An appreciation of Bourdain

[Gerania]

Originally Posted by burdell

AFAIK Food Network had nothing to do with Ripert and Andres among others traveling with Bourdain on some of his CNN excursions.

No. Just the studio regulars.

[blueherons]

Originally Posted by vision33r

He was extremely cocky and didn't respect Ramsay and other celebrity chefs.

Gordon Ramsay has been traveling and sampling various ethnic food a lot longer than he has and he's always been receptive and learned the culture and the origins of the dishes before he criticizes it.

I'm not here to disrespect Bourdain but his career was done before he started the new one on TV. He had to learn and respect a lot of different palates before in order to keep the show going. At the beginning he hated most of the ethnic dishes he tried.

I knew Tony Bourdain personally and professionally (my husband is a chef, sommelier) and we ran in overlapping circles.

Tony HATED celebrity chefs as a whole. That's because they are TV personalities first and chefs second.

Tony grew up in France, he was far from being a stranger to ethnic food. His specialty was blue collar French cooking. He would tell you that he wasn't even in the same caliber as Eric Rupert.

[Clemencia53]

I loved Anthony Bourdain. Very shocking that he took his own life. We never know what goes on .

[WestRiverTraveler]

Bourdain could cook. I ate a Brasserie Les Halles when he was cooking there. It was a rock solid version of Brasserie's in France. I know because I've been to France and eaten at those types of place. He was a craftsman - not an innovator. He acknowledges that perfectly clearly. He gave plenty of love other chefs - Scott Bryan, Eric Ripert, a few others.