Bourdain: The Definitive Oral Biography

by Laurie Woolever

Overview

New York Times bestseller

An unprecedented behind-the-scenes view into the life of Anthony Bourdain from the people who knew him best 

When Anthony Bourdain died in June 2018, fans around the globe came together to celebrate the life of an inimitable man who had dedicated his life to traveling nearly everywhere (and eating nearly everything), shedding light on the lives and stories of others. His impact was outsized and his legacy has only grown since his death.

Now, for the first time, we have been granted a look into Bourdain’s life through the stories and recollections of his closest friends and colleagues. Laurie Woolever, Bourdain’s longtime assistant and confidante, interviewed nearly a hundred of the people who shared Tony’s orbit—from members of his kitchen crews to his writing, publishing, and television partners, to his daughter and his closest friends—in order to piece together a remarkably full, vivid, and nuanced vision of Tony’s life and work. 

From his childhood and teenage days, to his early years in New York, through the genesis of his game-changing memoir Kitchen Confidential to his emergence as a writing and television personality, and in the words of friends and colleagues including Eric Ripert, José Andrés, Nigella Lawson, and W. Kamau Bell, as well as family members including his brother and his late mother, we see the many sides of Tony—his motivations, his ambivalence, his vulnerability, his blind spots, and his brilliance.

Unparalleled in scope and deeply intimate in its execution, with a treasure trove of photos from Tony's life, Bourdain: The Definitive Oral Biography is a testament to the life of a remarkable man in the words of the people who shared his world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062909107
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	09/28/2021
Pages:	464
Sales rank:	1,061,601
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.60(d)

About the Author

Laurie Woolever is a writer and editor. She spent nearly a decade assisting Anthony Bourdain, with whom she coauthored the cookbook Appetites in 2016 and World Travel in 2021. She’s written about food and travel for the New York Times, GQ, Food & Wine, Lucky Peach, Saveur, Dissent, Roads & Kingdoms, and others, and has worked as an editor at Art Culinaire and Wine Spectator. She is also the New York Times bestselling author of Bourdain: The Definitive Oral Biography. 

Table of Contents

Cast of Characters (in order of first appearance) x

Introduction xv

1 "I Absolutely Always Saw a Talent in Him": Early Life 1

2 "Super Smart, Super Funny": The Teenage Years 7

3 "A Lot of Fun to Be Around": Young Adulthood 17

4 "It Was What the Cool Kids Were Doing": The Early New York Years 23

5 "He Just Wanted to Be a Writer in the Worst Way": Meeting Joel Rose 39

6 "They Got Some Money, and It Just Went into Their Veins": Heroin 43

7 "I'm Tony Motherfucking Bourdain-You Got a Problem?": New York in the Nineties 49

8 "Such Was My Lust to See My Name in Print" 55

9 "Appalling Stories of Remorseless Criminality": The Stone Brothers 59

10 "You've Got a Long Con Going Here": The Genesis of Kitchen Confidential 65

11 "It Was Picking Up a Rock Off the Restaurant Scene and Showing Everything That Was Underneath It" 69

12 "He Was Not Just a Cook Anymore; He Was a Real 3D Person" 73

13 "I'm Not Gonna Censor the Guy": Editing and Publishing Kitchen Confidential 79

14 "The Brass Ring Comes Around Only Once" 85

15 "He Never Came Off Book Tour" 91

16 "I'd Love to Travel the World": A Cook's Tour Begins 97

17 "Tony Was So Reluctant to Do Television" 103

18 "He Was Ahead of His Time": The End of A Cook's Tour 117

19 "He Was Prepared to Piss Off Everybody": Travel Channel 123

20 "He Was Very Untethered": The Early No Reservations Years 129

21 "Basically, He Kidnapped My Cat": Tony Meets Ottavia 139

22 "Let's Spin the Wheel Again": Beirut, a Baby 143

23 "It Was Not the Easiest Thing": Life on the Road as a Family 149

24 "Don't Bother Tony": Navigating Friendships and Fame 155

25 "We Got Shit Done": Making No Reservations 167

26 "You See a Person Who's Come Full Circle, and He's Seen the World": Medium Raw 179

27 "I Knew I Could Write the Story I Needed to Write": Tony as Publisher, Graphic Novelist, and Screenwriter 183

28 "I Felt Like I Knew Him All My Life": David Simon Recalls Tony 193

29 "He Could Have Sat in a Santa's Throne in a Shopping Mall": The Onstage Experience 197

30 "He Was a Curator of People" 205

31 "He Was a Man of Extremes" 215

32 "Darker, More Transgressive, and More Lurid": Roads & Kingdoms 221

33 "Everyone Felt They Knew Him": Charisma and Reserve 227

34 "Get a Big Fucking Body Bag": Frustration and Isolation in the Field 233

35 "Tony Had a Burden of Leadership That Was Real" 245

36 "He Always Had to Perform the Role of Tony" 251

37 "Such an Unlikely Program for Him": The Taste 259

38 "Push the Boundary Really Hard, Really Fast": The Move to CNN 265

39 "I Really Wasn't Doing It for the Cronut": Tony Tries a Talk Show 275

40 "Middle-Class White People Going to Poverty-Stricken Parts of the World … without Being Dicks about It" 279

41 "It Was Too Much of a Dream": The Bourdain Market 283

42 "You Don't Direct Tony Bourdain": Life on the Road with Parts Unknown 289

43 "You Were That Guy Who Got Arrested": Jason and Yeganeh Rezaian in Iran 311

44 "This Is Just Another Tribe": Brazilian Jiu-Jirsu 321

45 "Maybe You'll Find Another Chance at Love": The End of the Marriage 331

46 "Tony's Changed; Tony's Very Different Now" 337

47 "He Was Attracted to Chaos" 351

48 "They're Gonna Tear You Apart": Alienating Friends 355

49 "He Was Like a Young Kid in Love" 363

50 "Every Good Band Eventually Breaks Up" 371

51 "Embracing the Chaos": Rome and Puglia 375

52 "We Bolstered Each Other's Incorrect Assertion That Asking for Help Is Somehow a Mistake" 379

53 "Call It Impostor Syndrome, If You Want, but Tony Definitely Had It" 383

54 "We Should Do Something Together": Kenya with W. Kamau Bell 387

55 "I Knew Someone Was Doomed": Hong Kong 393

56 "You Can't Put Your Arms around a Memory": New York, Asturias, Florence 403

57 "All OK": Alsace 411

58 "It's Hard to See Things as They Really Are" 417

59 "He Was an Extraordinary Witness and Voice for the World" 431

Acknowledgments 437

Index of Contributors 439

Editorial Reviews

08/02/2021

Celebrated chef and author Anthony Bourdain (1956–2018) cuts a charismatic yet enigmatic figure in this kaleidoscopic oral history. Woolever (Appetites), Bourdain’s longtime assistant and coauthor, interviewed 91 friends, relatives, chefs, editors, publishers, and producers to chart his rise from hard-living New York chef (Bourdain and co-workers, who did heroin together, would “turn their heads and throw up into garbage cans” while working on the line, a former colleague reports) to bestselling author with his restaurant tell-all, Kitchen Confidential, and host of the culinary travel shows No Reservations and Parts Unknown, and his death by suicide in 2018. Many of the recollections are retrospectively colored by Bourdain’s bleak end, and interviewees’ efforts to locate an inchoate darkness within him—“I saw in him this desire to be somehow swept away into the oblivion” says a former Parts Unknown cinematographer—yield little insight. The book does, however, succeed as a revealing account of the making of a celebrity, following Bourdain as he crafted a mediagenic persona—“he published Kitchen Confidential, and he never came off book tour,” observes an editor—that was brash, profane, articulate, empathetic, and seemingly wide open to new experiences and adoring fans, yet perpetually distanced. This fascinating mosaic doesn’t unearth Bourdain’s inner demons, but it does capture the inimitable legacy he left behind. Agent: Kim Witherspoon, InkWell Management. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

A fascinating account…Bourdain's fans will find it impossible to put down.

Booklist

09/01/2021

After decades of Anthony Bourdain candidly sharing his own story, his longtime assistant Woolever (co-author, World Travel: An Irreverent Guide) has written an unfiltered study of Bourdain's life, as seen by the people closest to him (among them his producer Zamir Gotta and CNN colleague Anderson Cooper). The narrative addresses Bourdain's life from childhood on: his kitchen career as a line cook and eventually executive chef; nominal writing success with early novels; breakthrough memoir Kitchen Confidential; and early awkwardness on camera, plus the cult success of No Reservations and widespread fame of Parts Unknown. Woolever compiles the perspectives of Bourdain's friends and family about the way these professional experiences impacted him, including during his tumultuous final year. Life was rarely rosy; Bourdain could be harsh, jaded, and disengaged when things didn't go his way. But those moments coexisted with Bourdain's global compassion and incredible personal selflessness (evinced by his championing Jason Rezaian's case and supporting writers via his book imprint). Woolever offers good insight about these aspects of Bourdain and his world. VERDICT Any Anthony Bourdain fan, of which there are many, will enjoy this thoughtful tribute to an impactful cultural figure.—Zebulin Evelhoch, Deschutes P.L., OR

Library Journal

2021-08-13
A collage of remembrances creates a multifaceted portrait of the late author, chef, and TV host.

Journalist Woolever, who worked as an assistant and co-author for Anthony Bourdain (1956-2018), puts together recollections from nearly 100 people—including friends, family, co-workers, ex-wives, editors, chefs—to create a candid portrait of a complicated man. Growing up, Bourdain was smart and funny but difficult. “Firmly ensconced in the bad boy persona” (per a college friend), he consumed a cornucopia of drugs, including LSD, cocaine, and heroin. After two unsuccessful years at Vassar, he went to the Culinary Institute of America and worked in many restaurant kitchens before becoming executive chef at Les Halles in Manhattan. He aspired, though, to become a successful novelist; after studying in a creative writing program, he published two novels but felt frustrated that they didn’t catapult him to fame. He achieved instant notoriety, however, with Kitchen Confidential, his uncensored view of the underside of the restaurant scene, conveyed in a style that reflected what his editor called his characteristic “provocation and macho bravado.” Friends portray Bourdain as loyal, generous, charismatic, but always “slightly detached.” As his editor noted, “he had a way of talking to you where you still felt like you were part of an audience, but you were waiting for the other people to show up.” Others, too, noticed that Bourdain always seemed to be performing, “always playing with how he looked to other people; he was very conscious of it,” according to one of his NYC kitchen colleagues. Once he took to the road as a cultural journalist, hosting shows on the Food Network, Travel Channel, and CNN, he became a recognizable celebrity. Fame, though, exacerbated tensions that ended two marriages. “So much of his life was going to beautiful places and being all alone,” a producer observed. In the end, he was undermined by persistent demons and, as Woolever notes, self-destructive “bad choices.”

A chorus of candid voices creates an engaging biography.

Kirkus Reviews

[Woolever’s] book is the first to begin to reveal [Anthony Bourdain]: It’s the most splintered, fractal, and complex portrait of the star that has yet emerged, an enormous compendium of individual observations gathered from 91 people who knew him, including his mother, his brother, his ex-wives and his daughter, friends from school and college, ex-girlfriends, fellow chefs, writers, editors, and television colleagues.” — Maria Bustillos, Eater.com

“Woolever herself stays at arms length, to powerful effect, giving her cast of characters room to air their Bourdain grievances, both petty and life-altering, and unroots some rather profound conclusions—almost Parts-Unknown-narration-level profound—about the man.” — Esquire.com

“Laurie Woolever, a writer and editor who was Anthony Bourdain's longtime assistant, uses quotes to bring readers deeper into his world. . . . Through details shared by his friends and family, we learn more about Bourdain's kind heart, how much he wanted to be a writer, his habit of fidgeting when he was uncomfortable, and the dark world he inhabited, especially when traveling.” — Food & Wine

“Bourdain: The Definitive Oral Biography is a tribute to how [Anthony Bourdain] and his legacy live on.” — The Week

“A fascinating account…Bourdain's fans will find it impossible to put down.” — Booklist

"An unfiltered study of Bourdain's life, as seen by the people closest to him. . . . Woolever compiles the perspectives of Bourdain’s friends and family about the way [his] professional experiences impacted him, including during his tumultuous final year. . . . Any Anthony Bourdain fan, of which there are many, will enjoy this thoughtful tribute to an impactful cultural figure." — Library Journal

From the Publisher

A fascinating account…Bourdain's fans will find it impossible to put down.

Booklist

Bourdain: The Definitive Oral Biography is a tribute to how [Anthony Bourdain] and his legacy live on.

The Week

Woolever herself stays at arms length, to powerful effect, giving her cast of characters room to air their Bourdain grievances, both petty and life-altering, and unroots some rather profound conclusions—almost Parts-Unknown-narration-level profound—about the man.

Esquire.com

[Woolever’s] book is the first to begin to reveal [Anthony Bourdain]: It’s the most splintered, fractal, and complex portrait of the star that has yet emerged, an enormous compendium of individual observations gathered from 91 people who knew him, including his mother, his brother, his ex-wives and his daughter, friends from school and college, ex-girlfriends, fellow chefs, writers, editors, and television colleagues.

Maria Bustillos

Laurie Woolever, a writer and editor who was Anthony Bourdain's longtime assistant, uses quotes to bring readers deeper into his world. . . . Through details shared by his friends and family, we learn more about Bourdain's kind heart, how much he wanted to be a writer, his habit of fidgeting when he was uncomfortable, and the dark world he inhabited, especially when traveling.

Food & Wine

Laurie Woolever, a former assistant to Anthony Bourdain, gathered a lot of voices—the list takes up seven pages—to create this “oral biography,” voiced by some of those who knew the chef and TV travel host, who took his own life in 2018. The most memorable voice is that of Bourdain’s brother, Christopher, whose affection and wry humor show in his recollections. A tone of bluntness is not surprising when chefs who worked with Bourdain talk about the drug and alcohol abuse that helped shape his “bad boy” image; he acknowledged his own past in KITCHEN CONFIDENTIAL. Listeners may be surprised as Bourdain’s story becomes darker through his TV years. People who worked with him express concern and regret about the spiral they saw during his relationship with director Asia Argento. J.A.S. 2022 Audies Finalist © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine

NOVEMBER 2021 - AudioFile

Laurie Woolever, a former assistant to Anthony Bourdain, gathered a lot of voices—the list takes up seven pages—to create this “oral biography,” voiced by some of those who knew the chef and TV travel host, who took his own life in 2018. The most memorable voice is that of Bourdain’s brother, Christopher, whose affection and wry humor show in his recollections. A tone of bluntness is not surprising when chefs who worked with Bourdain talk about the drug and alcohol abuse that helped shape his “bad boy” image; he acknowledged his own past in KITCHEN CONFIDENTIAL. Listeners may be surprised as Bourdain’s story becomes darker through his TV years. People who worked with him express concern and regret about the spiral they saw during his relationship with director Asia Argento. J.A.S. 2022 Audies Finalist © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine

NOVEMBER 2021 - AudioFile