Anthony Bourdain Day 2024

Anthony Bourdain was a complicated person. He had many demons. Could tear his friends to pieces with sharp and targeted words. He battled depression most of his life. He had a severe inadequacy complex, never thinking he was good enough for any of his significant others or daughter. 

But Anthony Bourdain was the great empathizer. He had the ability to disarm anyone, make them feel safe, yet vulnerable, all around a table with food. He knew how to put into words the human experience. He never looked down, always straight ahead. (Unless your name happened to be Henry Kissinger, then he looked down on you and spit in your general direction)

It's one of those weird relationships where we've never met Anthony in person, but he meant a lot to Sal and I. Part of our travel-lust was born out of watching Anthony bravely share a meal in places deemed "too dangerous" for the average tourist. We saw him go to places like Vegas, but instead of spending all of his time wandering the Sahara, he took you to Atomic Liquor off the strip. He was always more interested in the people that could take him to the local places, than going to restaurants owned by celebrity chefs. 

Anthony was born on June 25th, 1956 and died by his own hand on June 8th, 2018. 

Every year since his death, Sal and I look at our calendar and figure out which date is closer to a weekend we have free and we do a celebration of Anthony Bourdain's life. This year, we did it on June 8th.

Bourdain came out with two cookbooks, the Les Halles Cookbook which was based off of the recipes served in Anthony's New York French bistro that sadly no longer exists. And Appetites, which focuses largely on food he liked to cook at home for friends and family. 

We own both of these cookbooks, and every year, we pour over the pages and put together a feast. Sometimes we invite another couple to just sit at our table, enjoy wine, while we prepare a multi-course meal. Sometimes, like this year, we keep it simple, the two of us, a way to keep it intimate and connect with each other. 

There's been several weeks of brutal travel, long work hours, where we've been not much more than passing entities in the hallways of our house. So this year, we decided it was to just be us. 

So what was on the menu you ask? Of course, the most important part.

When celebrating Anthony, you cannot cook without having a drink nearby. We started the night with a home made whiskey sour. 

A spin of the Benedictine Sour found on Food and Wine's site, Sal shook ice, bourbon (Bulleit), freshly squeezed lemon juice, Benedictine, and home made simple syrup. Of course, with a Luxardo cherry as an extra treat. It was a perfect light cocktail for the heat and humidity we were sticky with. 

This wasn't an Anthony recipe, but we think he'd approve. 

On page 23 of the Appetites book you will find a home made Caesar salad. You might have immediately thought of the store bought kits, some romaine lettuce, a few croutons, maybe some parmesan, and a little envelope of Caesar dressing. Not tonight though. Tonight, we made everything. Sal cooked real anchovies with garlic and oil, making a paste while I shredded imported Parmesan Reggiano. With some of the left over scraps, you cook chopped up sour dough bread to make croutons. 

Of course we had freshly chopped Romaine lettuce, if we're going so far as to use real anchovies, we can't have our lettuce coming from a bag. 

Now at this point, our whiskey sours were running low, so we decanted a nice 2022 Pinot Noir from Oregon, courtesy of the A to Z Wineworks. 

For the main, we turn to page 122 of the Les Halles cookbook and made Boeuf à la Ficelle, literally translates to beef on a string. It's technically a stew, but presents more as a roast at the end. Turnips, carrots, an onion with cloves embedded, leeks, bouquet garni, and the most important part, beef tenderloin. Throw it all in a big pot, boil them together for 30 minutes, and baby, you have yourself a stew. 

You put everything on a plate, organizing by the color of the vegetables if you want to be a bit extra about it. Then you cook down the rest of the liquid in the pot, making a bit of an au jus, and then pour it over everything. 

You don't need teeth to bite through anything on the plate. The stewing and cloves pulled sweetness out of each vegetable. 

I present to you, the finished product. 

And we had to have a dessert, just the final little kiss to our perfect night. With it being so hot, we wanted something that paired well with St. Louis humidity in June, so we turned to page 279 of the Les Halles cookbook to find a homemade lemon tart. And guess what, on page 248 of the same book, is a homemade pie crust. Tart, gooey, balanced and sweet. 

We wrapped up this years celebration of Anthony Bourdain by watching a few episodes of No Reservations, drinking red wine, and just talking about our past and future adventures.

Most of the week, we're cooking to survive. We're done with a long day at work and we just want to apply some heat to food, eat, and then watch reality TV until bed time. Anthony Bourdain day is important to me. It's a day you set aside time to really think about why you are applying heat. To have good drinks, listen to good music, and have good conversation. It's a reminder that slowing down, and touching grass will ground you. It's a way to regain some of your humanity and be more than a schedule.