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On the 8th of June 2018, the world was rocked when the news broke that Anthony Bourdain had taken his own life. Bourdain, a chef, author, and T.V. personality, travelled the world with the aim of finding out what people like to cook and what makes people happy. He had a way with people like few others, igniting wanderlust in his viewers as he travelled and ate his way around the world. His shows introduced viewers to different cultures across the globe. He dined with people of all classes, and more often than not they opened up to him in a way that had never been seen before. This selection of Anthony Bourdain quotes goes a small way to showing what made him so special.
1) “Ask yourself what any traveller should ask going anywhere for the first time, especially if they have limited time there. What do they do there that is unique to that place, that they inarguably do better than anybody else in the world?”
3) “It’s an irritating reality that many places and events defy description. Angkor Wat and Machu Picchu, for instance, seem to demand silence, like a love affair you can never talk about. For a while after, you fumble for words, trying vainly to assemble a private narrative, an explanation, a comfortable way to frame where you’ve been and what’s happened. In the end, you’re just happy you were there – with your eyes open – and lived to see it.”
4) “Travel is about the gorgeous feeling of teetering in the unknown.”
5) “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. Most of the time, those marks–on your body or on your heart–are beautiful. Often, though, they hurt.”
6) “I think food, culture, people and landscape are all absolutely inseparable.”
7) “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.”
8) “Without experimentation, a willingness to ask questions and try new things, we shall surely become static, repetitive, and moribund.”
9) “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?”
10) “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.”
11) “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”
12) “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.”
13) “Travel isn’t always pretty. It isn’t always comfortable. Sometimes it hurts, it even breaks your heart. But that’s OK. 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.”
14) “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.”
15) “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.”
16) “I learned a long time ago that trying to micromanage the perfect vacation is always a disaster. That leads to terrible times.”
18) “I’m a big believer in winging it. I’m a big believer that you’re never going to find a 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.”
19) “Drink heavily with locals whenever possible.”
20) “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.”
21) “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 the floors if you have to. Find out how other people live and eat and cook. Learn from them — wherever you go.”
22) “You learn a lot about someone when you share a meal together.”
23) “I don’t have to agree with you to like you or respect you.”
24) “Things got broken. Things got lost. But I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.”
25) “Context and memory play powerful roles in all the truly great meals in one’s life.”
26) “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.”
27) “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.”
29) “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.”
30) “I am not afraid to look like an idiot.”
Amazing!! Number 13 is absolutely right, we love Anthony💓thank you for sharing this!
Nice work. Number 19 is as Irish as can be.
Love these quotes ❤️
Glad and enjoy these trips qoutes. It’s getting kind of spendy, but I’m not complaining. I just hope it comes back after Covid restrictions finally go away.