Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown (2013–2018): Season 12, Episode 4 - Tony's Impact - full transcript

[train horn blows]

[gentle piano music]

- How do we make a show that looks completely different

than the show
we did last week?

[rousing orchestral music]

It's nice if you really,
really liked last week's show,

but I'm not going
to do that one again.

Certainty is my enemy.
You know, I'm all about doubt.

[lightning cracks]

[cheering]

I started doing this
late in life.



I can't say that
I'm evolving or maturing

or doing anything differently.

[laughs]
Same dick I was 13 years ago.

[upbeat rock music]

both: ♪ I took a walk
through this ♪

♪ Beautiful world

♪ Felt the cool rain
on my shoulder ♪

♪ Found something good
in this ♪

♪ Beautiful world

♪ I felt the rain
getting colder ♪

- ♪ La, la
- ♪ Sha la, la, la, la

♪ Sha la, la, la, la

- ♪ Sha la, la, la
- Sha la, la, la, la ♪

♪ Sha la, la, la, la, la



- What do you think he did,
I mean,

in terms of
the impact on television?

- Yeah.
- It's so multifaceted, so--

- Sure.

I think that prior to Tony
on television,

food TV, such as it was,
and travel TV, such as it was,

were both essentially
serviced-based.

It was very top-down.

There's an expert
showing you what to do

when you're in
an unfamiliar situation.

"I don't know how to make this."
Here's how you do it.

"I don't know what to do
when I'm there."

Here's what you do.
Here's what everybody does.

What I wished for often
was specificity.

Take me to a place.
Show me that real place.

Show me what motivates people.

[rock music]

♪

- You did travel with him.

You were sitting in your couch
in your home,

but you were with him
wherever he went.

- He would be overseas
in the Far East one week

and then maybe in the Bronx,

you know, the next week,
or in Miami the next week.

- He wasn't worried about
protecting a boxed image

of who he was, right?

It was like, "I'm gonna put
myself in this experience,

and it's gonna be what it is."

- I perceived him a little bit
like Indiana Jones.

He could be on the road
in a T-shirt having a beer

or in a kitchen
talking to the line cooks.

And then he could come home
and put on a suit and tie

and be a man about town
giving a tribute speech

to his publisher.

You know, he cleaned up good,

but he was also really
comfortable out in the wild.

- You see a man step foot
into the world

kind of shaky at first,
kind of unsure,

increasing in confidence
in who he is

as he's buffeted by a larger
world full of doubt,

full of ambiguity,
full of questions,

full of unknowable things
and react accordingly.

[engine revving]

- I would describe myself as

a lucky cook who
gets to tell stories.

And I think any other--
I'm certainly not a journalist.

I'm not a chef anymore.

I'd like to flatter myself
by saying I'm an essayist,

but I'm a storyteller.

I see stuff.
I talk about that.

I talk about how it made me
feel at the time.

I think that's the best--
if you can do that honestly,

that's about the best
you could hope for I think.

[sitar music]

I--I don't feel I'm capable
of going back and having

an intelligent conversation
about my experience.

I feel all messed up
emotionally.

- But then I think this means
that you truly came here,

because when you get close to
something you understand

that you don't understand
what's going on.

When you're far from it,

it seems kind of
solvable and simple.

When you go in to it, you say,
"Hey,

it doesn't make any sense,"
you know?

So it means that
you've really been here.

- It is post-apocalyptic.

It's like
a science fiction film.

What the hell happened here?

- Well, it is post-apocalyptic

except for the fact there's
several hundred thousand

people living here.

[electronic music]

- So the conventional wisdom
seemed to be,

"It's time to
get out of Camden."

Why are you still here?

- Because the need is in Camden.

If every decent person
in Camden leaves Camden,

then we never have a chance.

- You're gonna stay?
- I'm not going anywhere.

My pop-pop didn't leave.
I'm not leaving.

- [laughs]

♪

- This is the only reason
they're gone.

This is the only reason for--

just to protect
my children and my wife.

- 20 years, 30 years...
- Yeah.

- ...will things be better?

- Not 20 years and 30 year.
Hope now.

Next year, thing goes better.

[rapid tapping]

- To me, I really feel
a strong need to forgive...

- Mm-hmm.
- ...and then forget.

And then move on.

- You used to be a tour guide.
- Yes.

- I know you have to
bring people over

to the American War Museum.

In your lifetime,
is there gonna be a time

when that's not
gonna have to be a stop?

No one will remember.

Or should
people always remember?

- I think it's good to remember.

And I think it's good that--
that--

[baby cries]

It's important that
we know about history...

[gentle music]

♪

And to make sure
it's never happen again.

- In conversations that
I had with him, you know,

he'd say,
"Look, I'm not a journalist."

And it's funny because,
you know, I'm a journalist,

and I work with and
live with another journalist

and spend a lot of time
with journalists.

And going and talking to people,
telling stories,

hearing people's stories
that illuminate a place,

if that's not journalism,
I'm really not sure what is.

- How often do you get
to sneak out for a beer?

- Very rarely.
[both chuckle]

First of all, I don't
get to sneak out, period.

[glasses clink]

- The beauty of TV to me is
that it is a cumulative medium.

It's a serialized storytelling.

Every emotional moment

we get to in season four
of a show is earned.

It's built on the back
of everything that came before.

There was
a comfort level there.

We knew each other.

He knew he could push us.

We knew that
he would try to push us.

- People felt like
they knew him.

They felt like if they met him,
he would look out for them.

That sounds weird, but I think

that's how
people felt about him.

They felt like
he was in their corner.

They felt like
he was a force for good.

They felt like his heart
was in the right place.

They felt like he was willing to
stick his neck out for people.

- He was honest about
anything he saw,

not to censor himself

whether positive or negative.

I think that's very important,

and that's why
many people connect,

'cause they see
he's talking about--like,

even the words that
he threw out sometimes.

I was like,
"Jason, can he say that on TV?"

He was like, "Tony can."

- What is the perception
of Mr. Putin these days?

After 14 years, he's in power.

- My--my perception?
- His personal--

- Do you really want to hear it?

- I'm not sure, but let's see.

- A former mid-level manager
in a large corporation.

Short.
I think that's very important.

Short.
- [clears throat]

- Who has found himself
master of the universe.

And like a lot of short people,
if you piss them off,

bad things happen to you.

He likes to
take his shirt off a lot.

- [snickers]
Let's be serious, I mean--

- He strikes me
as a businessman...

- He is.
- A businessman with an ego.

Okay, so he's like Donald Trump,
but shorter.

- Increasingly the show became
about the world around him

and the frame outside of
where he was standing.

And I think
he really understood

the real power in his position

was getting the cameras
to the place in the first place

so that he could
turn them around,

so that he could put the people

who otherwise would never be
on camera on camera,

so he could put
the cultures and the traditions

that have never been seen
before on camera,

so he could show us something,

not just show us
him seeing something.

[gentle string music]

- You have a very
highly educated public here,

one of the most literate
nations on Earth.

- That's funny.
We are highly educated,

like you said, but we're behind

concerning internet
and all that stuff.

Most of us have access
to only the official media,

the official newspaper.

If internet comes,

and I think that government
is trying to delay it,

if that comes,
then I think we change.

People who will have access
to different points of view,

and I don't think
our government wants that.

[soft percussive music]

[egg shell cracks]

- A lot of things happen in
a lot of different

parts of the country
sort of simultaneously.

Kind of amazing that
all of these people

came together very fast.

- How did it happen?
- Yeah.

- Easy. Twitter.

- Twitter?
- Yeah.

- It was really like that?
- Yes.

- Did anyone think it was
possible that in their lifetime

they were gonna see the end
of this son of a...

Most people are telling me
they'd never dream.

- I don't know if you can call
them dreams, hopes, wishes.

It was just
something in the sky,

something I look at every night.
- Right.

- But when I hit that point
and got into Misrata

and stood on Gaddafi's body,
any dream will come true.

- This is a big
oil-rich country.

Why doesn't it look like Dubai?

- Well, I--I hate to be on
this show and talk Niger down--

you know what it is--because

you hear all these things
all the time.

So--so yes, there is corruption.
It is about corruption.

It's about the fact that
the resources that are supposed

to be used for people
aren't being used for people.

Years of military rule meant
that people were brutalized.

There was a fight
against thinking.

Imagine if they were
all well-educated,

if they had access to finance.

I believe
if you're a black person,

whether you're African
or you're African-American,

you're never going to
get any respect

unless there's
a successful black nation.

[pensive music]

- Even if you've been
traveling nearly nonstop

for 15 years like me,
there are places

that snap you out of
your comfortable worldview,

take your assumptions
and your prejudices,

and turn them upside down.

They lead you to believe

that maybe
there is hope in the world.

[upbeat rock music]

- Uh, I eat a lot of meals.

I'm told about 400
per shooting season

um, off and on camera.
[clears throat]

Many of those meals are good.

Many are really bad.

Many are memorable
for reasons good and bad.

A few are epic, truly epic.

They--but they do
come along probably

with more regularity
in my life than yours,

and I will gloat
about that on Instagram

whenever possible, by the way.

[upbeat jazzy music]

- Tony, get closer.

- You are totally
sending me every one

of those pictures by the way.
- Yeah.

- Wow. Look at that.

This style of dish goes back

long before cameras,

but it's perfect.

Is there a more perfect

assortment of
colors and textures?

Everything great about cooking
is encapsulated in this dish.

Often the ugliest dishes are

the ones that are
the most hauntingly delicious.

- Raw blood soup.

- Are we eating out
of an open wound?

- Whole live frogs with garlic.

- That's one of the many
stomach of the cow.

- Alternately unrecognizable,
scorchingly hot, or both.

Well, I'll tell you,
those are some of

the best beans I ever had,
no doubt about it.

- You serious?
- This dude's been everywhere.

- Come on, man.

- There not just delicious.

They're luxurious.

- What can you do
to make it better?

- It's perfect.
There's no improving this dish.

- No. Now nobody talks.
Only we eat.

- Right.
Total silence.

You put far more
on the table than

anyone could conceivably eat.
Is that--

- If you don't like your guest,
you don't put anything.

[laughter]

- Look, I've eaten at a lot of

great restaurants
around the world,

and there was still a little
part of me that was saying,

you know,
"This is gonna be bull--"

- [laughs]

- The guy is out in the field

yanking leaves out
of the ground.

I really didn't expect it
to be as good as it was.

It was delicious.

It was amazingly
delicious for me.

- What's fascinating to me
as somebody who first

knew about Tony
when his first successful book,

"Kitchen Confidential," came out

is I've always
thought of him as a chef

even though it had been years

since he had been
a practicing chef.

You know,
"Kitchen Confidential."

What was the title,
the subtitle?

"Adventures in
the Culinary Underbelly?"

I mean, "underbelly's"
a little bit of a dark word,

but that's sort of
what these--his shows were.

He gave you the full
360-experience of this stuff.

What was its history?
What went in to making it?

What made it great?

And his descriptive powers
were so great

that even though you
as a viewer--

this is the great flaw, I think,
in any food television--

can't taste
what you're watching,

he could convey what
it tasted like or smelled like

or what it evoked in him.

And that, I think,
was kind of the magic of it.

- It was sweet, sweet memories
of this Stegosaurus-sized

shank of cured pork
boiled and boiled

until it literally
falls away from the bone

steaming and moist,
this symphony

of meat and gelatin
and good, good stuff.

God is hiding
in there somewhere.

[upbeat music]

Some things shouldn't change.
I come here to feed my soul.

It's the antidote
to every other place.

♪

Roast bone marrow
with parsley and caper salad.

Thank you.
Yes.

It's a simple good thing,
but it's

one of the most
influential dishes, like,

in the last 20 years.

As I've become older,
I've noticed

the food that I yearn for
is food that

I react to in
an entirely emotional way.

Mmm.
Oh, man.

Wow.

Now, is there an appropriate
way to attack this?

Does one go straight in,
or does one

go at it from an angle?

- It depends
what kind of man you are.

If you're a coward,
you would go from the corner.

- From the corner.
Well, I'm a manly man.

- So you go in the middle.
- All right.

- For somebody
who does what I do,

write about chefs
for people who are chefs,

I think Tony was, like,
as cool as they came, right?

Everyone wanted to--
it was that classic line.

"Everybody wants to be him."

He was a cool guy.
He could write.

He was natural on television.

"The chef swagger,"
that's Tony.

I mean, that started
in some ways with Tony,

or he epitomized that.

Confident, smart,
super computer brain

that could spit out
these incredible witty things.

But he would go
to these places,

and he would evidence, I think,
an incredible humility.

He was genuinely curious.

He wasn't trying to teach them.

He wasn't trying to show off.

- How long does that broth
have to simmer to get good?

- An hour.
- Wow. Really?

I would've guessed,
like, 14 hours.

I want to see how much
you put in there.

- You got to make it look
really red in there.

That should be blood red.

- Nice burning feeling
on my lips, flop sweat, happy.

People are put on Earth
for various purposes.

I was put on Earth to do this,
eat noodles right here.

At the end of a long night,

decisions good and bad,
friends old and new,

a night spent playing
or a night spent working,

all across the world wherever cooks stumble out of work late,

there's a place like this.

Gentlemen.
- Hey, Tony.

- How are you?
- Nice to see you again.

- Good to see you. What's up?
- Nice to see you again.

- It's the city
that never sleeps.

24-hour Mokatal, right?

- This place is very democratic
'cause, like,

everybody comes late at night,

taxi drivers, hookers,
and cooks, because we can be--

- Yeah. Why is it that
hookers and cooks always, like,

are welcome at the same place,
you know?

Where--the--
the same social standard.

I'm ready, man.
I am hungry.

I have had nothing
to eat all day.

- Yeah?
- I am starving.

[wondrous musical flourish]

[indistinct chatter]

- I think Tony's appreciation
for sort of the rank-and-file

members of a kitchen team
was always there.

It was something that I think
he felt very profoundly.

I think what he took
from that profession was

a real curiosity and
a sincere love of food.

You know,
somebody once said to me,

"Great food is an adventure,"

and I think that's
where the beginnings

of what he
transitioned into came from.

- I mean,
if you don't like food,

if you're not
interested in food,

it's--it's really a problem.

It's a relationship non-starter.

It's like someone saying,
"I don't like music."

You know,
conversation's kind of over.

But I mean, I'll always look
at the world from that per--

I mean, all--all my values,
every important skill,

any good things
about my character,

any good characteristics
I have,

all the important
lessons of my life

I learned as a dishwasher
or as a cook.

And I'm always gonna look at
the world through that prism.

[upbeat rock music]

[stirring piano music]

- A few years back,
I got the words

"I am certain of nothing"
tattooed on my arm.

It's what makes travel
what it is:

an endless learning curve.

Well, it's a popular metaphor
for India-Pakistan is

"Twins separated at birth."

- We were never twins, I mean--

- One.
- It was one country.

You could say dismembered.
- Right.

- You know, if you
cut a body in two,

they're not gonna become twins.

- The joy of being wrong,
of being confused.

Critics of the government,
critics of Putin,

bad things
seem to happen to them.

- Yes. Unfortunately
existing power represent,

let I say,
Russia of 19th century.

- You could kill a journalist
and get away with it.

Why are you still here?
- It's my choice.

My choice is fight.

I really believe that

good journalists
can change the world.

- At first you see what you see in so many places,

busy markets,

the noisy streets.

But look just
a little bit longer,

a little bit deeper,
and you'll see

it's not so different

here from anywhere really.

♪

- It's incredible thinking back
how fearless he was.

You know, he went to CNN,
which is a network that

travels all over the world
and goes in to war zones,

and he saw that,
I think, as a challenge.

And he was not afraid
to ask uncomfortable questions,

go to uncomfortable places,
poke at uncomfortable scabs.

That's kind of amazing,
you know, to--to--

as you grow
more comfortable in station

to become more eager to
engage in uncomfortable truths

and uncomfortable situations
and uncomfortable questions.

You would think it would go
in the opposite direction,

but with Tony it never did.

[rousing guitar music]

- Iran. Finally.

I've been trying to get in this country five years now.

It's been the big blank spot
on my things-to-do list.

♪

The Iran I've seen on TV
and read about in the papers,

it's a much bigger picture.

Let's put it this way,
it's complicated,

And I think it's
gonna shock the hell out of you.

- People couldn't believe it.

Iranians in Iran
and Iranian-Americans

were genuinely really
happy and appreciative

that he would come
and do this show there.

In a place like Iran
where visitors from abroad,

and especially
visitors from America,

are few and far between,
it matters.

[string music]

- As print journalists,

our job's difficult,

but it's also kind of easy,

'cause there's so much
to write about.

You know, it's--the
difficult part is convincing

people on the other side
of the world that

what we're telling you we're
seeing in front of our eyes

is actually there.

When you walk down the street,

you see
a different side of things.

People are proud.
The culture is vibrant.

People have a lot to say.

- Jason Rezaian is
"The Washington Post's"

correspondent for Iran.

Yeganeh, his wife
and a fellow journalist,

works for the UAE-based
newspaper "The National."

Jason is Iranian-American.

Yeganeh is
a full Iranian citizen.

This is their city, Tehran.

The official attitude
towards fun in general

seems to be ever-shifting.

How--
is fun even a good idea?

- There's a lot of security.
There's lots of rules.

There are a lot of people
in place to make sure

you do the right thing
and not do the wrong thing.

But there's a lot of
push and pull,

a lot of give and take.

When I first started
coming here, you wouldn't hear

pop music in a restaurant or...
- Right.

- It's everywhere now.
- Now it's everywhere.

- We have police.

They arrest girls or women
for having bad hijab

or not being covered enough,
but it's not that we live

with the police in our head,
you know?

[gentle music]

♪

- I brought up the experience
of being on a show

just a few weeks
previous to--to our arrest.

And I said, "Look, you know,
this thing is coming.

It's not gonna play out
well for you."

- At some point
towards the end,

my interrogator
brought a picture.

"Who is this guy?
Is he your dad or his dad?"

I was like, "No.
You really don't know him?"

And he was like, "No."

I said, "Well,
this is a very famous guy.

If you are interested
in traveling, food, dah-dah-dah,

you should watch his show."

But he told me,
"There was nothing

in your conversation
with him about food."

I was like, "No, we discussed
a little bit of rice and fish

"and things like that,
but it was mostly

cultural topics,
social life, things like that."

And he said, "So it's gonna be
another punch in our face?"

I was like, "No, no, no.
It's not gonna be like that.

"He's not that kind of guy.

He's gonna tell the truth
no matter what it is."

And interestingly, I remember

I told them about
one discussion

we had with Tony,
'cause at some point

we talked about
the situation of women in Iran.

[upbeat music]

- You know, one of the first
things that people will say

when you say,
"Well, I'm going to Iran."

"Oh, yeah, but
don't they make women

do this, this, and this?"
- Yeah.

- Actually... not so much.

- Yeah.
- Not as much as our...

- Friends. Yeah.
- ...friends.

- Compare and contrast.

women aren't allowed
to drive in Saudi Arabia.

- That's right. Or vote.
- Or vote.

- You can drive. You can vote.
- Yeah, of course.

- Can you own a business?
- Of course.

My sister is an accountant.
She has her own company.

Girls are allowed to do almost
everything, uh, except

we want to go and watch football
which is like--

- Can't go watch football?
- We cannot.

- Women's issues are often
at the spear point of change

or possible change here.

On one hand, prevailing
conservative attitudes

demand certain things.

On the other hand,
Iranian women are

famously assertive,
opinionated.

It's a striking difference from

almost everywhere else
in the region.

So why are we so friendly
with the Saudis again?

- That's a great question.
It's a really good question.

- I'm happy that
you asked that question.

[laughs]

[percussive musical flourish]

And I sort of, like, told
the story to my interrogator.

It was like, "Okay, sounds
like a good conversation.

So he--he likes us?"

I was like, "He likes Iranians.
He likes Iran."

So that was kind of convincing.

I was able to
cool things off finally...

[rousing electronic music]

- Do you like it?
You happy here?

- Look, I--I love it,

and I hate it,
you know, but it's home.

It's become home.

- Are you optimistic
about the future?

- Yeah.
Especially if this nuclear deal

finally happens, uh, yeah.

Very much actually.

- Let's assume the worst.

Let's assume that you cannot
see any way to reconcile

what you think of Iran with your own personal beliefs,

that you just
generally don't approve.

- Yeah.
- I think those are exactly

the sort of places
you should go.

- Totally.

- See who we're talking about

and where we're
talking about here.

- I think it's
almost un-American

not to go to those places,
you know?

♪

- I don't know that I can put
it in any kind of perspective.

I feel the, you know,
deeply conflicting,

deeply confusing,
exhilarating,

heartbreaking,
beautiful place.

- Yeah, exactly.

[laughter]

[indistinct chatter]
[camera shutter clicks]

[upbeat rock music]

- When putting together
a list of where

we're going on any given year,

there's a really
unhealthy fascination

with my relationship
with plumbing, shall we say.

So basically if
I'm going without a crapper

for extended periods of time
on one show,

the next show's
pretty much gonna be some place

with good hot-water pressure
and, you know,

a degree of flush toilets that

even the most skeptical
and cranky person

would find curiously pleasing.

[light music]

I never had any dreams of

growing up
in socialist wonderland.

Like, when I was a brief period where I was a hippie,

the idea of living in a commune,
not attractive to me.

- I was born in a communal flat
with three other families

sharing one john, one kitchen.
- No way.

- They would feed me
when I had no food.

- No way.
I share my toilet with no man.

- [jazzy vocalizing]

♪

- Well, I'm looking forward
to the week.

- Yeah.

- This is a low-impact show.

- What is a low-impact show?

- It means I'm not,
you know, paddling upriver.

It means I get a flush toilet,

eating well constantly.

- You like luxury.
- I do. Look, I do.

I like a fluffy hotel towel.
I like a bidet.

Look, I like warm jets of
water squirting up my ass.

I mean, who doesn't?

♪

I--I'd say I feel cleansed, but that could be the diarrhea.

I really don't understand
this whole purging thing.

People are like--
no, is it purging?

Cleanse--a juice cleanses,
right?

Just travel with this show
for a while.

I'll tell you.
I'm feeling pretty good.

But my crew?
Clean as a whistle.

You could pour
mineral water through them,

and it would come out
crystal clear.

That's no fault of the fine
cuisine here, by the way.

I'm convinced it was the
shiny ham at the hotel buffet.

You warn them.
You warn them. You warn them.

Do they listen?
[tsks]

I made a potentially
lethal mistake this morning.

I did something I never do.
- Which is?

- I ate a western breakfast
at the hotel.

[exhales]
I'm feeling it already.

How do you do this
and be a good person?

I don't think you can.

Like, if you wanted
to do this regularly

for the rest of your life--

I would like to spend
three months out of the year

in a hammock looking out
at the Caribbean

in a secluded beach like this.

You'd have to do
bad things to do this, right?

You feel guilty
eating this well?

- I do.
- You do?

- I do.

- I'm feeling guilty now,
but it will pass.

- 'Cause guilt
keeps coming back.

You keep bringing up the guilt.

- You're right.
I feel guilty.

- Then don't do these shows.

What are you doing here
if you feel so guilty about it?

- I know. I know.

I feel guilty
about not feeling guilty.

- That's more to the point.
- Right.

- Now you're starting
to be honest with yourself.

- Right.

- If you have a film crew
and a network

willing to send you places,

chase the things
that interest you.

If you wanna--if you're gonna
go to Japan for the 19th time

on someone else's dime,
make it about tentacle porn.

That's cool.
Teach us something we don't know

or haven't seen before,
because why not?

Contrary to what some critics
may say, it's important to me

that we saw him work
the system some times.

- You couldn't actually show
humans penetrating each other.

- So I invented tentacles...
- Right.

- To be evasive about the law.

- So how big is the, uh,
sadomasochistic community?

How many people
are active participants?

I would never do that
as a responsible journalist,

but I'm interested
in investigating it.

- [laughs]

- Thank you, sir.
- Did you smoke it?

- Yeah, I can't
compare and contrast,

because I've been trying them
all one after the other.

- [laughs]

- I'm trying to
be respectful of

a five-century
religious tradition here.

Uh, I'm not sure
about the teeth.

- [chuckles]
We got this.

This is the necklace one.
- Ooh.

I'm trying to think
of a circumstance that

you could wear
that around your neck.

- [laughs]
- Aw, jeez, it's a cock-alanche.

[energetic techno music]

♪

[electronic musical flourish]

No. No, it can't be over.

Not yet. No!

- There was kind of
a gleeful juvenilia to Tony

that was appealing
on some level

but a little bit tiresome
after a while.

There were stories that he went
back to again and again.

There were punching bags
that he just could not resist

punching again and again.

But I think every one of us

who was willing
to put up with them, because

one of the pleasures
of watching the show over time

and watching him over time
was watching

the punching bags
transform into people

and watching those people
turn into friends.

[gentle rock music]

One of the more
fascinating aspects was

the friendship
with Eric Ripert.

There was a feeling
of inferiority.

- Stop trying to
suck up to teacher.

I saw that.
Apple polisher.

You basically just rip your
ideas off of small businessmen.

- [laughs]

- You got that, right?

- And in fact, Ripert turns out to be this goofy, kind guy

who doesn't mind being the butt
of literally everyone's jokes.

Who saw that coming?

- Do you have pizza experience?

- Never did a pizza in my life.

- Does he know this?

Look at this line.

Stop dicking around
with your insane perfectionism.

He's new.
He's new.

I--I can't do anything with him.

- You think you are
going to the moon or what?

- You'll be bitchin'
in those things.

- No, man.
- Yeah, you'll look cool.

- You wish me bad luck.
- No, I don't.

I just think you should have
proper footwear, man.

Your ability to drink leads to

a number of
assumptions about you,

you know, your general
manliness, penis size,

your worth as a human being.

- I'm comfortable with my size.
[laughs]

- Oh. [inhales sharply]
Jeez.

[playful orchestral music]

- Not all the time.

- Oh--whoa--hey!
- Whoa!

- My jacket.

- Oh, yeah, blame your jacket.

There you go.

- Oh!

- U.S.A.
[both laugh]

Whoo.
I've never seen him so happy.

- [laughs]

- All right.
It's Miller time.

- These were men
who loved each other,

and we got to see that
on television,

and they weren't really shy
about hiding that.

It was goofy,
and he made Ripert eat

Sichuan chilies until he wept.

But it all came from a place
of love and affection

that is rarely captured
on television

and honestly would be
very, very hard to replace.

- Whoa.
- I'm telling you,

I'd feel
a lot more comfortable if

you hadn't had
two portions of eggs.

- This is amazing.

Come in my selfie.

Oh, it's a video.
Hold on.

- Eric's a Buddhist
with really good, solid,

like, you know, values.

Like, I've never seen him
wish ill on another human being.

He really does live up
to his Buddhist faith.

It's rather incredible that
he could be friends with me.

I know it's caused him
problems at times.

Everyone who appears on
television should be so lucky

as to have a--
an Eric Ripert in their life.

And thank God
he's got a sense of humor,

'cause when he makes
television with me,

he's always gonna need it.

[upbeat rock music]

[pensive electronic music]

- I think that Tony never
shied away from the fact that

he was changing the narrative.

He was changing the story.

He was bending reality.

This was
his experience in the world,

that he never shied away
from suggesting that

people go out
and find their own experience.

♪

The beauty of making
so many episodes

and traveling so many times
and revisiting so many times

is that there is
always more to see.

There is a large story,
and then there's a small story,

and if you peek inside
that small story,

there are
a thousand more stories.

And his willingness
to let those stories be told

and find the right storytellers
for each one of those

was incredibly impactful.

[pensive music]

♪

On the one hand, they are this
perfect expression of a guy

who was an aesthete,
who had very strong tastes.

He had very good taste in
a lot of things, not just food,

and felt very strongly, clearly,

about expressing that
in the show.

There was no bullshit.

If he wanted
a certain type of music,

he would get that musician
to play that music.

If he wanted
stylistic reference, I'm sure

he would make
everyone on the crew

watch a hundred movies
until you got it exactly right.

That has value
in and of itself,

but what he did with
that reference was purposeful.

What he taught me
about working-class cinema

and about the absolutely
inextricable connection

between an artist and a place,

that's much more meaningful

than just
dropping a loose reference.

It's a beautiful package

to Trojan-horse some
other thought inside of it.

[ambient music]

♪

[indistinct chatter]

[bell dinging]

[stirring piano music]

[horns honking]

♪

[sirens wailing]

[whistle blows]

[dog barking]

[tires screech]

♪

[footsteps]

[birds chirping]

[upbeat rock music]

- After all
these years traveling,

and when you look back,
what resonates?

- I see a lot of poverty.
I see a lot of cruelty.

I have reason to feel angry
or frustrated

or heartbroken frequently.

It angers me to see
a place like, you know,

Detroit, a great American city,

that--that's failed, or been--
or allowed to fail.

To see New Orleans post-Katrina
makes me angry.

To see Camden, New Jersey
in my own state

that I grew up in,
it--it makes me angry.

Yes, there's a lot of
scary, ugly stuff in it,

but there is much more,
I still think,

beauty and kindness

and humor
and people doing the best they
can

in--in often very,
very difficult situations.

It is a magnificent planet
filled with fascinating

and more often than not
beautiful people.

[stirring string music]

♪

Where's that sandwich?

- I've been thinking about this a lot recently.

This is a man who traveled
the world--

you know, what was it,
200 days a year, more?

At this point,
every place he went,

he had dozens,
if not hundreds, of people

who considered him
a good friend.

And he made every single person
feel like he was their friend

for the time
that they were together.

That boggles my mind.

- We get recognized
from being on that show.

And when I say restaurants,
I'm talking about, you know,

greasy spoons all the way up
to fine dining establishments.

People come over to the table
and they say,

"Did we see you
on Bourdain's show?"

"Yeah, that was us."

Sometimes we don't
have to pay for the meal.

[laughter]

- There's a million of these

Tony Bourdain stories out there

of just how decent and nice

and accessible
he was to everybody.

- Mmm.

- But the idea that
he could feel self-conscious

or he could feel humbled

or he could feel unable
to form a sentence,

again, I think that's how
most people felt around him.

- And I think that, you know,

Iranians have that experience
of feeling like,

"Hey, this guy
saw the value in us."

Obviously people in Africa
have that experience.

People that work in kitchens
have that experience.

- I don't know how he did it.

I will never know
how he did it,

the ability to walk
into any room

in any country in the world
and appear to be at ease,

at least at ease
without

overcompensation,
without overconfidence,

and to make others feel at ease

to be able to break bread
with anybody,

to have a toast
with almost anybody.

♪

- To victor, Roland.

Victory in our time.

Uh-oh.
- Don't be afraid.

- Don't be afraid.

My first turbo.
Cheers.

all: Cheers.

- Cheers!
- Oh!

- Oh, yeah.
Just like old times.

- I think that's probably
the best way to understand

Tony Bourdain on television,
is that

he was nominally
the host of these shows,

but he really was
the ultimate guest.

[laughter]

[indistinct singing]

- Just 'cause I'm
a bit of a dick,

I have to ask this question.
- No, I love it.

- Oh, okay.
[laughter]

[cheers and applause]

Well, I hope the food's good
at this thing.

- It's so important
to Tony's mission

to remember that to
eat the food of the world,

you don't have to have
a lot of frequent flyer miles.

You don't have to have
a lot of money.

- Tony's part of history,

everywhere's history,

every nation's history.

- The excess of evil
may not exist in him.

So just normal evil

like everybody else, yeah?
[laughter]

- You were a guy who
at various points in life

has pretty much
one way or the other

been able
to have a lot of things

that ordinary people
would never have.

- Yeah.

- You've had
many, many adventures.

- I know.
- Given that,

what thrills you now?

- The nicest stuff right now--
this is very embarrassing,

but it's really emb--

being loved and actually

appreciating the people
that are giving that to me.

♪

- And I guess that's what
we all want as human beings,

isn't it?
To be loved, to be cherished.

- This is Anthony Bourdain, CNN.

Good night, and eat more SPAM.