American chef, author and television personality Anthony Bourdain visits Vancouver
11/29/11
Bourdain on stage. Photo by Murissa Shalapata
As a self-proclaimed foodie, I would like to think that my palate has two sides: a benign side as represented by the simplistic David Rocco, and an adventurous side represented by the intrepid Anthony Bourdain. I was fortunate enough to see Bourdain speak at The Centre in Vancouver. If you happen to tune in to the Travel Channel as often as I do, you will be familiar with Bourdain’s food-based travel show, No Reservations. He has also written many books ranging from cuisine to memoir to a fictional mystery novel; however, the book that launched him to the top and gave him my dream job was his first non-fiction book, Kitchen Confidential. Published in 2001, it depicted the culinary roughhouse of the New York chef scene to which he belonged until he wrote an essay for The New Yorker called “Don’t Eat Before Reading This”. Bourdain, described as the Kerouac of the kitchen and—in my opinion—the television world, then reached stardom with his best-selling books and eventual television shows, No Reservations and The Layover (to air November 21st).
His Vancouver appearance was no letdown and more humorous than the Just For Laughs Kelowna show. It was a casual event with Bourdain talking about his travels with the occasional video clip, including new footage, to provide examples. For instance, the Travel Network will not allow drugs to be shown on their programs. Bourdain explained how he eludes the red tape. He cut to a clip of the Jamaica episode with a local’s face shown from the nose up. A mysterious smoke surrounded the man’s head and was emerging from an unknown source at the bottom of the screen. His point: avoid showing the substance.
Bourdain also covered the more controversial aspects of travel and today there is no shortage of destinations with oppressive politics, especially when an American camera crew is trying to capture every moment. Egypt provided a breeding ground for controversy with government officials trying to control what the No Reservations crew filmed, including the average Egyptian diet, which consists mainly of watery lentils and bread. Not only was the government afraid of revealing their poor diet to the world, they were also fearful of the nation’s reaction, as No Reservations is aired in Egypt.
Bourdain ended the evening with a Q&A. Of all the questions asked that night, one stood out in my mind: “So, what is Canada’s culinary representation to the world besides maple syrup and bacon?” Not surprisingly, Bourdain responded that Quebec-inspired cuisine is the next trend permeating the New York food scene. Anthony Bourdain attributes this movement to Chef Martin Picard, among others, who owns the popular Au Pied De Cochon restaurant in Montreal, which offers rich foods such as duck, pig’s head for two, and foie gras of all kinds, including the curious creation of pig’s feet stuffed with foie gras.
Emerging from the Bourdain lecture with a deeper understanding of the importance of food in a community, I now question how Kelowna is fairing when it comes to trends, ingenuity, and creativity. Although we have some great restaurants, such as RauDZ, Bouchon’s, Waterfront Restaurant, and The Terrace at Mission Hill Winery, to name a few, I cannot name one place that is bold enough to create something that would rival pig’s feet stuffed with foie gras. But then again, this reveals something very profound about our community where the majority demographic consists of the over-fifty crowd and the most unique idea I have seen so far is the traditional bannock dish being served in West Kelowna’s Kekuli Cafe. But in today’s economy only the most flavourful survive, and Kelowna’s finest are safe.
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