He’s been called the “bad boy of cuisine,” the “gastronomic Indiana Jones,” and no friend of strident vegans.
Anthony Bourdain is, however, first and foremost a chef—his home base is Les Halles in New York—and a man with a well-traveled view of the restaurant industry. His TV show, “No Reservations,” is in its fifth season on The Travel Channel, and his first best-selling book, “Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly,” has been translated into more than 28 languages.
Bourdain is scheduled to be in Los Angeles on March 26 for the 13th Annual UCLA Extension Restaurant Industry Conference at the Sheraton Gateway Hotel. The conference theme is “A Different Approach,” and Bourdain’s topic, “No Certainties,” will aim to challenge conventional thinking among operators trying to stay in the game in this recession.
How do you see the restaurant industry dealing with the economy?
The engine of gastronomy through history has been poverty and difficulties, from the days of dealing with lack of refrigeration or having to work only with second-best ingredients. These are things that force people to cook well because they have no other options. On the other hand, there’s going to be a very rude awakening for a lot of types of restaurants if they’re not aware yet how drastically things have changed.… There is going to be an apocalyptic shakeout. On the plus side, the bullsh** will be the first to go.
Will prix-fixe menus and value pricing save us?
For certain places, I think it’s a good idea. There will always be room at the top end for the very best and the high prices, but I would not want to be the restaurant that’s counting on selling expensive wine to subsidize food costs. People are going to be looking for value in wine…but also authenticity.
FAST FACTS
EDUCATION: associate’s degree, The Culinary Institute of AmericaBIRTHPLACE: New YorkAGE: 52HOBBIES: reading, spending time with familyPERSONAL: married, one daughter
What do you like about Los Angeles, restaurant-wise?
The strip-mall culture is the best thing L.A. has going for it. All those places [LA Weekly food writer] Jonathan Gold writes about so well: little downscale ethnic restaurants. There’s also In-N-Out Burger, good Mexican food and authentic Korean food.
What’s on deck for you?
I’m traveling to Chile tomorrow. I travel constantly. I have a book coming out next year about who is cooking in America now. It’s a post- “Kitchen Confidential” look at how the industry has changed. The backbone of the cooking business has remained the same: immigrants. But there’s been an enormous influx of trained culinary students, fairly educated middle-class kids, for whom cooking is a viable lifestyle option. That was not the option when I started. Some unscrupulous culinary schools are cranking out huge numbers, with massive student loans, and they might have unjustifiable expectations about how much money they will make. Do they know they’ll be making $10 an hour?
They want to be you?
I had low expectations. I started as a dishwasher—which is always a good idea. I went to culinary school after I had been kicked around for a while.
