Crossing paths with Anthony Bourdain

I can't claim to be friends with Anthony Bourdain. He was generous with his time when I interviewed him over the phone, graciously accepting to do it without having actually met me. And then he did the call while his firstborn was on her way into the world. Thanks again Anthony!

When returning from my San Francisco bread baking workshop for a stop over at home in NY before heading for Istanbul, I turned on my Tivo, finding  an episode of Anthony's  "No Reservations." Ironically, he was in San Francisco!! Blimey, a bit karmic that, no? But wait, there's more coincidences that make me believe in the Gods. A few days later, in preparation for my trip to Turkey, my host Dilara mentioned that she would be guiding mister Bourdain around on his current shoot in Istanbul. It can't be denied - fate seemed to be smiling, as there was a chance to cross his path again.

But by the the time my flight took off for Turkey, I had faintly  kept the possibility of meeting him in the back of my mind. But when upon our departure for our trip to  Garp, it completely slipped my mind. Such is the emotional state called spending vacation in this beautiful part of the world; where time is meaningless, no watches, no thinking of calendars. Slurping sea urchins, sipping wine on the shores of the Aegean sea, we totally forgot about his visit. In fact, we both ended up missing him.

Earlier in the  trip, Dilara introduced me to the lovely Turkish blogger, Zeyno Gürses. when she stopped by at Dilara's restaurant  and I was brought over to her table to be introduced, I felt a bit taken aback when Zeyno said she knew all about me. Was there an archive or file on me? Lord, my ego points seemed to be really rising. Anyway, it turned out that she had listened to my Stir the Pots interview with Anthony and had read the blog. It turns out Zeyno wrote an account of Anthony's visit for a local paper and mentioned me in the article as well!

I hope  Anthony will forgive Dilara and I for our self indulgent escape from Istanbul to feed some hungry souls amongst the natural beauty of the Turkish coastline! Meeting him would of been fun.  More fun would  have been if he had joined us on the trip. He would of loved the sea urchins, of that I'm sure. While I have been given a short hand translation of this article (via Dilara), I am awaiting some helping hands and Turkish speakers to maybe shed more light on this particular piece, which I can say makes me feel pretty damned good!

Thanks Zeyno. And Anthony, I hope we have a chance to cross paths in person some day, wherever it happens. Though if it were sitting on the Mediterranean, with or without sea urchins, that would be a lot of fun.

Comments

[Nils]

Yes, either men get angrier or milder when they reach a mature age, so it is perhaps that. Charles Bukowski - prolific writer and the inventor of the "couple of eggs and a beer"-breakfast!

[Jeremy]

He is a generous person,I was so impressed by his coming on to do an interview with me! Even though some of his thoughts about food and other matters does piss off some people, I still find he represents a lot of chefs opinions and he is sort of the Charles Bukowski of cooking. Lately though I think also he has simmered down the rhetoric and is mellowing with age, like food or wine?

[Nils]

His travel-cooking show used to air on a major German channel (on Sunday afternoons IIRC). Enjoyed it thoroughly.