His longtime assistant and collaborator on their final project together …
It’s well-known in the culinary world that in Anthony Bourdain’s kitchen, you’d be fired for playing Billy Joel, Elton John, or the Grateful Dead. The late celebrity chef, famed for his skill, sarcasm and occasional thunderous mood, was a punk rock fan. He preferred music by early punk bands like the Voidoids, or the Dead Boys. He even dedicated one of his books, The Nasty Bits, to “Joey, Johnny, and Dee Dee” of the Ramones. Indeed, Bourdain’s iron-clad principles about music are as famously stubborn as his feelings about food.
Anthony Bourdain was a global sensation. His hit TV programmes No Reservations, The Layover, and Parts Unknown offer insights to a life punctuated by never ending world travel and featuring strange, delicious cuisine. The shows highlighted his brashness, his passion for food, and his respect and understanding for the origination of each dish or bite. A tough guy, with an empathetic outlook.
When Bourdain’s life came to an abrupt and tragic end in 2018, the culinary industry – as well as his family, friends, colleagues, and fans – was gripped with grief and sorrow. One such colleague (and friend) was Laurie Woolever, Bourdain’s lieutenant and collaborator on many of his projects and books, including the latest addition to his catalogue of works, World Travel: An Irreverent Guide – the title in itself being pure Bourdain.
Much like his punk rock idols, Bourdain was, seemingly, always on tour. Bourdain spent at least 200 days a year travelling and finding delight through food in every corner of the world, whether it be sharing a casual Bun – Cha meal with Barack Obama in Hanoi (his love for Vietnam is palpable) or an endless feast of freshly caught seafood in our very own King Sitric in Howth. It seemed right for Bourdain’s final publication to pay tribute to these exhausting yet exhilarating global food-odysseys for which he worked so hard.
World Travel is unlike any travel guide previously published, crammed with golden tips on the best places to eat and stay. Woolever has done a fabulous job of threading the guide with Bourdain’s inimitable razor sharp prose, and peppering anecdotes recounting treasured memories from Bourdain’s nearest and dearest. The book is a bible of essential travel advice on a vast range of countries and cities, but more importantly, it affords its reader a view of these destinations through the lens of one of the most iconic food and travel authorities of all time.
It was 2017, when Anthony approached Woolever, his assistant of ten years, about collaborating on a second book (Appetite being their first book collaboration) cataloguing his travels around the world. They met at Anthony’s New York apartment to begin discussions, and as is her habit, Laurie recorded the conversation. One year later, Bourdain was gone and with him, it seemed, World Travel. Until, Woolever revised her notes from the brainstorming session, and used them as the backbone of what would become “World Travel – An Irreverent Guide” by Anthony Bourdain and Laurie Woolever.
“Appetite was our first book collaboration together and it was fantastic. I’m very proud of that book. It was very difficult at first to think about whether or not to continue with World Travel and then how to proceed. It was incredibly emotional, and daunting to think about. How do I do this?”
“After a few months and a lot of very wise consultation with his estate, his agent and his editor, we were able to come up with a plan that made sense. Fortunately, I had this great treasure trove of information to work from, from all of the television shows, and the transcripts, videos, and all the books he’d written and interviews he’d given – and even just my own relationship with him, from ten years of working with him every day.”
World Travel finally came to fruition with the help of many collaborators who assisted in bring Bourdain’s vision to life, including contributions from his brother Christopher Bourdain, his producer Nari Kye, and musician Steve Albini. The multi-talented Woolever – writer, recipe tester, editor, and podcaster – brought together these collective memories of adventures with Bourdain in far-flung destinations.
It seemed right for Bourdain’s final publication to pay tribute to these exhausting yet exhilarating global food-odysseys for which he worked so hard.
“I had done five or six trips with Tony. We went to Vietnam, Japan twice, once to Okinawa, and once each to Tokyo, Sri Lanka, Hong Kong, and Manila. I think Tokyo was the most fulfilling. Tony and I took the bullet train. That was really exciting, to take that iconic train and watch the country roll by, and then arrive in Tokyo in grand style. We were staying at the Park Hyatt in Tokyo so they sent a car and driver to get us at the door of the train to drive us to the hotel. It’s overwhelming, especially if you’ve never been there before, and to arrive at the Park Hyatt in Tokyo in such style! That evening, he said, “Well, let’s go get some dinner”. So we got into a taxi and went not too far from the hotel, and had some yakitori and some ramen, and just took it all in. It was my first time in Tokyo, and he was so happy in a very simple way, just to share this exciting new city and these simple pleasures.”
Marrying these happy and unique times with the grief of losing Bourdain was a challenge in pulling the book together. “I had to look at it all this material with fresh eyes, and I’d like to think that I did as good a job as possible. It would be better if Tony were here to celebrate, but I tried to put as much Tony in as possible. It was interesting and sad [researching the book], but also really useful to skip around and see the different stages of Tony, starting from his very earliest television work in, I think 2001 or 2002, when he was very fresh and hadn’t seen much of the world and was very excited, all the way through to 2018, where he had seen a lot of the world and he was wiser, and more cynical, in some ways but still also very open to possibility and very, very much in love with the world. But to see him in all these different phases was instructive, to see the natural way that people change, as they see more of the world, as they grow, as they age, as life does what it does to all of us.”
The life of a chef, as Bourdain did remind us in his publications and interviews, was a taxing one – one that required drive, determination, and willingness to make many personal sacrifices. Woolever no longer had ambitions to head up a restaurant kitchen, and for many years had known she should use her knowledge of the culinary industry for writing.
“I started cooking as something fun to do and as a way to feed myself as a college student. I came to New York, worked as a private cook, eventually went to culinary school, and quickly realised that I didn’t want to be a restaurant cook. It’s just a wonderful profession if you love it, I just didn’t love it enough to make the sacrifices that are inherent in that job. I thought, well, I still want to be a writer and now I know a little something about food, maybe I can put those two things together. And that’s how I started out on that path of working for Mario Batali doing lots of things, but among them recipe editing and testing and writing. I work hard and I earned my position, but I think it was just a wonderful stroke of luck that I applied to work for Mario at a time when he was not yet super-famous. I don’t think I had a lot of competition.”
Batali would lead Woolever, eventually, to Bourdain. “I worked with Mario for about three and a half years as his full time assistant and Tony and Mario then became friends. Tony asked Mario if he could recommend somebody to help him with his book so Mario recommended me and Tony hired me sight unseen based on Mario’s recommendation. We worked together on the Les Halles Cookbook which was great, it was a great working relationship.”
World Travel is not just the perfect guide for adventures – particularly for foodie fans of Bourdain – but it is also a beautiful publication. Each illustration seems to move with the vibrant urgency that Bourdain himself moved with. And it looks like people will like it.
“The feedback has been very positive. I think some people are disappointed that Tony isn’t around and that he wasn’t able to contribute more to this book but overall the reception has been very positive. I think Tony would be proud.”
World Travel – An Irreverent Guide by Anthony Bourdain and Laurie Woolever is published by Bloomsbury.