A new film coming to Canadian theatres in August explores the early days of Anthony Bourdain, days that shaped one of the most fascinating figures of our time.
The recipe that made up Anthony Bourdain is intoxicating, one part rascal, one part raconteur, one part rebel, part visionary and one part charmer. Sprinkled generously with a deep knowledge of food and unparalleled culinary skill, simmered over the course of a lifetime filled with drama, drive, determination, and combined, the ingredients made him one of the most captivating and fascinating cultural personalities of this century.
It is this mixture of celebrity chef, author and documentarian that makes the new film from A24, Tony, such fascinating viewing as it explores and reveals Bourdain’s life before he achieved his global celebrity status as an acclaimed chef and travel documentarian.
The new film, in Canadian theatres in mid-August, explores the raw energy and lifestyle of Bourdain before television fame: the two decades he spent as a headband-wearing, cigarette-smoking journeyman chef slogging it out in unglamorous sweltering restaurant kitchens in Massachusetts and New York City.
Directed by Matt Johnson, who also directed Blackberry and Nirvanna the Band the Show, the movie stars Dominic Sessa from The Holdovers as the mercurial young Bourdain as he searches for answers and his life’s path, with dramatic successes and stumbles along the way. The film also stars Emilia Jones from Coda, Rich Sommer from Mad Men and, last but not at all least, the acclaimed Antonio Banderas.
“Some People Seem to Go Through Life on a Straight Path With Academics and Their Careers Seemingly All Set Out Before Them as if It Were Meant to Be, but Life Was Never a Straight LINE for Bourdain”
Bourdain’s father was a classical-music recording executive and his mother was an editor at The New York Times. His love of food was forged in his youth while on a family vacation in France when he tried his first oyster from a fisherman’s boat, a taste he described as “the future.” Later, as a skinny 19-year-old kid from New Jersey, he traveled to Provincetown, Mass., in 1975 and stumbles into the chaotic world of restaurant kitchens including at The Lobster Pot, a summer that ends up shaping the course of his life as he decided, there, to pursue a career in the culinary arts.
Some people seem to go through life on a straight path with academics and their careers seemingly all set out before them as if it was meant to be, but life was never a straight line for Bourdain. Following his graduation from a college-preparatory day school in Edgewood, New Jersey, in 1973, he enrolled at Vassar College but dropped out after only two years. Bourdain then attended the Culinary Institute of America, graduating in 1978. From there, he went on to run various restaurant kitchens in New York City, including the Supper Club, One Fifth Avenue and Sullivan’s.
Despite the shine and sheen of fine restaurants, as anyone who has worked in the business will tell you, it’s another atmosphere entirely behind the kitchen doors. The film brilliantly captures how the renegade crew of cooks, pirates and degenerates behind the scenes in food creation and service somehow stirs Bourdain up. He was restless, reckless and hungry for something in his life he couldn’t quite identify yet but was eager to explore.
Sessa’s performance as the young Tony is a tour de force. Passionate, dramatic, cocky and as combustible as the stoves and ovens he slaves over while learning his craft, he comes to love not only cooking through those experiences, but the lifestyle of restaurant work as well. During this era, long before his immaculate suits and his philosophical globe-trotting musings on Parts Unknown, Bourdain’s world was defined by the brutal grind of the service industry, his substance abuse and the gritty New York underground lifestyle.
The film traces Bourdain’s life in the 1970s and 1980s of the Provincetown days, his formative experiences as a line cook and dishwasher, where he was simply known to his inner circle and kitchen crews as Tony, followed by his dues-paying in the trenches before landing the gig as Executive Chef at Brasserie Les Halles in Manhattan.
“Bourdain Was a Storyteller. You Would Learn as Much About the City or a Country as About Its Local Food, Dress, Music or Customs.”
Bourdain was also drawn to the written word, perhaps influenced by his mother’s career in newspapers. In the mid-1980s, Bourdain would submit various articles to publications on New York’s Lower East Side. In 1990, he received a small advance for a book from Random House after a meeting with a Random House editor. After all, how could you say no to a young Tony? The film further explores Bourdain’s early writing career when, during late-night after-hours shifts and stints in the Caribbean, he honed his raw writing style, which led to such crime thrillers as Bone in the Throat and Gone Bamboo.
Leave it to the creativity and imagination of A24 to undertake this ambitious project. Anything to do with Bourdain might have focused on his global celebrity status, such as having local food and beer with President Barack Obama in Hanoi, Vietnam, in 2016 in a memorable episode of Parts Unknown. Instead, they went back to his roots to tell the origin story of this complete original.
A24 is an acclaimed global entertainment company known for producing and distributing films, television series, documentaries, music, publishing and consumer products. Since its founding just 14 years ago in New York City, A24 has cultivated a library of more than 190 films and 50 TV series. Its creations have won more than 21 Oscars, 20 Golden Globes and 19 Emmy Awards.
Bourdain’s first food-and-world-travel television show, A Cook’s Tour, ran for 35 episodes on The Food Network in 2002 and 2003. He began hosting the Travel Channel’s culinary and cultural adventure program, Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations, from 2005 through 2012. By now, he was getting pretty good at this TV thing and feeling more relaxed and comfortable in front of a camera. Whenever he appeared on screen, and especially during the Parts Unknown series, Bourdain was a storyteller. You would learn as much about the city or a country as about its local food, dress, music or customs. He also had a natural ability to connect with real people, to engage in natural conversations that told not only their stories but also about the small towns or countries they were from.
In tributes following his tragic death by suicide in France in 2018 at the age of just 61, Bourdain was called the “original rock star of the culinary world.” Complex and chaotic while remaining curious and endlessly creative, Tony perfectly captures the vibe and energy of a time 50 years ago, with a raw portrait of a young man discovering the world, and himself, which forged a chef, filmmaker, author and father, long before that man achieved his iconic global stature.
@anthonybourdain
@dominic.sessa
ANTHONY BOURDAIN 1956 – 2018
“You Take Something Good With You. Hopefully You Leave Something Good Behind.”
Anthony Bourdain (1956-2018) was a man of many talents. Along with being an esteemed chef, he was an excellent writer. He authored Typhoid Mary: An Urban Historical, which provides an insight into kitchen life a century ago. He also co-wrote the first graphic novel, Get Jiro!, for DC Comics/Vertigo in 2012 with Joel Rose. It was in October 2016 that he published his first cookbook, Appetites.
He also published articles and essays in The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Los Angeles Times, The Times of London, The Observer, Gourmet, Maxim, Food Arts, and The Independent, among others.
In addition to being a writer, he was a judge on Top Chef. Bourdain also served as executive producer for Mind of a Chef on PBS. The show tracks chefs as they travel to inspirational locations across the globe and see culinary luminaries who have influenced their professions.
He was also the executive producer on the documentary Jeremiah Tower: The Last Magnificent, which débuted at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 16, 2016. The film, which was co-produced by CNN Films and Zero Point Zero, explores the life of Jeremiah Tower, a former chef at Chez Panisse and the innovative Stars who contributed to the development of New American and California cuisines.
In 2008, Bourdain was listed in the James Beard Foundation’s Who’s Who of American Food and Beverage. For his writing and television shows, he received multiple James Beard prizes, Emmys, a Clio, Critics’ Choice awards, a Peabody, and a Webby. Bourdain won two posthumous prizes at the 2019 Creative Emmy Awards: Outstanding Writing for a Nonfiction Program and Outstanding Informational Series or Special for Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown.
His life was a testament to taking up new roles and performing each one with renewed energy. He famously said, “Your body is not a temple; it’s an amusement park. Enjoy the ride.” Beyond food and words, what he left us with was a genuine passion and empathy for others.
