Posted on 09/28/2021 7:00:48 AM PDT by Red Badger
A few months after Anthony Bourdain’s death in June 2018 at age 61, his longtime assistant Laurie Woolever started interviewing his friends and family. Woolever first met Bourdain in 2002 when he hired her to help him write a cookbook. After working with him for so long, she thought she knew pretty much all there was to know about him.
But she quickly learned she was wrong.
There were “stories I’d never heard and insights and observations that were new to me,” Woolever told The Post. “I learned something new from every single person that I spoke with.”
Those emotional, sometimes shocking anecdotes and remembrances form her new book, “Bourdain: The Definitive Oral Biography” (Ecco, Sept. 28). Some 91 people, from journalist Christiane Amanpour to restaurateur David Chang, shared their thoughts on the late writer, whose dark final days were recently recounted in the documentary “Roadrunner.” The revelations include never-before-shared memories and disturbing common themes.
One surprising thread that kept popping up over and over, Woolever said, was that many of Tony’s friends had the experience of wanting more — and not being able to get close enough to him.
“They always had the sense that he was on his way somewhere,” she said.
“He was a shark, always on the move,” recalls “Parts Unknown” director and editor Nick Brigden. “He had to move to survive.”
Even those who had a fame equal to or greater than Bourdain expressed such sentiments.
“Every time I was with him, I wanted it to go longer,” says Anderson Cooper, who worked with Bourdain at CNN. “And I wanted to be friends with him. I wanted him to really like me.”
Woolever also learned about Bourdain’s strange obsession with suntanning, which started in his early days.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
He was a turd.
He was a heroin addict...................
Oh, no he didn't!
“Every time I was with him, I wanted it to go longer,” says Anderson Cooper
Fighting to keep my coffee down. Gross!
One of the few times I saw Bourdain, he was complaining that the crackown on illegals from Mexico was making it difficult for restaurants to find good employees.
he was a cook... feh
True, but superstar cooks are extra dysfunctional.
Always struck me as a very dark and troubled man...
Liked the program; disliked him.
thought he was a pretentious arrogant nobody!
the new movie about him “roadrunner” is disturbing
Man, already on shaky ground mentally, completely loses it in middle age with help of younger woman. Basic story, really.
That said, if you like travel shows, I highly recommend the Youtuber Bald and Bankrupt. It's addicting. He travels exactly how I like to travel.
WHO? Sheesh!
He was “nobody” when he was alive and an even bigger nobody now that he’s dead.
Pretty funny. So he was a professional grifter who conned other professional grifters. No wonder they wanted to be around him.
You can’t make this stuff up.
I always preferred Andrew Zimmern over Bourdain. At least Zimmern appears to have conquered his inner demons.
I have learned that it’s very risky to look into the history of people you admire. Their public persona rarely holds up to serious scrutiny. They are commonly revealed to be small, egotistical and vindictive. The real standouts, for me, are those who turn out to be the real deal. Ronald Reagan comes to mind as a man who was, apparently, as advertised. I believe George Washington was as well.
OH Yeah...!
Of course he was a shark. That’s how you get a TV series.
See Oprah: The biggest shark of them all.
I really enjoyed his book Kitchen Confidential. I worked in food service in HS. Brought back alot of memories, good and bad, working the line.
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