Bourdain says: 10 quotes from the Maverick Food Porn Poet

This Bourdain Day, we at The Staff Canteen would like to celebrate the chef, writer and travel documentarian, Anthony Bourdain, for the great impact he had on the world.

Here are a series of quotes from his books, interviews and TV appearances we hope will ring true to you, making you laugh, cry, or inspiring you to become a better chef.

• Éric Ripert and José Andrés to launch The Anthony Bourdain Legacy Scholarship
• Chefs call for the world to celebrate Bourdain Day on June 25th

   

  1) "Anyone who’s a chef, who loves food, ultimately knows that all that matters is: ‘Is it good? Does it give pleasure?" 

2) "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."

3) “To me, life without veal stock, pork fat, sausage, organ meat, demi-glace, or even stinky cheese is a life not worth living.” 

4) “I’ve 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.” 

5) “Don’t lie about it. You made a mistake. Admit it and move on. Just don’t do it again. Ever.”

6) "Just because someone you work with is a miserable, treacherous, self-serving, capricious, and corrupt asshole shouldn’t prevent you from enjoying their company, working with them, or finding them entertaining.”

7) “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.”

8) “I, personally, think there is a real danger of taking food too seriously. Food should be part of the bigger picture.”

9) “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.”

10) "Your body is not a temple, it's an amusement park. Enjoy the ride."

"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. " 

 Anthony Bourdain, 1956 – 2018