When I was in the 6th grade, I believe, I read Anthony Bourdain’s book (unbeknownst to my mother) Kitchen Confidential. If you’ve been following along in my blog, you know that when I was in the fourth grade I decided to become a chef, so by the sixth grade I can tell you this choice was pretty firm, but between the charismatic storytelling of Anthony Bourdain and the PBS cooking shows I was taking in on the weekends, I was sold. If you read KC because of this post, please don’t judge me based on the filthy dialogue and/or the R rated scenarios you’ll encounter. Note: the only single thing my mother has ever sold on ebay was that book.
Recently we’ve become big time No Reservations fans. Mom and I are foodies, and adventurous women, and well, we fancy ourselves as the types who’d eat off a street cart in Bangladesh without giving it a passing thought - if we ever found ourselves in Bangladesh...with hand sanitizer lol. From this you should gather that we’ve grown to “know” Anthony Bourdain over the years, and were thrilled to be able to see him live.
Because we’re HUGE nerds, we decided to go to a restaurant before we got to the performance hall, but not just any restaurant, one that neither of us had been to before and also one where we could order things we’d never heard of, anxiously await their arrival to the table, and eat commenting on each dish as an ode to the good (I’ll use that term loosely) man Tony.
Shinjuku Station in Fort Worth was were we landed, and with only an hour and a half before the show, we were afraid we couldn’t soak in all the goodness the place had to offer, but boy were we wrong. Our service was outstanding, when
they heard we were pressed for time (and where we were going) no one made us feel inferior, they assured us there would be no reason for tardiness and everyone worked together to make our night enjoyable (shout out to Jered our server). The food was impeccable. We had an array of dishes (made to share) beginning with Chile Garlic Edamame and ending with Okinomiyaki, a Japanese pizza type thing made with pork belly, napa cabbage, tempura batter, citrus aioli and all things good and wonderful. I should mention here (not to imply that the food wasn’t beyond ridiculously good) that Mom and I are playing a diet game, to which a friendly wager has been applied, with some of our friends, and we’d taken this night as our first night “off.” One of the caveats in the diet game is no wine, let me underscore that, I CANNOT DRINK WINE WHILE PLAYING THIS GAME. It’s tough. But at Shinjuku station, we had the night off, so wine we had. The list was concise and most of the wines I knew,
but we chose a wine, well, Jered helped us, that was very unusual. Marketed as a “wine to drink with sushi,” Oroya is a blend of grapes native to Spain that are blended to create a wine with a soft structure but vibrant citrus flavor and a hint of peachiness. We thoroughly enjoyed. I will tell you, but only you, that we had these mussels in a yuzu butter that were so very tasty that we couldn’t bear to leave the pot liquor on the plate. When we asked Jered how we were supposed to walk away from the dish he promptly brought us spoons and a side of rice (some people just “get” you, ya know?) it was awesome. From the restaurant we stepped into beautiful Bass Performance Hall in
downtown Fort Worth, where Christmas was in full swing. We did a quick bathroom break/wine stop then shopped through beautiful silent auction displays before getting our seats. Good vs. Evil featuring Anthony Bourdain and Eric Ripert began with an interrogation of sorts. Each of the guys took turns sitting in the Hot Seat on stage while the other strolled past asking insightful/sarcastic questions that revealed hysterical bits and pieces of their pasts - Erik’s storied, Anthony’s sordid.
Throughout the show we laughed inappropriately, applauded, became appalled, and then surprised.
After the interrogation portion of the evening, the chefs sat down, cracked open a couple beers, and chatted about things that really matter to them, and I wasn’t expecting what I heard. The message was clear: no farms, no food. Of all the whirlwinds these guys have been through in their pasts it all came back to food. Food is what drove these guys to work, to travel, what inspired them in their creativity. Eric cooks with his son on Sundays, and Anthony would probably point out that cooking brought him to and eventually turned him away from drug abuse, it gave him something to write about, and even moved these two onto a stage in Fort Worth, Texas where they sat before at least 2 women who felt connected to them because of food. Before they opened up the floor for questions I listened to a couple renowned chefs talk about mistakes of their pasts where they’d unintentionally aided in the demise of species of fish and fowl, and how they felt about these things. They spoke candidly about using ingredients responsibly now, serving sustainable seafood, standing up for the way crops are grown here in the US, and how they deal with waste and surplus by supporting inner city food distributors for the less fortunate. They made points about the changes in our culture where food is concerned - diseases that affect so many - hormones, antibiotics, and chemicals used in our food supply.
When I walked out of the beautiful space and into the real world, I took inventory of the situation: Mom and I had a fabulous evening, we were well entertained, but more than that, I was prompted to think about food in a way I had previously neglected. I’m hoping it wasn’t just me in that tremendous crowd that left feeling a responsibility for protecting our farms and our foods.
Very thought provoking... Would have loved to have seen the show. Love the Bass Hall"
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