Earlier this year, I spoke to world-renowned food authority, bestselling author and multiple Emmy-winning television innovator Anthony Bourdain of CNN’s Parts Unknown. We discussed life lessons from traversing the world, the politics of food and the very timely news business. Here are some highlights.
On the success of CNN’s Parts Unknown:
“I never, ever, ever think about that. That’s the road to madness, egomania and mediocrity. When you start thinking about what people like, you start thinking about what people expect.
You go out there and do the best you can, and you do things that are interesting to you. Hopefully it will be interesting to other people. I don’t want to be adequate. I’d rather fail gloriously making something strange, awesome but ultimately a failure.”
On traveling and filming Parts Unknown:
“In addition to a few months of pre-production, it takes between one and two weeks to film an episode, depending on the level of internal travel. But I have to say, the amount of care, time and attention we spend scoring, editing, color balancing writing, and so on is what makes the difference. All the difference.”
On life lessons from traveling the world:
I think that people, particularly Americans, need to be more inspired to travel and be adventurous with the things they eat. And if they are curious about the world and willing to walk in somebody else’s shoes—that is surely a good thing.”
On rating food online:
“Now it’s a big bathroom wall where people write a lot of things about you—some good, some bad, some dumb—but we look to the Internet to help us make those decisions. Today, if you see how kids absorb information from the web, they don’t have any problem making decisions based on a massive amount of information.”
On places still on the “to-do” list:
“I’d like to get into Yemen. It’s not thrill-seeking. I am a dad, and I’m not looking to do adventure tourism here, but it is supposed to be beautiful. Coffee comes from there. Lots of food comes from there. It has a really old, interesting culture.”
On the reality of the restaurant business:
“No matter what people see on TV, at the end of the day, the antibodies of the restaurant business will push out the pretenders and only the strong will survive. The people with vision and determination, as throughout history, are the people that last. ”
Read the full article from Food & Wine using the link below.
Source: Food & Wine
