Anthony Bourdain “The Last One in the World”

At this time of the year we often find ourselves saying farewell to the icons who have left us in the past year. Living in Jersey City NJ and Tribeca NYC I often found myself in close proximity to a fellow Chef who left us this year. Seems we both grew up Bergen County NJ and spent time on the Jersey Shore and in Provincetown MA.

A Few Bourdain Facts:

• His TV Shows = 15 years of non-stop travel
• 400 Meals were consumed per season
• Life delivers very few epic meals
• Bourdain traveled to 80 Countries
• Plumbing is important, a bidet and a hot shower are very important, especially after living without

Most think it all began for Bourdain with the publishing of Kitchen Confidential in 2000. (By the way, there are thirteen books authored by Anthony Bourdain and they are all worth a read). If you have cooked for a living and, by chance, started your illustrious career in the scullery (a nice way of announcing to the world that you washed pots and dishes for a living) you know the truth to be quite different. Your first days in the kitchen left you instantly mesmerized by the sound, the smell, the visual effect and of course the taste of food.

Your new coworkers were organized like the best sports teams. There was a camaraderie that existed in the kitchen and afterward when the brigade socialized at your local pub. It was that first iced cold beer after service and your first night on the line that began the magic love affair. It might have been the first night you served 80 perfect covers or one when you were lucky enough to turn the dining room serving 400 dinners. All the while staying out of the weeds.

My druthers tell me that the very first ice-cold beer at the end of service was the beginning of Anthony Bourdain’s story.

Andrew Friedman of Toqueland talks to Bourdain about cooking, writing and tomorrow. You can find more from Andrew on his podcast. Friedman often called Bourdain a force for good.

This month GQ called Tony ‘The Last Curious Man’. Drew Magary of GQ had a conversation with Bourdain’s younger brother, Chris. In the course or their talk Drew may have hit the best description of Anthony Bourdain.

‘There is no easy description for Tony Bourdain, or for the utterly unique role he managed to carve out for himself in this world. He was a chef. He was an author. He was a very popular TV host—the cheerfully dickish center of the food-media universe. He was an explorer who removed degrees of separation from the world’s sociological arithmetic, a man who was always, in his words, hungry for more.’  Drew Magary

Unfortunately, he left all of us hungry for more and that is very unlikely to happen in our lifetime.

Lagniappe

I found this song when I was looking at music tracks from Parts Unknown. Tony was explaining how it came about that Mark Lanegan and Josh Homme did the theme song for his new show on CNN. Bourdain often told his audiences: “Lanegan is one of the greatest living singer/songwriters making music today”. He related to his songs, and lyrics “that were reflective of long hard life and cut me right down to the bone”.

The Last One in the World @1998 has long been on my list of Lanegan favorites. On June 8 of this year, amidst an argument with a bottle of Angel’s Envy bourbon, I conceded, admitting that this song was honestly about Anthony Bourdain.

Rolling Stone documents Bourdain’s most memorable moments with music icons. And their relationships were not just bound by music, they were his culinary tour guides, his drinking buddies and inevitably his lifelong friends.

Mark Lanegan ‘Scraps At Midnight’

The Last One in the World

Mark Lanegan & The Last One in the World

Goodbye my friend I hate to see you go
You brought me down the stars
The last one in the world
I hear you cry
But let’s not waste this night
The last one in the world

Within your lonely room
I hear you whisper see you soon
I sense a dying spark
I watch you falling through the dark

Goodbye my friend, thank you for the dream
The last one in the world
I hear you cry
But let’s not waste this night
The last one in the world

And I listen to you call
I hardly hear you at all
I walk the quiet night
Watch the river rolling by

Read Anthony Bourdain’s Touching Letter to Josh Homme’s Daughter