Anthony Bourdain
Last week I gave Anthony Bourdain's new show No Reservations a quick plug and last night I gave it another shot.
Now he's batting .333.
I want to love this show. I want to rave about it. I like Mr. Bourdain, but my god, who decided that the third show should be about New Jersey? Ok, it was a "going home" show. But to want to go home with him, we'd want to know where he's been. Save New Jersey for the last show of the season at least. Then bore us.
The problem with the show is that I'm not sure what it is. He's a chef on the travel channel. I would want him to travel and talk about food. We got a little bit of that last night with his visit to a dairy and an italian baker. I've never been to a dairy. That's interesting. There's no good Italian bakeries in Cincinnati. That's interesting - if he had talked about the food. No, we get a bad SNL skit with Mario Battali.
He also visited a Korean restaurant off the highway. Makes a smart-ass remark about soft tofu and then doesn't talk about it. I know Korean food from restaurant work in high school. It's good and simple yet complicated. He gave it short shrift. However, we got lots of time spent at the Asian grocery store where he made fun of all the weird packaging. Cute. But I can - and have - done that at my local grocery in aisle 11.
Also, we get an entire segment at a strip joint off the New Jersey turnpike. All I can say to that is: ??????????
Maybe the length is the problem. His food network show A Cook's Tour was 1/2 long and rocked. Maybe an 1 is toolong to spend in Iceland or New Jersey. Maybe? Also, it knew it was about food.
Next week Anthony goes to Vietnam. If this new show can make that boring, I'm gone. It's off my Tivo season pass.
Mr. Bourdain is good. He's smart. He's entertaining. If you are ever going to eat in a restuarant in the future, his book Kitchen Confidential is required reading and a great read. Go read it instead of watching this new show.
Stay You.
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Now he's batting .333.
I want to love this show. I want to rave about it. I like Mr. Bourdain, but my god, who decided that the third show should be about New Jersey? Ok, it was a "going home" show. But to want to go home with him, we'd want to know where he's been. Save New Jersey for the last show of the season at least. Then bore us.
The problem with the show is that I'm not sure what it is. He's a chef on the travel channel. I would want him to travel and talk about food. We got a little bit of that last night with his visit to a dairy and an italian baker. I've never been to a dairy. That's interesting. There's no good Italian bakeries in Cincinnati. That's interesting - if he had talked about the food. No, we get a bad SNL skit with Mario Battali.
He also visited a Korean restaurant off the highway. Makes a smart-ass remark about soft tofu and then doesn't talk about it. I know Korean food from restaurant work in high school. It's good and simple yet complicated. He gave it short shrift. However, we got lots of time spent at the Asian grocery store where he made fun of all the weird packaging. Cute. But I can - and have - done that at my local grocery in aisle 11.
Also, we get an entire segment at a strip joint off the New Jersey turnpike. All I can say to that is: ??????????
Maybe the length is the problem. His food network show A Cook's Tour was 1/2 long and rocked. Maybe an 1 is toolong to spend in Iceland or New Jersey. Maybe? Also, it knew it was about food.
Next week Anthony goes to Vietnam. If this new show can make that boring, I'm gone. It's off my Tivo season pass.
Mr. Bourdain is good. He's smart. He's entertaining. If you are ever going to eat in a restuarant in the future, his book Kitchen Confidential is required reading and a great read. Go read it instead of watching this new show.
Stay You.
Back to Main Page
posted by Howard McEwen, CFA at Tuesday, August 09, 2005
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