Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations

[Be My Head]

Holy crap, I just realized there wasn't a topic on this show here.

Anyway, any other fans? IMHO this is the best show on Food and Travel that exists, period. So much soul, and he makes me want to go live everywhere he visits. The best part is that there's never any cliches where he goes, and he always discovers the real soul of the place.

The Laos, Korea, and Singapore episodes are probably close to my favourite ones. The Paris one kicks ass though.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBmGIJSljAs

Read his book Kitchen Confidential, changed my life.

[Ozymandias]

His Chicago episode lead me to Hot Dougs.

NO REGRETS.

[Bastardous Bassist]

Kitchen Confidential (the book) is fantastic.  His claim that he's captured what it's like to work in a kitchen is absolutely true.  He is also great on the show.  It is one of my favorites.  On his Charleston show, the server when he goes to one of the restaurants is actually a great musician.

The one thing that annoys me a little bit is that it always seems he'd rather eat at a roadside stand than at a nice restaurant because it's more "genuine," and I don't think that's entirely true.  Sure, a really nice restaurant is more likely to focus on flash more than substance, and he's completely burnt out on that, but I've been to a fairly significant number nicer restaurants that have placed the focus squarely on the food, and with that extra money they're charging, they can hire really technically proficient cooks.

P.S.  I want everyone to take a second and check out this show on Hulu.  Are you crying yet?

[Boro_Bandito]

I like Bourdain's show a lot, but his voice-over narrative can be a bit grating at times. I can easily forgive that though over all of the other pros that this show definitely has.

[Be My Head]

The one thing that annoys me a little bit is that it always seems he'd rather eat at a roadside stand than at a nice restaurant because it's more "genuine," and I don't think that's entirely true.  Sure, a really nice restaurant is more likely to focus on flash more than substance, and he's completely burnt out on that, but I've been to a fairly significant number nicer restaurants that have placed the focus squarely on the food, and with that extra money they're charging, they can hire really technically proficient cooks.

Well yeah, and no. I think it actually depends on what part of the world. He seems to prefer the street vendors and food courts in countries like Singapore and Japan more than he would in say France or England. I think what he really likes is when someone specializes in doing one thing really well (As he mentions pretty often on his show). Like the Venice episode, where he goes to the nice restaurant for the risotto (fyi: one of my favourite scenes in his show, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyQvTefwP48). Same thing goes for the Saigon lunch lady.

[Blue Kitty]

My favorite Travel Channel show is Man vs Food, but No Reservations is definitely my second favorite.

Is it odd to anyone else that I watch more food shows on Travel Channel then I do on Food Network?

[Christophe]

P.S.  I want everyone to take a second and check out this show on Hulu.  Are you crying yet?

Kitchen Confidential is Tits. The people at Fox were definitely fucked in the head for not giving it a second season.

[Be My Head]

Is it odd to anyone else that I watch more food shows on Travel Channel then I do on Food Network?

Not really

I wouldn't touch most of the shows on the Food Network with a 7 foot baguette.

[mberan42]

Kitchen Confidential (the book) is fantastic.

qft

P.S.  I want everyone to take a second and check out this show on Hulu.  Are you crying yet?

Yeah, that show is pretty awful. I remember liking it when it was actually on TV, and was disappointed when it was cancelled, but when I started rewatching it on Hulu, I could get through it all. It's just crap.

[valley_parade]

Single. Favorite. Show. Ever.

His Chicago episode lead me to Hot Dougs.

NO REGRETS.

Same, but with Gray's Papaya in NYC.

[KharBevNor]

I remembered seeing this title here on the forums so when I came across an episode of this program channel-crawling this morning I gave it a look.

I'm not sure I really like food. Or maybe, I don't really like watching a moderately smug guy shovel various sorts of goop into his mouth. I dunno.

[David_Dovey]

Well what with being English it is entirely possible that you do hate food. It's in yr genes.

[KharBevNor]

You must be a petty criminal and also a racist who wears a hat with corks round it and drinks Fosters.

[KharBevNor]

It's in yr genes.

[Inlander]

But our genes are yr genes!

[David_Dovey]

Hey

Fosters is awful

actually nobody in australia drinks fosters that is a joke australia is playing on the world

[pilsner]

Sort of like Celine Dion in Canada!  Exporting her to Las Vegas was payback for all the toxic waste that Americans had buried in the Canadian Shield....

On topic, yes Kitchen Confidential the book is one of my favorite restaurant books as well.  If you liked that, check out Bill Buford's Heat, which is about Buford leaving The New Yorker (where he was fiction editor I think) to work as a galley slave in Babbo's kitchen for about a year, and then going to rural Italy to learn to be a pasta-maker and a butcher from Italians who have had those traditions in their families for generations.  If you like food, the book is a sensual massage for your mind.

[Bastardous Bassist]

What if you like Kitchen Confidential because it's one of the only books out there that actually describes what it's like to work in a kitchen?

[pilsner]

You'll probably still like Heat.

[valley_parade]

Hey

Fosters is awful

actually nobody in australia drinks fosters that is a joke australia is playing on the world

You can't be Australian, your name isn't Bruce.

[KharBevNor]

Rule one, no poofters.