My Hero, Anthony Bourdain

Yeah, I'm a big fan of Anthony Bourdain. For those of you that do not know who he is, he was a New York Chef at Brasserie Les Halles and author of several best selling books such as Kitchen Confidential and A Cook's Tour. Currently, he is the host of Travel Channel's No Reservations.

The biggest thing that I admire about him is that he is willing to try all different kinds of food...the bizarre like balut to the ordinary sushi. Ok, for some of you sushi is bizarre like eating bait. Hey, today's sushi is tomorrow's bait but I love it. But as for balut, there is no way that I would even attempt to go near it. I don't mean to knock it down because it is a delicacy for a lot of Southeast Asians and Filipinos. Let's just say that it is an acquired taste.

I've been a fan of Anthony Bourdain for about three years after reading Kitchen Confidential. I actually first heard of him when he was a guest on Oprah. No, I do not normally watch Oprah or any of the those day time shows geared toward women. I was channel surfing during one of my days while I was bored out of my mind during a period of unemployment and saw this Chef on TV and it happened to be the Oprah show. It was interesting what he had to say about the restaurant business such as why restaurant food tastes better than what you can dish out at home (because restaurants use butter and shallots), that the bread on your table most likely is recycled, and brunch specials on the weekends are a way for the restaurant to get rid of stuff from the week (frittata comes to mind).

After reading Kitchen Confidential, I got hooked and bought his other books and then I started to get into French style cooking. His book, Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles Cookbook: Strategies, Recipes, and Techniques of Classic Bistro Cooking, is great! I highly recommend this book if you are a beginner to French cooking. One of my favorite recipes from this book is Steak Au Poivre. It is relatively easy to make and it tastes great. Mmmm...I love the sauce using butter, shallots, and cognac. Dang, it is making me real hungry just thinking about it. This cookbook also inspired me to be create my takes on French food such as braised short ribs with red wine reduction and caramelized wild mushroom ragout, and baked chicken with garlic confit and white wine sauce. Ok, I have to make one of these this week since it has been a while that I made either one.

Ok, back to Mr. Bourdain. The one thing that I really like about him is that he is always gracious with his hosts who cook and serve him. He will not hesitate to try foods that he is unfamiliar with and he will not make a disgusted face in front of his host if he eats something that grosses him out. I remember one episode when he ate a taco made out of iguana meat. In front of his host, he merrily chewed and ate the whole thing. Off camera, he stated that he would have rather stuck his head in a barrel of lye. Hmmm...seeing iguanas in the pet store, I would not blame him for doing such a thing. He is a brave man...much braver than me and I love to eat all kinds of bizarre foods. Well, they are normal for me but for white bread America, it is very exotic or shall I say ralphish?

If you want to see different parts of the world with its culture and cuisine, I highly recommend watching No Reservations on the Travel channel. It is great show and Anthony Bourdain is very entertaining and interesting to watch.