Elegy for a Chef

When you grow up in an industry such as mine you don't often find role models and heroes

to emulate, sure we had cook books and recipes and history to look back on and learn from but not a lot of the inside scoop as it were. Our traditions were passed through stories about the good old days, every cook you came across would have their versions of the same stories you were living. Epic screw ups, tyrant chefs, idiotic co-workers and the constant hum of foolishness that runs through a younger persons world. Before the advent of the celebrity chef you simply didn't know, on a wide scale, what really went on behind those doors to the kitchen. Anthony Bourdain changed that.

He released Kitchen Confidential in 2000 or so and it spilled the guts on a world that I lived in, minus about 10 years and one incredibly large city as a backdrop. The book was an expression of honesty and debauchery that shined a light on a world that is hard to believe is real. There are chapters contained within that you could easily insert my life into as just about any other cook I know. The people we know and work with, the patrons, the owners and bosses and all the other players in an industry whose sole purpose is to do for others. Service, the good and the bad, is at the heart of it all. I recommend the read highly, Bourdain had a way with words that painted a picture that was both beautiful and raw, no illusions of grandeur or false sense of importance. It was ok that we simply cooked food, did our best to have fun while working in conditions that nobody would willingly want to go into and lived to tell about it. He was the enemy of pretension and froo froo in food and in people. He was authentic and imperfect and he will be missed.

The book not only laid bare the inner workings of the kitchen world but opened up his life to scrutiny. He was painfully honest about his addictions and demons, he struggled mightily to overcome the day to day battles, too often with chemical help. The fact that he was as honest as we was endeared him to many of us in the trenches and in some ways we took his victories as ours because we know how it really is to be surrounded by fire, raw meat and sharp knives. Along the way he shone a light not only on the world of restaurants but on humanity itself and this I fear is where we will miss him the most.

Through his seemingly dream like job of travelling and eating his way around the world he showed us the essence of humanity. As he pointed out we all have traditions around the simple and fundamental act of sharing food. As much as we are different we care for our children and have a need for community, dignity and love in much the same ways. He showed us this by being an honest broker of authentic life around the world. Tales from around the table over dishes both humble and extravagant are at the heart of his ability to connect us all together. This broken and imperfect man did more then tell you how to braise a lamb shank, at the very least he showed that it was more than ok to walk beside uncomfortable waters and experience the dark, because in the end that was the way to truly see and appreciate the light.

It's interesting to me that Scott introduced me to his book all those years ago because in many ways Scott and Bourdain are alike. Iggy Pop fans, off kilter anarchists and left leaning truth speakers, as hard as it may be to hear that truth sometimes. No reservations indeed.

Bourdain transitioned from crazy ass chef to world travelling conscience of the common man. Winning awards and walking the red carpet didn't take away from the fact that he wanted to bring everyday stories to us all, for in those stories he was sharing not only authentic food but authentic people with the rest of us. And saddened as we may be by his end, with questions and disbelief, I think we are better for having him here for a small part in our lives. His wit, his view and his humanity will be missed.

R.I.P. Chef