Anthony Bourdain Thinks Cookbook Authors Are a Bunch of Liars

And now, your daily dose of Anthony Bourdain. America's fantasy BFF is on the cover of Canadian lifestyle magazine Nuvo's fall issue, and is interviewed by Eater contributor Joshua David Stein for the accompanying feature.

As Stein points out, it's been 16 years since Kitchen Confidential catapulted Bourdain to fame — meaning "there are young adults who have grown up in a wholly post–Bourdain world." The Parts Unknown host discusses his upcoming cookbook, having famous friends, family life, and how he's not the man he used to be — and that's a good thing. Here now, the best lines from both Stein and Bourdain:

Stein on Bourdain's distinctive walk: "His loping gait approaches Clint Eastwood badassery, the likes of which I’ve only seen once before. Thomas Keller, chef of the French Laundry, walks this way too. Each step is leisurely and ready for accolade. It is the gait of the adored."

Stein on Bourdain partying with music legends: "'I don’t usually go out,' he admits when I first meet him in the morning, 'but my friends were in town.' When pressed, he admits his friends were the Stooges, as in Iggy and the Stooges, one of the most seminal punk bands of all time."

Stein on Bourdain's six-pack: "At one point, he raises his soft grey T-shirt to polish his reading glasses and reveals a torso that seems transplanted from a man half his age. Those are some calendar-level abs."

Stein on Bourdain's mid-aughts habit of trash-talking celebrity chefs: "During those years, not a week went by that he didn’t make headlines by saying something wildly provocative about them . . . Wild hyperbole, very entertaining, morally outraged. This was Bourdain’s thing back then, and that’s hard to reconcile with the Bourdain of today."

Stein on Bourdain's upcoming cookbook, Appetites: "The opening layout, a debauched tableau, features a decapitated boar’s head wearing novelty glasses and Bourdain, mid-bite with his tie undone; his wife, face full of chicken, is wearing a rash guard."

Bourdain on family life: "As somebody who cooked professionally for 30 years, I only saw the normal world as dark silhouettes in the dining room. I was never home. I had no idea what people did on weekends or what it’s like to have a family."

Bourdain on the problem with cookbooks: "Everyone lies in cookbooks. That’s why they’re generally so frustrating. Nobody ever tells you, for instance, that you’re going to screw up hollandaise. It’s not gonna happen for you the first time. It takes professionals many repeated times."

Bourdain on Parts Unknown: "When I ask simple questions like, ‘What do you like to eat,’ people all of a sudden start telling you the most extraordinary things."

• United States of Bourdain [Nuvo]

• All Anthony Bourdain Coverage [E]

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