Anthony Bourdain Quotes

Travel changes you. As you move through this life and this world, you change things slightly, you leave marks behind, however small. And in return, life – and travel – leaves marks on you. – Anthony Bourdain

If I’m an advocate for anything, it’s to move. As far as you can, as much as you can. Across the ocean, or simply across the river. Walk in someone else’s shoes or at least eat their food. It’s a plus for everybody. – Anthony Bourdain

You have to be a romantic to invest yourself, your money, and your time in cheese. – Anthony Bourdain

I’m a big believer in winging it. I’m a big believer that you’re never going to find perfect city travel experience or the perfect meal without a constant willingness to experience a bad one. Letting the happy accident happen is what a lot of vacation itineraries miss, I think, and I’m always trying to push people to allow those things to happen rather than stick to some rigid itinerary. – Anthony Bourdain

Your body is not a temple, it’s an amusement park. Enjoy the ride. – Anthony Bourdain

I’ve long believed that good food, good eating, is all about risk. Whether we’re talking about unpasteurized Stilton, raw oysters or working for organized crime ‘associates’, food, for me, has always been an adventure. – Anthony Bourdain

Cooking is a craft, I like to think, and a good cook is a craftsman—not an artist. There’s nothing wrong with that: the great cathedrals of Europe were built by craftsmen—though not designed by them. Practicing your craft in expert fashion is noble, honorable and satisfying. – Anthony Bourdain

I don’t have to agree with you to like you or respect you. – Anthony Bourdain

I am not a sous chef anymore, okay? I’m an executive chef. I am Chef Tony. My reality is that I have three cooks in there that are professional cooks, not high school kids. – Anthony Bourdain

Good food is very often, even most often, simple food. – Anthony Bourdain

Maybe that’s enlightenment enough: to know that there is no final resting place of the mind; no moment of smug clarity. Perhaps wisdom is realizing how small I am, and unwise, and how far I have yet to go. – Anthony Bourdain

I learned a long time ago that trying to micromanage the perfect vacation is always a disaster. That leads to terrible times. – Anthony Bourdain

The journey is part of the experience – an expression of the seriousness of one’s intent. One doesn’t take the A train to Mecca. – Anthony Bourdain

I respect loyalty above all else. – Anthony Bourdain

Travel isn’t always pretty. It isn’t always comfortable. Sometimes it hurts, it even breaks your heart. But that’s okay. The journey changes you; it should change you. It leaves marks on your memory, on your consciousness, on your heart, and on your body. You take something with you. Hopefully, you leave something good behind. – Anthony Bourdain

We know, for instance, that there is a direct, inverse relationship between frequency of family meals and social problems. Bluntly stated, members of families who eat together regularly are statistically less likely to stick up liquor stores, blow up meth labs, give birth to crack babies, commit suicide, or make donkey porn. If Little Timmy had just had more meatloaf, he might not have grown up to fill chest freezers with Cub Scout parts. – Anthony Bourdain

I’m not afraid to look like an idiot. – Anthony Bourdain

An ounce of sauce covers a multitude of sins. – Anthony Bourdain

You learn a lot about someone when you share a meal together. – Anthony Bourdain

I know where I’m going and I know the truth, and I don’t have to be what you want me to be. I’m free to be what I want. – Anthony Bourdain

I want it all. I want to try everything once. – Anthony Bourdain

Good food and good eating are about risk. – Anthony Bourdain

Garlic is divine. Few food items can taste so many distinct ways, handled correctly. Misuse of garlic is a crime…Please, treat your garlic with respect…Avoid at all costs that vile spew you see rotting in oil in screw-top jars. Too lazy to peel fresh? You don’t deserve to eat garlic. – Anthony Bourdain

You learn a lot about someone when you eat either lunch or dinner with them. Special things are like people. They resist being overanalyzed or neatly dissected. – Anthony Bourdain

I’m not trying to change anyone’s mind about anything, but I feel like if people are prepared, they’re more likely to at least surrender to the experience. – Anthony Bourdain

Without experimentation, a willingness to ask questions and try new things, we shall surely become static, repetitive, and moribund. – Anthony Bourdain

I don’t have to agree with you to like you or respect you. – Anthony Bourdain

Context and memory play powerful roles in all the truly great meals in one’s life. – Anthony Bourdain

I don’t want to be a tourist. I want to touch things and connect with them deeply. – Anthony Bourdain

I didn’t want to become a chef until I realized that I’d be able to travel the world and eat all this great food. – Anthony Bourdain

Food may not be the answer to world peace, but it’s a start. – Anthony Bourdain

Luck is not a business model. – Anthony Bourdain

There’s no such thing as too much cheese. – Anthony Bourdain

Some of the best chefs on the planet are just the happiest guys. – Anthony Bourdain

I’m not an advocate for globalization or even consumerism. But I am an advocate for this: to never be dismissive of the happiness you find in food. – Anthony Bourdain

I travel around the world and try to eat the countries I go to. – Anthony Bourdain

It’s mysterious, what attracts you to a person. A stranger across the room at a party. I liked your nose. Or, ‘You are standing in my light’. – Anthony Bourdain

For me, the cooking life has been a long love affair, with moments both sublime and ridiculous. – Anthony Bourdain

I’ve long believed that good food, good eating, is all about risk. Whether we’re talking about unpasteurized Stilton, raw oysters or working for organized crime ‘associates,’ food, for me, has always been an adventure. – Anthony Bourdain

I won’t say that writing about food is a higher calling than producing it in the kitchen, but it’s true that my work as a writer has connected me to a worldwide community bound by shared experience and—forgive my optimism—common purpose. – Anthony Bourdain

I’ve long believed that good food, good eating, is all about risk. Whether we’re talking about unpasteurized Stilton, raw oysters or working for organized crime ‘associates,’ food, for me, has always been an adventure. – Anthony Bourdain

I don’t think of myself as a journalist in any way. I think of myself as a writer who happens to be working in television, instead of print. – Anthony Bourdain

I always entertain the notion that I’m wrong, or that I’ll have to revise my opinion. Most of the time that feels good; sometimes it really hurts and is embarrassing. – Anthony Bourdain

Good food and good eating are about risk. – Anthony Bourdain

I’m open to all of it. I’m not afraid of anybody. I think when you hear people making hateful comments, bombastic statements about the world we live in, one should take pause and wonder what they were dreaming about last night. – Anthony Bourdain

Finding craft in food and drink is just as important as finding a craftsman in a remote village. – Anthony Bourdain

Travel isn’t always pretty. It isn’t always comfortable. Sometimes it hurts, it even breaks your heart. But that’s okay. The journey changes you; it should change you. It leaves marks on your memory, on your consciousness, on your heart and on your body. – Anthony Bourdain

Your body isn’t a temple, it’s an amusement park. Enjoy the ride. – Anthony Bourdain

Food is everything we are. It’s an extension of nationalist feeling, ethnic feeling, your personal history, your province, your region, your tribe, your grandma. – Anthony Bourdain

Without experimentation, a willingness to ask questions and try new things, we shall surely become static, repetitive and moribund. – Anthony Bourdain