In the Weeds: Around the World and Behind the Scenes with Anthony Bourdain

by Tom Vitale

Working in more troubled parts of the world highlighted an uncomfortable aspect of the job. We weren’t here to dig wells or bring health care to the Congo. When your objective is to get footage that illustrates a story—in this case how much destruction and tragedy exists in a place—it puts you in the awkward position of witnessing human suffering as a goal.

“Exactly,” Tony said. “What do we include, what do we choose to leave out? Either way it’s our choice. It’s about the moral quandary of travel and white privilege. The camera is a liar. Drawing attention to it calls into question our own reliability and shows our hands aren’t clean. I want to show how manipulative even ‘honest, tell it like it is’ TV can be.” That was one of the great things about Tony. He never shied away from complicated topics or from presenting himself in an unflattering light. And Tony wasn’t just honest about it, he often bent over backward to highlight just how manipulative the TV machine could be.

This episode had the potential to do what Tony had always aimed for and I was proudest of: challenge stereotypes while resisting the othering of people we met by treating them with dignity, respect, and approaching a complex situation with an open mind.

“Barbeque may not be the answer to world peace, but it’s a start,” Tony said

“I asked Tony a lot of questions all the time,” José said. “One day he responded, ‘Who do you think I am, the Wizard of Oz?’ But Tony gave all of us the heart to bring people from far away to feel closer together, realize that people who are different aren’t our enemies, and gave us the courage to do the things we wanted to do. And though Tony didn’t answer my question, he gave me the power to come up with my own answer. I guess at the end of the day Tony really was my Wizard of Oz.”

Maybe the real question was, how do you end a story that you don’t want to be over?