Pictured is my signed copy of A Cook's Tour. My mom got it for me as a gift. She and I do not get along very well, as we have very little in common. What we do have in common is that we both enjoy cooking and sharing food.
I read Kitchen Confidential when it came out - I forget who recommended it to me but I sent it to my mom as a gift and she loved it, and she loved Anthony Bourdain. He was a swashbuckling writer, with a wonderful ability to revel in the organic, earthy minutiae of the stuff you put in your face. No pretense for him, which has always very much been my approach to food and to eating.
My mom has always shuddered at the way that I disregard how a meal 'plates'; I just want it to taste good. Bourdain had the skills to plate food as beautifully as anyone, but he was mainly interested in finding the deliciousness available anywhere and everywhere. His was a celebration of the everyday goodness fighting against the mundane. No half measures in his kitchen or on his plate. He loved street food most of all, and he played no small part in the renaissance that inexpensive, unpretentious cuisine has experienced over the past 20 years. He will be much missed.
Bourdain struggled with mental illness his entire life, and that is another thing that I find very relatable. Sometimes no amount of love or money can save you if you are sick.
He was 61.
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