Anthony Bourdain: The Last Interview and Other Conversations

by Helen Rosner

To me, a 12-course tasting menu at one of the great restaurants in the world is often a burden. I’m bored with truffles.

You know, recently I married into a large, Italian, Sardinian family, and seeing how they live, their relationship with alcohol, and with food, and ingredients, has really been an education, you know?

Good food, at whatever income level, is a birthright to them. Gotta have it. Wine with every meal, must have. But you never see drunk-ass Italians staggering around vomiting in the streets. They do everything in proportion. They understand that it’s about good food and good liquor, but also hopefully you’re getting laid on a regular basis and you’re having good conversation and there’s music somewhere, and company, and you know…those are all part of a thing. A life.

Who gets to eat, who doesn’t get to eat, what they’re eating—I mean, the food itself on the plate is usually the end result of a very long and often very painful story.