Tags: #literature #cultivate-taste ## *Why am I reading this?* It's on @visakanv's reading list, and I've been meaning to delve into Bourdain's books. I've watched all episodes of Bourdain's Parts Unknown, as well as several episodes of his other TV show whose name escapes me. I enjoy travel shows. My father and I especially enjoy watching travel shows that focus on food. I love the stories of the chefs, the food, the cultures. And I've enjoyed Bourdain's gruff persona matter-of-factness. There's a quote attributed to Bourdain, although I don't know from when or where, that has stuck with me ever since I read it, because it so wholly describes how I feel about myself. > "I understand there's a guy inside me who wants to lay in bed, smoke weed all day, and watch cartoons and old movies. My whole life is a series of stratagems to avoid, and outwit, that guy." Being a child of immigrants, a recovering overachiever, and a Twitter user, I've internalized a lot of cringeworthy hustle porn over the years, so I found it refreshing to hear someone voice how I feel. Yes! Honesty!!!! Deep down, I want to do nothing. I want to lie on the beach with a fruity cocktail and my toes in the sand. I want to curl up in bed with a good book and someone who loves me. I'll work, but I don't genuinely envision myself enjoying working more than not working. But I strive on anyway. Because some part of me believes I have more to offer the world. Because I want to make my parents proud. Because to enjoy the good life, one needs money. And I think I'm in the phase of life where I'm trying all kinds of strategems to avoid/outwit the version of me that wants to do nothing. He always struck me as a tortured kind of guy, and I guess I felt like a kindred spirit in that regard. Like we are people who deep down, believe that the strategems to outwit ourselves are futile. Anyway, I really enjoyed this book. I enjoyed the essays, the smatterings of words and nasty bits from throughout his career. I love the recurrent theme of "eating food that comes from somewhere", pursuing excellence, the sheer love of food and cooking that oozes off every page, lambasting soullessness, the nostalgia (so much nostalgia), the opinionated writing, death to pomposity and pretenders, the age-old conundrum of selling without selling out, the unashamed pleasure seeking, the beautiful homages to several countries---landscapes, people, cultures and food. The following is a selection of notes on some of the essays I found most interesting, with a mix of thoughts from me. ## Salty ### The Evildoers p. 16 "try to eat food that comes from somewhere, from somebody" ### A Commencement Address Nobody Asked For p.21 "pursue excellence for yourself" ### Food and Loathing in Las Vegas p.36 after spending the entire essay lambasting Vegas and its soullessness and almost begrudgingly admitting that a few of the restaurants and food there ranged from half decent to pretty fucking good, he goes skydiving and says "maybe that's what it's all about...what vegas has come to mean for chefs, for cooks, for gamblers, diners, for all of us who go there: while we may be rushing inexorably toward the hard realities of the ground, surely and inevitably arriving in the same place...for a few moments, or hours, or even days, Vegas convinces us we can stay aloft---forever" ### Are You a Crip or a Blood? p. 37 - 39 - where crip = chefs that cook without borders or limitations, constantly seeking innovative ways to combine old and new, using the most exotic ingredients. and bloods = chefs for whom a solid, rigorous connection to its immediate region and seasions are the primary concern. Bourdain explains that he has always liked to think of himself as a blood, but in the end, when it makes sense, he will order those exotic ingredients. **when it makes sense**. **when it actually serves the higher purposes of making great food, and isn't just pretentious.** I think the snobbery around being a crip is interesting. frankly, as someone who grew up in the US, I think here food culture has no choice but to emulate "bloods", because the people here come from all over. I don't really feel a strong connection to seasonal food from the Hudson Valley, which is probably why I have absolutely dragged my feet on making it out to Blue Hill At Stone Barns in favor of all the delicious NYC possibilities - the newest ramen spot, KTown, etc, etc. I think, in the end, the undercurrent of Bourdain's writing is that, although his snobbery has him lean toward blood, it doesn't really matter whether a chef is a blood or a crip, as long as there's an intention behind it all. as long as the food comes from ***somewhere***. as long as the chef has a good reason for using that imported ingredient, as long as the chef isn't allowing dogmatic adherence to regional ingredients to prevent them from making good food. ### Counter Culture p47-54 - bourdain laments the pomposity of many fine dining experiences. in all his writing (and when watching parts unknown) there's a yearning to get to the heart of the food. to make the experience about the soul of the food rather than everything around it. "it's about food--and company--and the enjoyment of both" ### A Life of Crime p. 55-63 - Bourdain laments the decline of the mob. no really. he yearns for the romantic age of organized crime, well- documented and narrated in films like the godfather, goodfellas, tv like the sopranos, etc. laments that the new age of crime is boring, lacks charisma, is just transferring cash from offshore acct to offshore acct, can be done by accountants. it's ridiculous, of course, but I guess I understand. bc it's not really about crime at all. he misses the stories, the glamour, the good old days, feeling wrapped up in secretive charming deals made in smoky restaurants, when mobsters met face to face and supposedly honor and "your word" meant something. he misses the wit, and charisma. he's nostalgic. and nostalgia, and yearning for times long gone that i barely understand--i completely understand. ### Advanced Courses p.64-66 - Bourdain recounts his adventures thru the US, and how despite the suburban sprawl and nothingness, he can see hints of "america the beautiful" ppl used to write songs about. the purple mountains, twisting rivers. random thoughts on suburban sprawl that maybe I should write more deeply about: iIused to look at suburban sprawl with more distaste than I currently do now. I grew up in Yonkers, a very urban suburb (as an NYC suburb, we get a lot of splash urbanization, I suppose the suburb rises to the urbanization of its...urbs). it wasn't quite acres of perfectly manicured lawn and nosy neighbors and HOAs, honestly a lot of it looks like the neighboring Bronx. but it definitely wasn't soaring skyrises and any type of cuisine you wanted at 3 AM and the noise you associate with NYC. it also wasn't walkable (not really), and although there were plenty of buses almost everyone had a car. while in my eyes (and frankly, **objectively**) it is a large city, everything pales and looks small in comparison to NYC and I have long given up on the "upstate" battle. anyway, I recognize the suburbs for what they are. an uninspired stretch of land where you have space and safety and 90% of your needs are taken care of. why hate on strip malls, really. my parents, who grew up in the philippines, who have lived in poverty, would never hate on the strings of tjmaxxes, and stop&shops, and starbucks, and strip malls, because they see it as abundance. I may personally see it as lack of taste in urban planning and devoid of meaning, but they see it as having every material thing you have ever truly needed within reach. and there's things to like about the suburbs too. the diners. hanging out (and drinking, and smoking weed) in the parking lot with your friends. the space to stretch out. you can breathe. you can listen to yourself think. maybe a little too much. anyway, here's a quote from bourdain i found interesting. "America's cool, if you look hard enough". and that summarizes how i feel about america too. yes, there's things to hate. lots of things. but if you look deeper, even in the suburbs, you find the awesome himalayan food and the dope pho joint nestled in the nondescript strip mall, the new filipino place that opened up, the unexpectedly ***delicious*** dumpling spot in the middle of nowhere, the little places that bring you joy. ## Sweet ### My Manhattan p.75-80 - [[0010. my manhattan]] ### When the Cooking's Over (Turn Out the Lights, Turn out the Lights) p. 86 - "good food does lead to sex. as it should." p. 87 - "It is our job to give pleasure to customers. How can we be expected, one might ask, to regularly and reliably give pleasure if we do not ourselves fully experience it and understand it--in all its strange and fabulous permutations?" ### The Cook's Companions p.95-101 - overall as I go thru this book I find myself reflecting on my own industry. Bourdain fucking loves cooking. it's hard, and it beats the shit out of him, but he can't fathom doing anything else. and he loves everything about it, the food, of course, but the camaraderie of the kitchen, the history of cooking, he feels he is part of a grand tradition. even when it gives him physical pain. even when it gives him spiritual pain to be a cog in the wheel. I hate my industry. I hate agile. I hate how we build software. I hate meetings. I hate sprint planning. I don't believe in software. I don't know that it's possible to believe in software the way Bourdain believes in food. I believe in people on the Internet. in the stories of people on the Internet. right now I'm just jaded from my first year, where I've gotten to design so little. does that change? what I wouldn't give to love designing and building software the way Bourdain loves cooking. but I don't even think I hate design really. or building software. I just hate how it's done. i hate the way we work. I hate Slack. i hate Google Meet. I hate keeping developers busy to keep them busy. it fills me with fucking rage. ## Sour ### Is Celebrity Killing the Great Chefs? p.125 - "there has always been an element of the hustler/showman in the great chef" this whole essay is about how to some extent, all chefs have to sell. in any industry one tragically can't get away from having to sell. you can obsess about the product but you still have to distribute it somehow. and how does one sell without selling out? Bourdain says that no matter what lengths you go to to ***sell***, you still have to love the food, or at least the cooking. to me it has always been a travesty that one has to market oneself, and I think this will be my greatest hurdle to overcome to be successful... ### What You Didn't Want to Know p.133 - discussing his production team and crew "It doesn't--as you've probably guessed--take a lot for us to laugh, not after we've been softened up by countless ***"hang-yourself-in-the-shower-stall hotel rooms.***" ***jesus fucking christ.*** ### The Dive p.154-159 it's interesting how being filmed warps reality. he does this cliff jump in Sicily because he knows the entire rest of the filming has been shit and they haven't gotten any of the scenes they wanted. so a lil drunk, when his jackass Italian guide eggs him on for both of them to cliff jump, he thinks why the fuck not. he literally doesn't care what happens to his person as he jumps off the cliff. and when he lands in the water--- *we got the shot.* ## Bitter ### A Drinking Problem p.163-165 I have written before that I don't feel like I'm very opinionated. I often feel afraid of having an opinion. See [[0004. conversation games and developing an opinion]] I don't necessarily agree with Bourdain in this essay, but it's refreshing to read how opinionated he is, and here he writes about the bastion of goodness, the British pub, and how gastronomy should be kept away from it. ### Woody Harrelson: Culinary Muse p.166-170 I don't know much about Woody Harrelson's diet and the reasons for his eating habits, but I'm inclined to agree that one could make more of an effort to try the local food wherever they go. I like his writing about Klein re: raw food - Klein thinks that raw food can be cool, but not the only thing, and he approaches it from a place of experimentation. Klein establishes himself as chef/seeker, and not an advocate of a health-conscious agrarian future. being attracted to challenge over philosopy, over dogma, is preferable. Klein - "I think it's presumptuous for anyone to tell others how they should live their lives." p. 169 - Bourdain - "my prejudices against vegetrainism and veganism are well known and deeply held, but looking at the gorgeous pictures, I thought surely any exploration of ways to make food--any food--better is a positive thing. as intellectual exercise, as gastronomy, as "another path", this weird corner of the culinary spectrum might, I thought, be as worthy of respect as any other. ***a man after my own heart.*** ### Is Anybody Home? p.171 -175 Bourdain writes about how ridiculous it is to expect the celeb chefs to be in the kitchen when they have several restaurants to run. also, at that point, it's the celeb chef's job to make sure the food tastes the same with or without them. it's their job to have the vision, and create a team to execute it. I've honestly never chased celeb chefs. i mean I might chase michelin restaurants, sometimes, but I'm usually curious about what food sounds good, and couldn't name more than maybe 1 hand's worth of celeb chefs. ### Food Terrorists p.179-182 - the hatefulness of some "heroic eco-warriors" (Bourdain's words, not mine) who would extort a chef and threaten his family over serving foie gras. ### Sleaze Gone By p. 183-188 This is the only essay that made me roll my eyes and made me think *sheesh Bourdain, shut up bro.* Bourdain laments the loss of grit and edge and realness and crime of an NYC long gone. Like he literally makes it seem like walking around in the Meatpacking District with the fear that you'll be shanked, or watching people do heroin and plan felonies in the LES, is preferable. I don't really care about all that shit. once again--not an NYC native--but I'm glad people don't have to worry about being shanked and I don't have to worry (as much, at least) about being sex trafficked. of course, people still get hurt, assaulted, robbed, raped, murdered, and everyone should still be vigilant, but it's nothing like the NYC Bourdain describes. and we're better for it. however, I do have a bone to pick with NYC. and it has to do with what he said earlier, about food that comes from somewhere. I can (and tragically, do) enjoy these spots, but I despise the proliferation of Instagrammable locales and overpriced museum popups. what do these places say about us? these places that are created solely to become a square on someone's Instagram feed to entice someone else to go and make it a square on their Instagram feed, creating money for faceless people off our vapid desires. where's the art? where's the food for the soul? ### Pure and Uncut Luxury p. 194 - cooking professionally is dominance. eating well is submission give up all vestiges of control and entrust your fate to someone else. let it happen ## Umami Most of the umami section doesn't really inspire productive thoughts, just dreams about the food bourdain beautifully describes and the exotic locales. Vietnam, Brazil (which apparently has the largest japanese population outside of Japan!), the old French classics, and Singapore. ### Decoding Ferrán Adrià p. 203-210 What I love about this essay is how bourdain presents Adrià as scientist. he ***experiments***. he shuts down his restaurant for six months out of the year to experiment and generate ideas with what he can do with food. notebook upon notebook filled with ideas and results from these experiments. His food makes you think. His food is about what's possible. I am a dilettante, but I strive to have this level of discipline. ### The Good Old stuff p. 224 - 230 Bourdain is a man who is always nostalgic for the good old days ### Die Die Must Try p. 234 Singapore sounds absolutely fantastic, I can't wait to go one day. "This is what a food court should be, I thought, as I waddled toward the door. Imagine if there were a food court near you, at the mall, for instance, where instead of the soul-destroying mediocrity and sameness of American fast food, a wide spectrum of ethnically diverse lone proprietors--all of whom had been perfecting their craft for decades---offered up their very best. Imagine independently owned and operated businesses next door to each other, each serving on e specialty as far from and different from the adjacent offering as each individual culture. Imagine--if fast food could be good food. that there were quick, cheap, delicious offerings that tasted unique to their locale, all across America."" want to try Singapore's famed hawker stalls and chicken rice and chili crab one day when the world opens up. ## Commentary pleasantly discovered some commentary at the end from Bourdain on a few of the essays. remarkably self aware. he recognizes that his yearning for the days of crime-riddled NYC is mostly bullshit, and that good food and pubs aren't such a bad combo, *really*. but on other things, he has only become more extreme, like the food terrorism essay, and the woody harrelson in thailand essay re raw food. --- Created: December 28, 2021 Last Updated: December 28, 2021