Very saddened to hear of Anthony Bourdain’s passing. While I’ve never considered myself a “fan” of celebrities, he was one of the few Akemi and I genuinely loved for his honesty, cutting sense of humor, and the obvious empathy he had for others.
Anthony always had a way with words. These are my favorite Anthony Bourdain quotes:
“Skills can be taught. Character you either have or you don’t have.”
“And chicken is boring. Chefs see it as a menu item for people who don’t know what they want to eat.”
“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”
“I don’t have to agree with you to like you or respect you.”
“To have a child is to give fate a hostage.”
“Assume the worst. About everybody. But don’t let this poisoned outlook affect your job performance. Let it all roll off your back. Ignore it. Be amused by what you see and suspect. 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.”
“A proper saute pan, for instance, should cause serious head injury if brought down hard against someone’s skull. If you have any doubts about which will dent — the victim’s head or your pan — then throw that pan right in the trash.”
“It’s very rarely a good career move to have a conscience.”
“These are the end products of the Masterminds of Safety and Ethics, bulked up on cheese that contains no cheese, chips fried in oil that isn’t really oil, overcooked gray disks of what might once upon a time have been meat, a steady diet of Ho-Hos and muffins, butterless popcorn, sugarless soda, flavorless light beer. A docile, uncomprehending herd, led slowly to a dumb, lingering, and joyless slaughter.”
“The food was what you might expect to find on Air Uganda tourist class:”
“I compared it to taking my first acid trip: Nothing was ever the same for me. I just wanted more of it. If I had to agree to live in one country, or even one city, for the rest of my life, never leaving it, I’d pick Tokyo in a second.”
A sad, sad day.
It always hits hard when people lose the strength to fight.
Hope you’re all well.
~Birdy
Anthony Bourdain in his show Parts Unknown allowed us to see the good, the bad, and the tasty of so many different countries and cultures.
I am truly gutted at the loss of such a distinct voice.
May he Rest In Peace and may those who knew and loved him find comfort at this difficult time.
He was a very intriguing personality. RIP Anthony.
Truly a sad day. What a loss. I’ve been trying to process it all day.
Oh, crap. Another contemporary gone.
Almost unbelievable when first I heard it. Very sad!
I’m not sure I’m understanding properly all the quotes. Maybe I’m lacking context for some of them.
My husband is a fan of his shows; such a shame…
Farewell Anthony. I am sorry your journey ended far too soon.
Not that it matters, but JFK said “To have a child is to give fate a hostage.” Even then it wasn’t original.
Francis Bacon: He that hath wife and children hath given hostages to fortune; for they are impediments to great enterprises, either of virtue or mischief.
Sadly I am only learning of Anthony upon his passing. He has impacted quite a few people I know serving as an inspiration, a compass, a fellow spirit. I feel slightly less for only now getting to know who he was.
Not being a foodie, I only knew him through his interviews on TV. He seemed like a person who said what was on his mind. Kind of a what-you-see-is-what-you-get person. That is refreshing these days. Just never know what demons people are battling inside themselves.