Thursday, September 23, 2010

My Name is Anthony Bourdain

From being the “bad boy of cuisine”, this 54-year-old, father of a three and a half year old “raw oyster-loving” toddler appears warm, fuzzy, almost downright blissed-out until he opens his mouth!

Anthony-Bourdain He still maintains his wicked charm, he still has the ability to make a puritan gasp with his trademark expletives, and yes, the man can talk. All of the little less than two hours that I spent the evening with an auditorium-full of people at Massey Hall last night, my jaws were aching. I was constantly grinning, smiling, chuckling and the rest of the times laughing out loud at whatever Anthony Bourdain said. His stories about sex, drugs, crazy food, travel and dining culture make you lust for more.

But what did make multiple entries during the last night of No Reservations: An Evening with Anthony Bourdain was his unpretentiousness, his humility and his greatness. I had the fleeting urge to get up from my balcony seat and go sit by his feet, just to hear him talk from closer.

Bourdain just makes everything sound irresistible. Even a pig’s uncooked gut. IMG_1496Four minutes into the evening and Rachel Ray, Guy Fieri, Gordan “Hell” Ramsay and his other Food Network peers, along with food bloggers and critics came under Bourdain’s chopping board, but just out of humor and not hubris. But even before he did that, he slings at himself first. Making pot shots at the way he is hypocritical about organic food. And calls himself a calls himself a “jaded, overprivileged foodie”.

When I left home, I took sheaves of paper and a pen stuffed in my handbag, with my camera of course. The aching wannabe journalist in me was crying out loud for an opportunity like tonight’s. But who was I kidding? The papers remained inside my handbag, I remained glued to the chair with no elbow room, for I was too mesmerized by this solitary man. He walked on stage on time, with a bottle of beer in his hand. His crop of peppered hair slickly brushed back, his dark, charcoal denims snugly fit on his lean bod which assumedly so had travelled, worked out and ate well. Giving him the right balance to understand cultures and kitchens around the world.

IMG_1499 He seemed at ease with the expecting crowd around him and more importantly with himself. Each time he opened his mouth, which was pretty much all the one hour forty minutes of the evening, I felt I needed to log on to Wikipedia or dictionary.com to see what the word he just created meant. All hopes of course of taking notes had evaporated as soon as he had appeared on stage. No one can keep pace with this man. Not even his own shadow.

IMG_1497 IMG_1498 The un-constrained evening of hysterical culinary-literature ended too soon. He took questions from some people who chose the occasion to hobnob with him for the 10-seconds of time that they were blessed with. I, of course had no such luck. So I did what I could do best, down a stiff vodka with OJ with my husband and replayed the memories of the very sexy, very seductive Mister Anothony Bourdain.

IMG_1520

(Poor quality of the stage photos should to be blamed on the no-photography rule @ Massey Hall. These are sneak shots by a very smitten woman whose husband was not too pleased with her breaking the rules.)

15 comments:

Kalyan Karmakar said...

Tie a black string around your waist, put on a kala teeka, break and egg... for I am so jealous of you :)

Satrupa said...

'Woman thy name is jealousy'........ I envy you Pree. You were with the man I adore so much.
It was nice to read your write up. I could virtually find myself in Mass Hall.

Sayantani Mahapatra Mudi said...

oh am going to say the same that am tooo tooo envious of you. I almost see all Bourdain's show (even the repeat telecast) and loved his books too. but thanks that you shared the experience Pree.

Sulagna said...

Wow you are sooo lucky..I love Tony Bourdain and all his shows..Coincidentally,I'm reading Kitchen Confidential nowadays.Have you read his new book ?

Best Regards
Sulagna
http://e-senseofspicenfragrance-sulagna.blogspot.com/

PreeOccupied said...

The truth is finally out now. I have a set of very jealous Blogger friends. Uhhh...

:-)

Reeni said...

How jealous I am! I didn't even know he did this sort of thing...how awesome!

Anonymous said...

this guy is more of a rock star than a chef...hes got such strong screen presence...u re lucky to get a once in lifetime chance to meet him

Kamini said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Kamini said...

hey glad you broke the rules and snuck the camera in. The pics almost make me feel like I was there! No doubt the man is irreverent, funny and a genius! Read his Kitchen Conf. last year...funny funny stuff! Yup, I too am jealous!!!

Hrish Thota said...

awesome PP :) very jealous of u!

Bong Mom said...

E to ekdom hi-fi byapar !!!

Anonymous said...

You watched him ? you are lucky.
I too follow his show in India No Reservations.

Unknown said...

So well written! I was at that show as well, and you captured exactly how I felt.

Bourdain is the bad ass rock star of the food world. It was a fantastic evening!

(it's such a stupid "no photos" rule at Massey Hall... tried desperately to get a shot with my phone but to no avail, so to me your photos are great!)

sangeeta said...

OOh you added one more jealous blogger buddy to your list...

Thanks for dropping by Pree...
I am loving your blog and have already seen many posts..

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