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Onthe
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BY DARREN M^ RK

culinaryrockstarhasleftthe build-
ing. The rock star was Anthony
B ourdain a nd th e b uild ing was t he
Downtown Bristol Seafood Grill, host of
B ourdain's ho ur-lo ng tel l- all, ans wer - all,A Cook ' s Tour : G l o b a l
Adventuresin ExtremeConditions.Book hounds know Bourdainas the DM: lt's recentlycome to light that JuliaChild hadan affil
but TV addictsknowhim simplyas Tony,
authorof KitchenConfidential, with the organizationthat was absorbedinto the CIA.Whatdo
the charismatic,say-anything,do-anythinghost of TravelChannel'sNo think about that?
Turnsout, Tony has been to KansasCity before,and, not
Reservations. AB:As muchas I liketo thinkaboutluliajumping
outofa
he loves the area'sbarbecue.So at 9 a.m. on a recent
surprisingly, in the middleof the nightwith a knifein herteeth,slitting
Saturdaymorning,that'swhereour phoneconversation
began. throats,t thinkshewasprobablyworkingbehinda desk.
Anthony Bourdain'You could certainly make a perfectly defensi- DM: Before the TV gigs, and beforeyou wrote
ble argumentthat KansasCity is the barbecuecapitalof the country, Confidential,wasthereevera momentin yourlifewhenyou
if not the world. you weregoingnowhere?
Darren Mark: Where does this desire come from to travel the AB: I was like44 yearsold and livingpaycheck-to-paycheck.
world, tasting all kinds of differentand interestingfoods? beingaliveat 30reallycameasa shockto me.WhenIturned 40,I
AB: Who wouldn't see the world given the opportunity?l'm fas- didn'thavea plan.I prettymuchthoughtI missed
anychance
of
cinated by history.I grew up readingadventurestories and novels I wrotean obnoxious
ing the world and havingfinancialsuccess.
about far-awaylands and never thought I would see any of these that I didn'tthinkanyonewouldreadotherthancooksin NewYork
places.So giventhe opportunityto see any of these places,or lust to was still working the line when I wrote it and I was still working
eat in China, what sane person wouldn't run right off to that? linesometimeafteruntilit dawnedon methatman,thiscould
be
Nothing against America, especiallyKansasCity, which has good careerEvenbeforeI wason TV,I thought,whowouldbecrazy
food, but becausewe're one of the newest countries in the world, to put meon TV,"andwhenI wason TVI thought,"whowouldbe
everybodyhas been cooking a lot longer than us, and a lot better up enough to keep me on TV?"So early on I learnedthat not givinga
until recently. ONPAGT
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was a good b usine ss m odel. Ther e wer e guy s on t he F o o d Factory?I don't want spaghettiand I don't want to eat in a factory.
Net work wh o wo uld ca ll t he VP of pr ogr am m ing ev er y d a y a n d The MacaroniGrill?My God, I just want to shoot myselfin the head.
ask q ue stions about t heir hair and l' d r at h e r b e Wh o g r i l l s m a c a r o n i ?
o n h ero in t han do t hat . DM: Do you ever take a moment to considerall of the great
DM: Are you tired of answeringthe question, t h i n g s t h a t a r e h a p p e n i n gi n y o u r l i f e ?
"What'sthe weirdestthing you'veevereaten?" AB: I think about it everyday.It's ludicrous.I feelverylucky,
and
AB: Yeah,becausel'm not sure what'sweird l'm still delighted and puzzledby it all l'm very happyaboutit. I
any more. The words "weird"and bizarre"are a remember what it was like not too long ago to work a busy
little offensive to me after spending so much lunch shift, to work a griddle. I'm very aware of it. I feel kind of
t im e in As ia. I t ' s lik e t alk i n g s - - like I successfully lust robbed a bank. I keep looking in the
about my friends.You know,most rearview mirror every few blocks and I expect to see red lights,
of the world eats bugs. I'd rather a n d n o t h i n g . I i u s t c a n 't b e l i e v e l 'm g e t t i n g a w a yw i t h th i s s- .
t r y s om et hingt ot ally un f a m i l i a r DM' Now that you havea successfuirestaurant, a successful writ-
rather than eat really poorly ing careerand a successfulTV career,what do you wantto do next?
preparedltalian food. If you're AB: I want to raisea happy daughter.Otherthan that,l'm flying
m ak ing r eally bad l i n g u i n e by the seat of my pants. Somethingthat I won't give up on is doing
pomodoro,that makesme real- withgood
the best I can raisinga happy a girl with high self-esteem
, y ou 'r e t h e
ly m ad. Bas ic ally if martialarts skills When my daughteris in kindergarten,
the firsttime
Olive Garden,I have a real issue little Timmy comes and pokes her in her arm, he'sgoingto get his
wit h t hat The O ld Sp a g h e t t i a s s h a n d e dt o h i m .
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