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  • 3/25/2025
"He made everybody love food."

He went from an unknown chef who struggled with drug addiction, to one of the world's most popular TV hosts...

This is the life of Anthony Bourdain.
Transcript
00:00I went from a guy, you know, broke, always been, had been broke, never insured, never
00:05owned anything, perpetually in debt, hard-working guy, to overnight, the guy with the best job
00:12in the world.
00:30In my world view, food certainly plays a role, hopefully, in bringing some kind of enlightenment
00:34and understanding and openness and appreciation of other cultures.
01:30My cooking career and chef career started in the 70s and proceeded up until 2001.
01:37You know, I was living paycheck to paycheck, I was living the way, you know, college kids
02:02live.
02:18I had no security, no possessions, never owned a car, never had health insurance, and I was
02:28pretty set, I mean, as comfortable as one can be with that situation, I mean, that's
02:34where I was at age 44.
03:04I'd like to say that the smell of the steam table and the griddle is still pretty fresh
03:17in memory, and I guess in some ways it informs, you know, how I live my life now.
04:04The layover is our own dysfunctional attempt to do a straight travelogue, meaning I go
04:19someplace and do things that you yourself can do.
04:32Ultimately it's coming to terms with how my life has changed in the 10 years since
04:34Kitchen Confidential, which is to say, completely changed.
04:48The whole system that I came up with abhorred waste, encouraged us to make the most of every
05:06ingredient, and so to see that between 25 or 30% of all the food we manufacture and
05:13raise in this country ends up thrown in the garbage, I find that personally offensive.
05:36I'm devastating, I couldn't believe it.
05:39He was one of the best on it for all the shows on it, and every Sunday I enjoyed watching
05:45him.
05:46He was a great friend of Eric Rieper.
05:49It was really sad to hear about it, just tragic, very tragic.
05:54He loved food, made everybody love food.

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