Bourdain Quotes – Lessons from a Culinary Icon

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

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. – Anthony Bourdain

I’m happiest when I’m traveling. The thrill of experiencing new cultures, trying new foods, and meeting new people is what keeps me alive. – Anthony Bourdain

Food is everything. Food is the only universal thing that really has the power to bring everyone together. No matter what culture, everywhere around the world, people get together to eat. – 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. – Anthony Bourdain

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

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

Bourdain Quotes – Lessons from a Culinary Icon part 2

If you’re 22, physically fit, hungry to learn and be better, I urge you to travel—as far and as widely as possible. – Anthony Bourdain

Do we really want to travel in hermetically sealed popemobiles through the rural provinces of France, Mexico, and the Far East, eating only in Hard Rock Cafes and McDonald’s? – 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

Drink heavily with locals whenever possible. – 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

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

Life is complicated. It’s filled with nuance. It’s unsatisfying… If I believe in anything, it is doubt. The root cause of all life’s problems is looking for a simple f*cking answer. – Anthony Bourdain

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

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

But I do think the idea that basic cooking skills are a virtue, that the ability to feed yourself and a few others with proficiency should be taught to every young man and woman as a fundamental skill, should become as vital to growing up as learning to wipe one’s own a** , cross the street by oneself, or be trusted with money. – Anthony Bourdain

If you want to be a chef, a writer, or a painter, you have to work in a kitchen, albeit as a dishwasher. – Anthony Bourdain

You can’t become a decent horseman until you fall off and get up again, a good number of times. There’s life in a nutshell. – Anthony Bourdain

But I do think the idea that basic cooking skills are a virtue, that the ability to feed yourself and a few others with proficiency should be taught to every young man and woman as a fundamental skill, should become as vital to growing up as learning to wipe one’s own a**, cross the street by oneself, or be trusted with money. – Anthony Bourdain

The way you make an omelet reveals your character. – Anthony Bourdain

I’m not interested in being a ‘TV personality’ or making money doing food porn… I’m into telling stories… I’m usually not telling nice stories. They’re not all told from a good place. – Anthony Bourdain

In the end, everybody just wants a nice bowl of macaroni cheese. – Anthony Bourdain

Chefs these days are like magicians, alchemists. They take ingredients, some basic and some very strange, and blend them together to create a work of art on a plate. – Anthony Bourdain

Like I said, maybe I don’t want happiness. Maybe I just want a challenging, interesting life. – Anthony Bourdain

What my parents believed was that I had fallen into the hands of ‘the wrong crowd.’ Like the Manson family. – Anthony Bourdain

Open your mind, get up off the couch, move. – Anthony Bourdain

All I ever wanted to do was write books and eat oyster. – Anthony Bourdain

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

It seemed that rebellion and discontent were just the beginning of the journey, not the end. – Anthony Bourdain

If you’re not already thinking with a constant awareness of how gloriously and tragically complicated, unlikely and amazing it is to be alive — you’re simply not paying enough attention. – Anthony Bourdain

I wanted to write for a kid who’d been arrested, or was gay, had a drug problem or a drinking problem but wanted to become a chef. – Anthony Bourdain

Cooking is a craft, I like to think, and a good cook is a craftsman—not an artist. – Anthony Bourdain

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

It’s an irritating reality that many places and events defy description. How do you describe a landscape that has inspired wonder and terror in equal measure? How do you capture the fatness, the fire, the magic and mystery of a place? – Anthony Bourdain

The truth is that the act of becoming a chef, of cooking professionally, became a noble and honorable career choice only after I’d made the choice. After the fact. It became noble and honorable because I was part of it. – Anthony Bourdain

I wanted to write for a kid who’d been arrested, or was gay, had a drug problem or a drinking problem but wanted to become a chef. – Anthony Bourdain

Skills can be taught. Character you either have or don’t have. – Anthony Bourdain

Probably my worst quality is that I get very passionate about what I think is right. – Anthony Bourdain

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

The way you make an omelet reveals your character. – Anthony Bourdain

Bad food is made without pride, by cooks who have no pride, and no love. Bad food is made by chefs who are indifferent, or who are trying to be everything to everybody, who are trying to please everyone… Bad food is fake food… food that shows fear and lack of confidence in people’s ability to discern or to make decisions about their lives. – Anthony Bourdain

One truth I have discovered for myself: It is strangely comfortable to eat alone in a Chinese restaurant on Thanksgiving, talking to the wait staffs, the dishwashers, and the buses, all of whom do not speak your language. – Anthony Bourdain