Bourdain’s Becoming King of the Foreword

By Karen

The remaining new episode of No Reservations Season 6, a holiday special, debuts on December 6 at 10 p.m. EST. Travel Channel’s site says…

Tony and Michael Ruhlman prepare a holiday dinner that goes awry. Celebrity chefs Mario Batali, David Chang and Duff Goldman are just a few of the special guests to also make an appearance.

Tony did a phone interview on Wednesday, November 10 with Besha Rodell, the Omnivore blogger at Creative Loafing Atlanta, before his November 20 appearance there. Nothing much new except that he suggests term limits for food writers.

Momnesia provides a succinct rundown of the highlights that night.

Bourdain contributed the foreword to Eric Ripert’s new book, Avec Eric, a companion travel/cookbook to Ripert’s PBS series that looks truly beautiful. And I found this Ripert video at Vanity Fair, which was shot partially at last year’s Cayman Cookout. Tony was nervous about helping to prepare the Gala Dinner. (Tony’s bit begins 6:30 in.) It may explain why he seems to be taking a pass on the kitchen work for the next one.

Tony blogged about his recent trip to Haiti as Hurricane Tomas approached. For me, this post felt like an amuse bouche of things to come with his writing.

Amazingly, some idiot commented that Tony’s blog posts scream “ghost writer.” I can’t think of many writers today whose voice is as distinctive and unmistakable in their work as Anthony Bourdain’s.

I’m hoping one day Bourdain will invent a fictional alter-ego, along the lines of Somerset Maugham’s Ashenden, to make use of as-yet-undocumented material from his many journeys.

Here’s a bit more on the DC Food Fight November 11. Bon Appetit Foodie is a much better photographer than I am, and she managed to meet just about everybody there.

It turns out Bourdain was in Nicaragua filming No Reservations recently, he revealed in an e-mail interview with the St. Petersburg Times before his November 19 appearance there. He also said that his appearance on Yo Gabba Gabba cured Ariane of her fear of doctors. (In case you missed it, he played a doctor.) This interview covers some new ground. For example, I had no idea Tony’s worried he may have pissed off Thomas Keller with Medium Raw.

The windows at Barney’s New York inspire shoppers to “Have a Foodie Holiday” with dolls of many culinary stars, including Bourdain. They coincided with the release of the South Beach Wine & Food Festival Cookbook, for which Tony — you guessed it — wrote the foreword. WorldRedEye has a bunch of photos from the launch party.

“No Reservations” Season 6 Not Quite Over

By Karen

One new episode does remain of No Reservations this season. It’s a holiday special and Anthony Bourdain’s pal, Michael Ruhlman, is a guest. That’s all I know. I assume Travel Channel will air it sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Wife Ottavia recently tweeted that Tony declined an invitation to appear on Dancing with the Stars a few years ago, so Eater.com ran with it and did some hilarious PhotoShopping of what “might have been” with Tony burning the floor.

“Frienemy” Ruhlman reviewed Medium Raw and provides some of his history with Bourdain, including a link to Tony’s New York Times rave review of Ruhlman’s book, The Soul of a Chef. Ruhlman managed to get off a few great lines of his own, such as describing Tony’s reverence for Fergus Henderson as a “little too close to fellatio for my own comfort.”

Cats Working reader Cindy first told us that Bourdain is returning to Top Chef as a judge next season, alternating with Gail Simmons — just when I’d vowed to swear off it forever. Guess I’ll have to eat those words. The cheftestants are all runners-up from previous seasons. I’m happy to see Fabio and Carla get another shot.

Bourdain talked to Jennifer Bain of The Star in Toronto before his appearance there on September 22 and confessed to feeling like he bombed in Houston 2 days earlier. It was sold out, but the audience knew too much, he said…

“Three minutes into it, I realized they’d heard it all, between interviews, articles, blogs and the books. It was an awful moment for me. This audience was very wired in and this is the world we live in now. If you write about food too long, you run out of adjectives and, more importantly, you lose the sense of wonder. It’s a terrible thing.”

Houston Press confirmed it, accusing Tony of regurgitating his books. But he’s apparently already booked there again next year for a joint appearance with Eric Ripert.

The Toronto Sun offers a poignant description by Rita Demontis of Bourdain as a person that’s worth reading.

While in Toronto, Tony announced that he plans to film an episode of No Res there in Season 8 (2 seasons from now).

Sorry, Winnipeg.

Bourdain came within spittin’ distance on September 23, appearing at Mary Washington University in Fredericksburg, VA. Local blogger RVA Foodie attended and provided the low-down.

On September 24, Bourdain was in Springfield, Massachusetts, and A La Carte quoted some of his best lines. I got a chuckle from his remarks about Japanese porn and Dick Cheney.

And I just discovered that Bourdain is returning to Virginia on February 13, 2011 — in Norfolk. I just might show up for that appearance.