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| - On March 28, 2024, a Facebook fan page for chef and journalist Anthony Bourdain claimed he made the following quote:
Eat at a local restaurant tonight. Get the cream sauce. Have a cold pint at 4 o'clock in a mostly empty bar. Go somewhere you've never been. Listen to someone you think may have nothing in common with you. Order the steak rare. Eat an oyster. Have a negroni. Have two. Be open to a world where you may not understand or agree with the person next to you, but have a drink with them anyways. Eat slowly. Tip your server. Check in on your friends. Check in on yourself. Enjoy the ride.
Variations of the quote have gone viral over the last several years, including ones that emphasize the idea of sitting down with people one disagrees with: "Be open to a world where you may not understand or agree with the person next to you, but have a drink with them anyways."
We searched in many of Bourdain's books and interviews and found no evidence that he said the above words, though it is possible he may have said something similar in his lifetime. As such, we rate the claim "Unproven" until more information comes to light.
We began by looking through his writings, including "Kitchen Confidential," "A Cook's Tour: In Search of the Perfect Meal," "No Reservations: Around the World on an Empty Stomach," "Medium Raw," "The Nasty Bits," his novel "Bone in the Throat" and more.
In Bourdain's cookbook "Les Halles," he wrote something similar to the above quote after describing the prep work for a recipe: "Have a drink. Relax. Dress for company. Smoke a joint. Your work is practically done here."
Truth or Fiction found the earliest versions of the quote in 2021. The quote appeared on a film blog about the documentary "Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain," which stated:
The best thing to say about Neville's compact, dense yet feather-light attainment is that it sings and it stings and stands alongside memory of vigorous Bourdain passages such as the immortal: "Eat at a local restaurant tonight. Get the cream sauce. Have a cold pint at 4 o'clock in a mostly empty bar. Go somewhere you've never been. Listen to someone you think may have nothing in common with you. Order the steak rare. Eat an oyster. Have a Negroni. Have two. Be open to a world where you may not understand or agree with the person next to you, but have a drink with them anyways. Eat slowly. Tip your server. Check in on your friends. Check in on yourself. Enjoy the ride."
We do not know from where the blog was quoting. We watched the film and there was no evidence of the quote in it.
Truth or Fiction also found the quote in a June 2021 post on a message board, where it wass not attributed to Bourdain:
Re: Anthony Bourdain dead.
Eat at a local restaurant tonight. Get the cream sauce. Have a cold pint at 4 o'clock in a mostly empty bar. Go somewhere you've never been. Listen to someone you think may have nothing in common with you. Order the steak rare. Eat an oyster. Have a negroni. Have two. Be open to a world where you may not understand or agree with the person next to you, but have a drink with them anyways. Eat slowly. Tip your server. Check in on your friends. Check in on yourself. Enjoy the ride.
Happy Bourdain Day
He would have been 65
One Substack user reached out to the commenter behind the above post to determine whether it was their quote or whether it was Bourdain's. They received a response from the user, who claimed they knew Bourdain:
Quotes are funny things, can you ever have 100% assertion that any quote was directly from one person ? Maybe if you have video or audio but with AI now thats not even possible. What we are left with is the character of the quote. I knew Tony, I hung out with him on a few occasions before he made it big as Anthony Bourdain and I can assure he said something similar to me on many occasions. Maybe not that direct quote but damn near close to the fundamental ideas behind it. It was at the core of his sensibilities and love for culture, food, and life. So yea [it] totally sounds like the Tony I knew.
Ultimately, we have no documented proof that the words came from Bourdain directly. It is possible he felt that way, given his extensive travels, the people he interviewed and his numerous experiences. In the movie "Roadrunner" Bourdain spoke about changing his mind and opinions as a result of his travels. In one clip Bourdain joked about curiosity being his "only virtue."
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