All posts tagged: Bourdains

Bourdain’s ’90s gangster novels couldn’t escape the kitchen

Bourdain’s ’90s gangster novels couldn’t escape the kitchen

Published by Sam Flores

Before Anthony Bourdain became Anthony Bourdain, he was writing crime novels about cooks. That’s the strange pleasure of “Three Crime Novels,” a new collection of “Bone in the Throat” (1995), “Gone Bamboo” (1997) and “The Bobby Gold Stories” (2002), re-released this summer alongside the biopic “TONY.” I haven’t seen the movie, and I’m not particularly interested in reviewing it. What interested me was returning to these books and realizing how much of the Bourdain we came to know was already there. Bourdain was always a writer, and he understood early that food was one of the best ways to reveal people. The crimes in these books are often the machinery of the plot. But the restaurants, kitchens and meals are where Bourdain seems most interested in his characters. Food becomes a way to write about ambition, class, masculinity, addiction, resentment and tenderness without having to announce that’s what he’s doing. Tommy Pagano, the chef at the center of “Bone in the Throat,” might be the clearest example. Tommy is a good kid caught up in …

The Story Behind Anthony Bourdain’s Iconic Leather Jacket—and Why It’s Finally Returning Now

The Story Behind Anthony Bourdain’s Iconic Leather Jacket—and Why It’s Finally Returning Now

Published by Jenni Sidey

Kenneth Cole is sitting in his New York office. The curtains behind him are drawn and warm light is seeping through the sides. The legendary designer is wearing a slightly beat-up denim shirt with the top two buttons undone, and the moment we connect on Zoom, a smile appears on his face. “Hi Adam,” he says. “That’s quite a story you wrote.” About a week ago, British GQ published a piece about the surprisingly complicated lore behind Anthony Bourdain’s battered leather jacket. You know the one. He wore it in the very first episode of No Reservations, took it around the world, wore the shit out of it, and, two decades later, it became part of one of the internet’s favorite memes. The jacket was from Kenneth Cole, but exactly which Kenneth Cole jacket was a lot harder to figure out. Apparently, we weren’t the only ones with questions. Hours after the story went live, Cole’s team came across it and passed it on to the man himself, who eventually got in touch with GQ. …

How ‘Tony’ Food Stylist Christine Tobin Told Young Bourdain’s Story Through Chowder, Lobster, and Squid Stew

How ‘Tony’ Food Stylist Christine Tobin Told Young Bourdain’s Story Through Chowder, Lobster, and Squid Stew

Published by Jenni Sidey

Food isn’t immediately the focus of the Anthony Bourdain biopic Tony, a fictionalized account of how the celebrated chef and author fell in love with cooking in mid-1970s Provincetown, Massachusetts. But then, cooking and food wasn’t the focus of Bourdain’s life at 19, either. At the start of Tony — which is co-written and directed by Matt Johnson (BlackBerry, Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie) and stars Dominic Sessa (The Holdovers) — Bourdain insists he’s a writer. When he doesn’t land his dream scholarship, Bourdain follows his crush Nancy (Emilia Jones) to Provincetown, gets a job in a random restaurant helmed by a mysterious man known only as Chef (Antonio Banderas), and learns how to cook alongside the rebellious Sal (Leo Woodall) and the acerbic Dimitri (Stavros Halkias). Seacia Pavao As the film progresses, Bourdain’s passion for gastronomy grows as he sees firsthand the creativity required to make a dish unique, the way food brings people together, and the role it can play in the community. Making that food look desirable was the job …

Tony review: Charming film about Anthony Bourdain’s youth dodges cliché

Tony review: Charming film about Anthony Bourdain’s youth dodges cliché

Published by Daniella Wilson

A star rating of 4 out of 5. Too often, biographical films about famous figures fall into the same tired tropes. With vanishingly few exceptions, these movies tend to offer either cradle to grave, hagiographic overviews of their subject’s life or contrived origin stories explaining how their most recognisable works and traits came to be. Perhaps the highest compliment that can be paid to Tony – Matt Johnson’s enjoyable new film about the early days of the late, beloved celebrity chef and author Anthony Bourdain – is that for the most part it barely feels like a biopic at all. Instead, save for a couple of scenes, this picture sidesteps those aforementioned clichés and delivers a hugely rewarding coming-of-age tale (or bildungsroman, to directly reference the film itself) that would be no less worthwhile even if you had no idea of its ties to Bourdain’s story. Adapted from a short section of the chef’s best-selling 2003 memoir Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly, the film unfolds entirely over the summer of 1975 in the …