Wapsi Square Forum

"Let me stress that again: heavyweight. A thin-bottomed saucepan is useless for anything. (...) A proper saute pan should cause serious head injury if brought down hard against someone's skull. If you have any doubts about which will dent—the victim's head or your pan—then throw that pan right in the trash."
— Anthony Bourdain, Kitchen Confidential (also the main quote for “Frying Pan of Doom” on TvTropes)

One of the best and most memorable bits of kitchen advice I’ve ever had the privilege of hearing.

RIP you glorious bastard.

GlytchMeister wrote:RIP you glorious bastard.

Indeed.

Of all the bits of bad news I've ever had to pass on to Gwen over breakfast, this is about the second-worst. She was/is a tremendous fan of Bourdain, and utterly admired his "go anywhere, do anything, eat anything, never get sick, never slow down" attitude towards life.

I heard about it on the radio while driving to work this morning. It was donut day for the group, I stop every other Friday and pick up a couple dozen donuts. Engineers thrive on coffee and donuts. Plus it picks up moral if for just a moment, or as long as the sugar rush lasts. I also pick up a small orange juice and a dozen donut holes to drop off with my daughter at her office, she works nearby to mine. She met me at the curb to collect her goodies but had a frown on her face. Before I could ask what was wrong, she said "Bourdain died."

I really knew nothing about him prior to the first season of "Parts Unknown". Had seen his name but never paid attention to whatever he did. One night I was running channels on the TV and for some reason stopped when I saw this guy on a river boat cooking something while bugs circled bare light bulbs that were illuminating the scene. The banter was amusing, the narrative was clever. This guy was traveling the Congo river because of a book he had read and was being amazing while doing it. I was hooked.

I missed most of last season and a lot of the previous. When I did watch, he seemed tired and many of the episodes dealt with grittier subjects, the carefree days of the earlier seasons were missing. I've been back to watching this season, he was looking gaunt and even more tired than the last year. Whatever it was that led him to his last decision, I wish that someone close to him would have asked "Hey man, tell me what's wrong..."

"And if you're ever offered roast warthog anus, give it a pass."