There are more TV chefs than we can count.  There are also more cooking shows than we can count. You find these chefs and shows all over the entertainment spectrum – from “very entertaining” to “why-is-this-on-TV”. Some chefs and shows actually teach you something. Some chefs and shows actually give you ideas. Most of the time, however, neither of these instances occur. Not so with Anthony Bourdain.

Anthony Bourdain being interviewed in the WNYC Radio Studio, June 21, 2006
Source: WNYC New York Public Radio

Anthony Bourdain has hosted a series of interesting, thought-provoking and entertaining shows. My personal favorites are No Reservations for the Travel Channel and Parts Unknown for CNN. The premise for these shows is the same: Bourdain travels the world looking for local foods to try out. This sounds like any other regular chef-on-TV-with-a-travel-account but when put in the hands of Bourdain the result is very different indeed. The places he visits are places where most people just would not go, for example the Congo, Libya, or Iraqi Kurdistan, or places most people are not aware of, such as the Missouri Ozarcs.

The goal of his travels might be food oriented, but the reason for his travels sometimes are not. In the case of his visits to Tangier and the Congo (Parts Unknown) and to the Ozarcs (No Reservations), the destinations has just as much to do with food as it has to do with literature. It is his personal relationship to the creative work of William S Burroughs, Joseph Conrad and Daniel Woodrell that makes him book the trip.

It is the literary spin that sets Bourdain apart. By incorporating his love of literature, and seeking out authors he admires, Bourdain demonstrates what we all know but rarely consider, that to live life is to live art. Food, books, and travels are part of the life experience and it is life experience that makes art. By taking part in life, we also take part in the creation of art. This is true for everyone, not just writers, actors, painters and what-have-you. This is what Anthony Bourdain shows us.

Or perhaps I enjoy the work of Bourdain as much as I do because he reminds me of another man whose work I have followed for many years: Jeremy Clarkson of BBC’s Top Gear. He, too, travels the world, not to find food to try out, but to find a road to drive down.

Jeremy Clarkson on the set of Top Gear, May 17, 2006
Source: Ed Perchick, flickr

In the words of my friend, the Australian: I shall return.

Note:
Photos of Anthony Bourdain and Jeremy Clarkson have been downloaded from Wikimedia Commons.