Anthony Bourdain has once again expressed his opinions on a variety of topics.
We like Anthony, we enjoy reading his views on the world and everyone in it, so here goes:
His thoughts on vegetarians: "They make for bad travelers and bad guests. The notion that before you even set out to go to Thailand, you say, 'I'm not interested,' or you're unwilling to try things that people take so personally and are so proud of and so generous with, I don't understand that, and I think it's rude. You're at Grandma's house, you eat what Grandma serves you."
His feelings toward vegans: "I don't have any understanding of it. Being a vegan is a first-world phenomenon, completely self-indulgent."
As far as to why he only smokes marijuana on the road: "When I'm in New York, I'm a dad. I'm with my daughter, or I have to be available for her, and I want to keep an active brain. If somebody suddenly calls up and says, 'Your daughter needs you,' and I'm in a position to do something about it, I'm not going to be, like, 'Oh, dude, wow, what do I do?' If I'm sitting in the Empty Quarter of the Arabian Desert, though, and it's two in the morning, we've finished shooting with a tribe of bedouins and my crew and I want to stagger up a dune and smoke some hash and look at the moon, that's a nice thing. Who is it hurting?"
On why he'll never do hard drugs again: "I had a long and extraordinarily painful relationship with heroin and, following that, methadone. Having physically kicked it, I would greatly prefer not to have to go through that again. When I remember the good times and the good feelings on heroin, sure, but when I think about the bad, it hurts and I don't ever want to go through that again. I'm clear about it. Same with cocaine. Honestly, it's not a day-to-day struggle. No. It's (effing) bad. I don't want to do it again. It was humiliating; it brought me low."
How about his fellow celeb chefs?
Emeril Lagasse: "As I've said to him many times, 'I hated your show, dude.' I made my career making fun of the poor b*stard. I miss him now. He has good restaurants and is a good chef, but the stuff he made on TV was ridiculous."
Bobby Flay: "Again, an accomplished restaurateur. But I don't understand why these guys would make this candy-colored sort of crowd-pleasing television. Why would they compromise themselves so much?"
Wolfgang Puck: "Listen, I'm not eating in his (crummy) pizza restaurants. I think it's bull----, and it breaks my heart to see him on QVC or whatever, but the fact is he paid his dues. He's an important guy. It's an Orson Welles thing: He made Citizen Kane, so it doesn't matter what he does after that. If Wolfgang Puck wants to open crappy pizzerias in airports all over America, that's (effing) fine. Wolfgang was a guy who changed things for chefs. You don't have to be on TV—everybody knew who Wolfgang was. It was about the chef now."
Mario Batali: "He's a monster of rock and roll. He's done everything right from the beginning. Mario's managed to balance making a lot of money, opening a lot of restaurants, world domination and his personal happiness and quality of life in a remarkable way. He's the smartest chef there is. There is no chef smarter or funnier or faster."
