Anthony Bourdain means a lot of things to a lot of people. He was an enlightening representative for people in the service industry, an impetus for aspiring writers to take a leap and tell their story. A flawed but authentic voice for those struggling with addiction. But for a lot of people, including myself, Anthony Bourdain was the insightful, brash vagabond who taught them how to travel.
Yesterday, June 25th, 2019 marked the inaugural “Bourdain Day” — celebrating the life of the late great chef and pleasure seeker on what would’ve been his 63rd birthday. Just a little over a year after Anthony Bourdain’s tragic death, longtime friends and fellow celebrity chefs Eric Ripert and José Andrés are asking fans to celebrate their friend and and veritable legend by raising a glass of their favourite tippling to offer homage to a man who so persistently sought to understand the world we all live in. Really, all they want is for everyone to “Toast Tony.”
Anthony Bourdain was a man of many talents — celebrity chef, author, journalist, martial artist — but we perhaps know him best as a traveler, and here’s why.
“If I’m an advocate for anything, it’s to move. As far as you can, as much as you can. Across the ocean, or simply across the river. The extent to which you can walk in someone else’s shoes or at least eat their food, it’s a plus for everybody. Open your mind, get up off the couch, move.” This quote from No Reservations is one of Bourdain’s most repeated quotes and for good reason — sometimes the biggest obstacle in our way is our unwillingness to do something. He urged everyone to not let the prospect of planning hold you back, because sometimes it’s best to not have plans at all.
“You’re never going to find the perfect city travel experience or the perfect meal without a constant willingness to experience a bad one. Letting the happy accident happen is what a lot of vacation itineraries miss, I think, and I’m always trying to push people to allow those things to happen rather than stick to some rigid itinerary.” Anthony Bourdain was a staunch believer in the lack of an itinerary during travel. According to him, it opens you up to experiences that are truly unconventional. After all, millions of people visit the Taj Mahal every year, but it’s the time you spend outside of the usual tourist hotspots that leave a lasting impression on you.
In an interview Bourdain once said, “The sort of frenzied compression of time needed to take the tour, to see the sights, keeps you in a bubble that prevents you from having magic happen to you. Nothing unexpected or wonderful is likely to happen if you have an itinerary in Paris filled with the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower. It’s those little human moments that are the ones that stick with you forever.”
From the same interview, Bourdain posited that the only real way to connect with your travels is to accept that you aren’t at home anymore, “We tend to be over concerned with safety and with cleanliness in ways that stand between us.” The thing that made Bourdain’s perspective so refreshing was that it always felt like he was telling it to us straight.
“Travel isn’t always pretty. It isn’t always comfortable. Sometimes it hurts, it even breaks your heart. But that’s okay. The journey changes you; it should change you. It leaves marks on your memory, on your consciousness, on your heart, and on your body. You take something with you. Hopefully, you leave something good behind,” Bourdain said near the close of an episode of No Reservations aptly titled “Around The World On An Empty Stomach.”
So, let’s do that. In honour of Bourdain Day, we implore you to please ignore your favourite take-out for a second and venture out onto the streets. Explore your surroundings by visiting someplace you’ve never visited before. Order a round of drinks for a stranger while you’re at it. It’s what Anthony Bourdain wanted for everyone — to break out of the rut of our daily routines and invite the sorts of happy accidents that would always find him.
Written By Rhea Baweja
Week 26, June ’19
