Let’s talk about Anthony Bourdain – the rockstar chef, and an absolute legend of the culinary world. Bourdain was a maverick. He had an adventurous spirit, sharp wit, and was brutally honest about life. And guess what? His way with words was just as epic as his TV shows and mouthwatering dishes from different cultures!
So, today we’ll delve into some of the best Anthony Bourdain quotes about food, life, travel, and so much more!
His words were like a buffet of wisdom. They weren’t just about food (although he did have a lot to say about that!). He had an uncanny ability to cut through the noise and deliver hard-hitting truths in a very clever way. You know how you have those friends who never sugarcoat anything? Well, Bourdain was that friend.
Consider this Anthony Bourdain quote: “Travel isn’t always pretty. It isn’t always comfortable. But the journey changes you; it should change you.” Ain’t that the truth? Don’t just travel for sightseeing. Dive into the culture. Taste the local delicacies. Embracing the challenges that come with it.
And, of course, you can’t talk about Bourdain without mentioning his straightforward take on life and its uncertainties: “Your body is not a temple; it’s an amusement park. Enjoy the ride.” He never preached diet fads (however, he gave great cooking tips). Bourdain believed in living life to the fullest.
Tragically, his life was cut short at 61. He was filming his TV show at that time. But his wise words and sharp wit live on. He had a lot to say about travel, food, and life. Bourdain’s words captured the essence of the human experience like no other.
So, get ready for a rollercoaster of emotions as we explore famous quotes by Anthony Bourdain.
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“Your body is not a temple. It’s an amusement park. Enjoy the ride.”
“I don’t have to agree with you to like you or respect you.”
As an atheist with a religious best friend I 100% agree with this!
What happened to Chef Anthony Bourdain?
Anthony Bourdain tragically passed away on June 8, 2018, at the age of 61. He was found unconscious in a hotel room in Kaysersberg, France, where he was filming an episode of his popular TV show, Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown.
His passing shocked and saddened people all over the world. He was widely admired for his adventurous spirit, culinary expertise, and candid approach to exploring different cultures.
Bourdain’s passing sparked important conversations about mental health and the impact of depression.
He was quite open about his struggles with addiction and mental health issues in the past.
“My house is run, essentially, by an adopted, fully clawed cat with a mean nature.”
On top of everything great I already knew about the man I find out now he was a cat person too?
Why was Anthony Bourdain famous?
Anthony Bourdain was a talented chef and had a passion for traveling. He mixed his two loves together as he starred in and produced globe-trotting food adventure shows.
Bourdain’s big break came with his first TV show, A Cook’s Tour. It aired on the Food Network in the early 2000s. Later shows, such as No Reservations and Parts Unknown, made him a global star. He had a refreshing approach to exploring cultures, people, and cuisines of the world.
Another major reason for his popularity was his unfiltered personality. He had a no-nonsense attitude. He often shared candid opinions and was never afraid to talk about sensitive topics.
He was not only a TV star, but also a famous book author. He wrote six books:
- Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly (2000)
- A Cook’s Tour: Global Adventures in Extreme Cuisines (2001)
- The Nasty Bits (2006)
- No Reservations: Around the World on an Empty Stomach (2007)
- Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook (2010)
- World Travel: An Irreverent Guide (2021)
"I should’ve died in my 20s. I became successful in my 40s. I became a dad in my 50s. I feel like I’ve stolen a car — a really nice car — and I keep looking in the rearview mirror for flashing lights. But there’s been nothing yet."
“Food may not be the answer to world peace, but it’s a start.”
How wealthy was Anthony Bourdain?
After his passing, his estate was inherited by his daughter Ariane Busia-Bourdain, who was just 11 years old at the time. His estate was valued at $1.2 million.
However, some of his assets were established in trust, which is not part of the public record of his wealth.
Which countries did Anthony Bourdain not visit?
As an avid traveler and explorer, Anthony Bourdain visited a lot of countries during his lifetime.
He extensively covered Asia, Europe, the Americas, Africa, and the Middle East during his travels. However, there were a few exceptions.
He once told talk show host Conan O’Brien that he was “scared” to visit Switzerland. Something about the Alpines and the Swiss cheese rubbed him the wrong way.
Security reasons prevented him from traveling to Yemen and Venezuela. He also never got around to visiting several countries, including Poland, Guatemala, Mongolia, Wales, Costa Rica, and Norway, among many others.
“Assume the worst. About everybody. But don’t let this poisoned outlook affect your job performance. Let it all roll off your back. Ignore it. Be amused by what you see and suspect. Just because someone you work with is a miserable, treacherous, self-serving, capricious, and corrupt a*****e shouldn’t prevent you from enjoying their company, working with them, or finding them entertaining.”
“I don't think people should be encouraged to look like Kate Moss; I think that's unreasonable. I think the normal human body should be glorified. By the same token, if you need a stick to wash yourself, you're not healthy.”
Kate looks is so unhealthy. You only need to see non-photoshopped pictures of that to see it.
“If you are easily offended by direct aspersions on your lineage, the circumstances of your birth, your sexuality, your appearance, the mention of your parents possibly commingling with livestock, then the world of professional cooking is not for you.”
Ex Michelin Chef / FoH guy here, 37 + years in front of the stoves ; I started in the '70's and had to give up in the 2010's. It was a lot more 'robust' back in the day, sadly fuelled by oodles of drugs, booze and rage. That said, there was also a lot of compassion, caring - in a rough way -, willingness to help and support across the board.
“I don’t have much patience for people who are self-conscious about the act of eating, and it irritates me when someone denies themselves the pleasure of a bloody hunk of steak or a pungent French cheese because of some outdated nonsense about what’s appropriate or attractive.”
Oh, Tony... if eating were supposed to be dignified, the taco would never have been invented. Ditto hot dogs, come to think of it.
“I am not a fan of people who abuse service staff. In fact, I find it intolerable. It’s an unpardonable sin as far as I’m concerned, taking out personal business or some other kind of dissatisfaction on a waiter or busboy.”
I couldn't agree more. By all means express your feelings but you don't have to be abusive to be heard. Additionally, it often doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things. As well as treating another human badly over something that is probably trivial, are you not also making yourself miserable? Is it really worth that energy? I find that keeping control of myself during a frustrating situation gives me some measure of control of the outcome and usually means I don't hang onto the event afterwards.
“I would like to see people more aware of where their food comes from. I would like to see small farmers empowered.”
I have DRILLED this into my kids. Without farmers, we NEVER would have evolved into the current Era. We need to get RID of Big Farma Corps. Nasty food
"I learned a long time ago that trying to micromanage the perfect vacation is always a disaster. That leads to terrible times."
I agree. Depending on your needs, it never hurts to have some sort of plan, but trying to over control to get the perfect holiday will cause everyone stress and guarantee the trip will be anything but perfect. And aiming for that perfect vacation means that any small issue that crops up has the potential to ruin everything.
“Travel isn’t always pretty. It isn’t always comfortable. Sometimes it hurts, it even breaks your heart. But that’s okay. The journey changes you; it should change you. It leaves marks on your memory, on your consciousness, on your heart, and on your body. You take something with you. Hopefully, you leave something good behind.”
“I had always believed that if somebody who worked with me went home feeling like a jerk for giving their time and their genuine effort, then it was me who had failed them — and in a very personal, fundamental way.”
I try to do this at work. I've worked with some people who have seriously struggled with the job and it's never either of our favourite conversations when they do something wrong, but I'm there to help. Not being good at something is not a moral failing. I can bang my head against a wall in private. When I'm with them it's all about how I can help them do better next time.
“Bad food is made without pride, by cooks who have no pride, and no love. Bad food is made by chefs who are indifferent, or who are trying to be everything to everybody, who are trying to please everyone. Bad food is fake food. Food that shows fear and lack of confidence in people’s ability to discern or to make decisions about their lives.”
“Basic cooking skills are a virtue. The ability to feed yourself and a few others with proficiency should be taught to every young man and woman as a fundamental skill. It’s as vital to growing up as learning to wipe one’s own ass, cross the street by oneself, or be trusted with money.”
Knowing how to cook not only helps make tasty food, but it also expands options when time, money or facilities are in short supply.
“Travel is about the gorgeous feeling of teetering in the unknown.”
I really like walking down streets in new places, just taking it all in.
“You learn a lot about someone when you share a meal together.”
“It’s been an adventure. We took some casualties over the years. Things got broken. Things got lost. But I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.”
“There is no Final Resting Place of the Mind.”
“One of life's terrible truths is that women like guys who seem to know what they're doing.”
I don't care if it's just guys. I have zero patience for people who refuse to properly learn anything.
"When I die, I will decidedly not be regretting missed opportunities for a good time. My regrets will be more along the lines of a sad list of people hurt, people let down, assets wasted, and advantages squandered."
When you died a lot of people were let down and left sad. How awful for you to die thinking it was the only way and there was no one who loved you that you could turn to. Another talented but tortured soul. RIP
“Sometimes the greatest meals on vacations are the ones you find when Plan A falls through.”
When were traveled Vienna we found a little neighbourhood restaurant in some back alley. It had better and of course cheaper meals than the famous Schnitzel house we tried before.
“I, personally, think there is a real danger of taking food too seriously. Food should be part of the bigger picture.”
“Skills can be taught. Character you either have or you don’t have.”
“When dealing with complex transportation issues, the best thing to do is pull up with a cold beer and let somebody else figure it out.”
“For a moment, or a second, the pinched expressions of the cynical, world-weary, throat-cutting, miserable bastards we’ve all had to become disappears, when we’re confronted with something as simple as a plate of food.”
“To me, life without veal stock, pork fat, sausage, organ meat, demi-glace, or even stinky cheese is a life not worth living.”
“If anything is good for pounding humility into you permanently, it's the restaurant business.”
People that haven't worked food service, will never understand this quote.
“I do not have a merchandise line. I don't sell knives or apparel. Though I have been approached to endorse various products from liquor to airlines to automobiles to pharmaceuticals dozens of times, I have managed to resist the temptation.”
"Under 'Reasons for Leaving Last Job,' never give the real reason, unless it's money or ambition."
Agreed. Anything can be twisted and no answer can be taken at face value. I never ask this question. I don't see what I have to learn from the answer. I'm more interested in what they want to experience with me.
“Travel changes you. As you move through this life and this world you change things slightly, you leave marks behind, however small. And in return, life — and travel — leaves marks on you.”
“If I’m an advocate for anything, it’s to move. As far as you can, as much as you can. Across the ocean, or simply across the river. Walk in someone else’s shoes or at least eat their food. It’s a plus for everybody.”
“I’m a big believer in winging it. I’m a big believer that you’re never going to find the perfect city travel experience or the perfect meal without a constant willingness to experience a bad one. Letting the happy accident happen is what a lot of vacation itineraries miss, I think, and I’m always trying to push people to allow those things to happen rather than stick to some rigid itinerary.”
The Italians and Spanish, the Chinese and Vietnamese see food as part of a larger, more essential and pleasurable part of daily life. Not as an experience to be collected or bragged about – or as a ritual like filling up a car – but as something else that gives pleasure, like sex or music, or a good nap in the afternoon.”
“Big stuff and little: learning how to order breakfast in a country where I don't speak the language and haven't been before — that's really satisfying to me. I like that.”
“In America, the professional kitchen is the last refuge of the misfit. It’s a place for people with bad pasts to find a new family.”
“I’d put aside my psychotic rage, after many years being awful to line cooks, abusive to waiters, bullying to dishwashers. It’s terrible — and counter-productive — to make people feel like idiots for working hard for you.”
"What are our expectations? Which of the things we desire are within reach? If not now, when? And will there be some left for me?"
“If you’re twenty-two, physically fit, hungry to learn and be better, I urge you to travel — as far and as widely as possible. Sleep on floors if you have to. Find out how other people live and eat and cook. Learn from them — wherever you go.”
“Good food and good eating are about risk. Every once in a while an oyster, for instance, will make you sick to your stomach. Does this mean you should stop eating oysters? No way.”
“Food had power. It could inspire, astonish, shock, excite, delight and impress. It had the power to please me and others.”
“Our movements through time and space seem somehow trivial compared to a heap of boiled meat in broth, the smell of saffron, garlic, fishbones and Pernod.”
“Anyone who’s a chef, who loves food, ultimately knows that all that matters is: ‘Is it good? Does it give pleasure?”
I don't cook commercially anymore, but whenever I cook for my Wife or friends this is the first and last thing I ask myself ; thankfully I'm not a half bad Chef and apart from my Wife being a picky eater, I've not had a bad revue for many years .....
“For a dinner date, I eat light all day to save room, then I go all in: I choose this meal and this order, and I choose you, the person across from me, to share it with. There's a beautiful intimacy in a meal like that.”
“Maybe that’s enlightenment enough: to know that there is no final resting place of the mind; no moment of smug clarity. Perhaps wisdom is realizing how small I am, and unwise, and how far I have yet to go.”
“Practicing your craft in expert fashion is noble, honorable and satisfying. And I’ll generally take a standup mercenary who takes pride in his professionalism over an artist any day.”
“Context and memory play powerful roles in all the truly great meals in one’s life.”
I've had amazing meals I have forgotten and mediocre meals that have stayed with me for years.
"I wanted kicks — the kind of melodramatic thrills and chills I'd yearned for since childhood, the kind of adventure I'd found as a little boy in the pages of my Tintin comic books."
“Looking at these photographs, I know that I will never understand the world I live in or fully know the places I’ve been. I’ve learned for sure only what I don’t know — and how much I have to learn.”
“The journey is part of the experience — an expression of the seriousness of one’s intent. One doesn’t take the A train to Mecca.”
“To be treated well in places where you don’t expect to be treated well, to find things in common with people you thought previously you had very, very little in common with, that can’t be a bad thing.”
“Do we really want to travel in hermetically sealed popemobiles through the rural provinces of France, Mexico and the Far East, eating only in Hard Rock Cafes and McDonald’s? Or do we want to eat without fear, tearing into the local stew, the humble taqueria’s mystery meat, the sincerely offered gift of a lightly grilled fish head?”
“I think people lose sight of the fact that chefs should be ultimately in the pleasure business, not in the look-at-me business.”
"I love the sheer weirdness of the kitchen life: the dreamers, the crackpots, the refugees, and the sociopaths with whom I continue to work. The ever-present smells of roasting bones, searing fish, and simmering liquids; the noise and clatter, the hiss and spray, the flames, the smoke, and the steam."
How true. After being a chef for 20 years I know what he means. Somedays I miss the chaotic dance, the delight of those that I cooked for, the language ( as foul and as loud as it was). But then I wake up and can't hardly move because of my back, have no feeling in my fingertips (due to more cuts than I care to count), and see the scars from the popping grease on my arms and I am grateful I made it out of those kitchens alive and unjaded. It was a wonderful, busy, hard, underapriciated, sexist, dissapointing, fun and enjoyable learning experience that I choose not to return to. However, reading these quotes of his sure makes it tempting to do so. If he was still here I prob would find myself right back in the weeds. He was a great inspiration, for good and bad. The world is a little less flavorful , a little less bright without him in it. It's such a shame. Cutting onions doesn't make me cry, but knowing he is gone does.
“I've seen zero evidence of any nation on Earth other than Mexico even remotely having the slightest clue what Mexican food is about or even come close to reproducing it. It is perhaps the most misunderstood country and cuisine on Earth.”
As someone who's been to Mexico more than once, I agree with this so much!
“You can call me the bad boy chef all you want. I'm not going to freak out about it. I'm not that bad. I'm certainly not a boy, and it's been a while since I've been a chef.”
“Once you embark on a career dictated by the need for immediate cash flow, it never gets any easier to get off the treadmill.”
“Don’t lie about it. You made a mistake. Admit it and move on. Just don’t do it again. Ever.”
"If you’re a writer, particularly if you’re a writer or a storyteller of any kind, there is something already kind of monstrously wrong with you."
"Let’s face it, it is an unreasonable attitude to look in the mirror in the morning and think, 'You know, there are people out there who would really like to hear my story.'"
“I think that if all kids aspire to reach a point where they could feed themselves and a few of their friends, this would be good for the world surely.”
“I'm very type-A, and many things in my life are about control and domination, but eating should be a submissive experience, where you let down your guard and enjoy the ride.”
“In too much of the West, everyone wants the guarantee of safety, and never having to make any decisions.”
They SURE like to scream like they want to make all their own stupid decisions though
“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.”
“People are generally proud of their food. A willingness to eat and drink with people without fear and prejudice. They open up to you in ways that somebody visiting who is driven by a story may not get.”
“For me, the cooking life has been a long love affair, with moments both sublime and ridiculous. But like a love affair, looking back you remember the happy times best.”
“I’ve long believed that good food, good eating, is all about risk. Whether we’re talking about unpasteurized Stilton, raw oysters or working for organized crime ‘associates,’ food, for me, has always been an adventure”
“Oh yes, there's lots of great food in America. But the fast food is about as destructive and evil as it gets. It celebrates a mentality of sloth, convenience, and a cheerful embrace of food we know is hurting us.”
“Those places I don't understand, just doing bad food. It takes some doing. Making good pasta is so much easier than making bad stuff. It actually takes quite an effort to make poor linguine pomodora.”
“There are people with otherwise chaotic and disorganized lives, a certain type of person that's always found a home in the restaurant business in much the same way that a lot of people find a home in the military.”
“Chefs are fond of hyperbole, so they can certainly talk that way. But on the whole, I think they probably have a more open mind than most people.”
“No one understands and appreciates the American Dream of hard work leading to material rewards better than a non-American.”
“I always entertain the notion that I’m wrong, or that I’ll have to revise my opinion. Most of the time that feels good; sometimes it really hurts and is embarrassing.”
“Without experimentation, a willingness to ask questions and try new things, we shall surely become static, repetitive, and moribund.”
I think I've come up with a way to describe him: humbly pretentious. Thoughts?
I think I've come up with a way to describe him: humbly pretentious. Thoughts?
