Across the 20 years he spent as a public personality, prior to his untimely passing, Anthony Bourdain proved to be one of the most fascinating individuals associated with food, travel, and life in general.
In a world of over-the-top political correctness, he brought a refreshing element of authenticity to the small screen, and throughout his storied career in media, Bourdain was known to drop some pearls of wisdom here and there.
Check out some of the best — and most illuminating — Anthony Bourdain quotes to live by below.
- I don’t have to agree with you to like you or respect you.
- If you’re 22, physically fit, hungry to learn and be better, I urge you to travel — as far and as widely as possible. Sleep on floors if you have to. Find out how other people live and eat and cook. Learn from them… wherever you go.
- Your body is not a temple, it’s an amusement park. Enjoy the ride.
- Maybe that’s enlightenment enough: to know that there is no final resting place of the mind; no moment of smug clarity. Perhaps wisdom… is realising how small I am, and unwise, and how far I have yet to go.
- To me, life without veal stock, pork fat, sausage, organ meat, demi-glace, or even stinky cheese is a life not worth living. Vegetarians are the enemy of everything good and decent in the human spirit and an affront to all I stand for, the pure enjoyment of food.
- Do we really want to travel in hermetically sealed popemobiles through the rural provinces of France, Mexico, and the Far East, eating only in Hard Rock Cafes and McDonald’s? Or do we want to eat without fear, tearing into the local stew, the humble taqueria’s mystery meat, the sincerely offered gift of a lightly grilled fish head? I know what I want. I want it all. I want to try everything once.
- Don’t lie about it. You made a mistake. Admit it and move on. Just don’t do it again. Ever.
- Skills can be taught. Character you either have or you don’t have.
- Eat at a local restaurant tonight. Get the cream sauce. Have a cold pint at 4 o’clock in a mostly empty bar. Go somewhere you’ve never been. Listen to someone you think may have nothing in common with you. Order the steak rare. Eat an oyster. Have a negroni. Have two. Be open to a world where you may not understand or agree with the person next to you, but have a drink with them anyways. Eat slowly. Tip your server. Check in on your friends. Check in on yourself. Enjoy the ride.”
- They’re professionals at this in Russia, so no matter how many Jell-O shots or Jager shooters you might have downed at college mixers, no matter how good a drinker you might think you are, don’t forget that the Russians — any Russian — can drink you under the table.
- Good food is very often, even most often, simple food.
- Open your mind, get up off the couch, move.
- I am in no way supportive of hunting for trophies or sport — would never do it and don’t like it that others do. But if you kill it, then eat it, it’s fine.
- We know, for instance, that there is a direct, inverse relationship between frequency of family meals and social problems. Bluntly stated, members of families who eat together regularly are statistically less likely to stick up liquor stores, blow up meth labs, give birth to crack babies, commit suicide, or make donkey porn. If Little Timmy had just had more meatloaf, he might not have grown up to fill chest freezers with Cub Scout parts.
- There’s something wonderful about drinking in the afternoon. A not-too-cold pint, absolutely alone at the bar.
- Under ‘Reasons for Leaving Last Job,’ never give the real reason, unless it’s money or ambition.
- Without new ideas, success can become stale.
- You can always tell when a person has worked in a restaurant. There’s an empathy that can only be cultivated by those who’ve stood between a hungry mouth and a $28 pork chop, a special understanding of the way a bunch of motley misfits can be a family. Service industry work develops the “soft skills” recruiters talk about on LinkedIn — discipline, promptness, the ability to absorb criticism, and most important, how to read people like a book. The work is thankless and fun and messy, and the world would be a kinder place if more people tried it. With all due respect to my former professors, I’ve long believed I gained more knowledge in kitchens, bars, and dining rooms than any college could even hold.
- Don’t touch my dick, don’t touch my knife.
