After his death, I listened to an interview with Anthony Bourdain recorded a few years before his suicide.  I might have been biased by knowing his said fate, but it seemed to me that a vein of depressive self-negation ran through everything he said about himself and his career. He described his successes as unearned and his failures as well-deserved. A key moment in the interview was when Bourdain discussed his pre-Kitchen Confidential career as a chef.  He said that he was mediocre culinary artist, but a superlative talker capable of repeatedly convincing people to invest millions in him only to lose their shirts. It occurred to me reading this essay that Bourdain was being too hard on himself, that the reason his restaurants all failed was more that such businesses are doomed to fail more than any lack of talent on his part. Is it possible the whole notion of culinary genius is misguided?  It’s all just food, after all. Some of the best restaurant meals I’ve had in my life were the Southern-fried chicken with a side of greens at the Rendezvous Restaurant in my native, Hampton, Virginia.  Of course, the Rendezvous had long since closed its doors as well…

After his death, I listened to an interview with Anthony Bourdain recorded a few years before his suicide.  I might have been biased by knowing his said fate, but it seemed to me that a vein of depressive self-negation ran through everything he said about himself and his career. He described his successes as unearned and his failures as well-deserved. A key moment in the interview was when Bourdain discussed his pre-Kitchen Confidential career as a chef.  He said that he was mediocre culinary artist, but a superlative talker capable of repeatedly convincing people to invest millions in him only to lose their shirts. It occurred to me reading this essay that Bourdain was being too hard on himself, that the reason his restaurants all failed was more that such businesses are doomed to fail more than any lack of talent on his part. Is it possible the whole notion of culinary genius is misguided?  It’s all just food, after all. Some of the best restaurant meals I’ve had in my life were the Southern-fried chicken with a side of greens at the Rendezvous Restaurant in my native, Hampton, Virginia.  Of course, the Rendezvous had long since closed its doors as well…

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