing for chefs and for diners yep Britain one last question up there thank you um it you just touched on this but it seems like the the farm to table and the locavore movement is is a really big deal and all so the influence of Audria coming out of Spain so what what do you see is the the directions that food a food or taking is that going to be a real sea change in the rest of the world or is it a Oracle it is it is an annoying trend bio for outfit up for the consumption of over privileged white people okay who Wylie Dufresne said it what does this even mean farm-to-table where the else am i buying my food table where else am i serving it do I need to make people feel bad about their food choices because I'm farm-to-table do I need a t-shirt or a tattoo announcing this I know what it means it means it's going to be more expensive if I use those words you know let's just be smart about food this is the the extent that we know where our food comes from how it is prepared and make informed decisions on that great who doesn't want to support farmers certain small farmers who doesn't want healthier food supply who wants to torture animals and crowd them into a painful and unhealthy condition they taste provably less delicious if you do that but I think this farm-to-table thing is more marketing than reality and it's get it's reaching a point of annoying I mean it's a way of separating ourselves or people who don't have the options to go for a six dollar bunch of grapes or often than not and I think snobbery is the the end of good eating you know that yeah beautiful thank you Anthony you haven't been obnoxious yeah you haven't been particularly arrogant you have been very wise very yeah sorry Q's around so I'm intelligent inspiring honest you're making me really uncomfortable I love it this is great this is my opportunities my punishment I'll get back at you and but no and you've opened a couple of doors for us as well just to get a little bit of insight into what you're doing why and for all those things I thank you you have been grilled thank you so much thank you thank you right

Channel: The Monthly

Views: 501,272

Keywords: 2160744802001, monthly-youtube

Id: DUfVI9RRrrE

Length: 57min 48sec (3468 seconds)

Published: Thu May 02 2013

Reddit Comments

[u/lowey156]

Just finished my first listening of MR on Audible. His Alice Waters rant alone was worth the price 🤣

[u/[deleted]]

I really needed this today, thank you.