Anthony Bourdain Quotes

Don't dunk your nigiri in the soy sauce. Don't mix your wasabi in the soy sauce. If the rice is good, complement your sushi chef on the rice.

your body is not a temple, it's an amusement park. Enjoy the ride.

I don't like to see animals in pain. That was very uncomfortable to me. I don't like factory farming. I'm not an advocate for the meat industry.

The journey is part of the experience - an expression of the seriousness of one's intent. One doesn't take the A train to Mecca.

Doing graphic novels is cool! It's fun! You get to write something, and then see it visually page by page, panel by panel, working with the artist, you get to see it fleshed out.

I'm never a reliable narrator, unbiased or objective.

Anyone who doesn't have a great time in San Francisco is pretty much dead to me.

Good food is very often, even most often, simple food.

Vegetarians, and their Hezbollah-like splinter faction, the vegans ... are the enemy of everything good and decent in the human spirit.

I'd learned something... Food had power. It could inspire, astonish, shock, excite, delight and impress. It had the power to please me... and others. This was valuable information.

To me, life without veal stock, pork fat, sausage, organ meat, demi-glace, or even stinky cheese is a life not worth living.

I believe - to the best of my recollection, anyway - that I soon made the classic error of moving from margaritas to actual shots of straight tequila. It does make it easier to meet new people.

Street food, I believe, is the salvation of the human race.

The way you make an omelet reveals your character.

Anyone who's a chef, who loves food, ultimately knows that all that matters is: Is it good? Does it give pleasure?

Margarine? That's not food. I Can't Believe It's Not Butter? I can. If you're planning on using margarine in anything, you can stop reading now, because I won't be able to help you.

In that sense, what a great way to live, if you could always do things that interest you, and do them with people who interest you.

What nicer thing can you do for somebody than make them breakfast?

That without experimentation, a willingness to ask questions and try new things, we shall surely become static, repetitive, moribund.

Avoid at all costs that vile spew you see rotting in oil in screwtop jars. Too lazy to peel fresh? You don't deserve to eat garlic.

You have to be a romantic to invest yourself, your money, and your time in cheese.

The bible of cooking. The all-time argument ender. Early in my cooking career, I wielded my Larousse like a weapon and it never let me down.

Skills can be taught. Character you either have or you don't have.

You have an impeccable argument if you said that Singapore, Hong Kong, and Tokyo are food capitals. They have a maximum amount of great stuff to eat in the smallest areas.

An ounce of sauce covers a multitude of sins.

Being a vegan is a first-world phenomenon, completely self-indulgent.

Thinking of getting into the leg-breaking business, so I can profitably sell crutches later.

Context and memory play powerful roles in all the truly great meals in one's life.

Good food and good eating are about risk.

If anything is good for pounding humility into you permanently, it's the restaurant business.

I'm excited by any food that's prepared by someone who's proud of what they're doing, who puts a personal imprint on food.

As you move through this life...you leave marks behind, however small. And in return, life - and travel - leaves marks on you.

No one understands and appreciates the American Dream of hard work leading to material rewards better than a non-American.

For me, the cooking life has been a long love affair, with moments both sublime and ridiculous.

Only Texans and Jews understand brisket

I don't have to agree with you to like you or respect you.

Recognise excellence. Celebrate weirdness and innovation. Oddballs should be cherished, if they can do something other people can't do.

I look at Guy Fieri and I just think, 'Jesus, I'm glad that's not me.'

We learn as professionals by repetition, by getting it wrong, getting yelled at and doing it again.

I'm not afraid to look like an idiot on TV.

Those places I don't understand, just doing bad food. It takes some doing. Making good pasta is so much easier than making bad stuff. It actually takes quite an effort to make poor linguine pomodora.

When you have a child you're no longer the star of the movie.

Without Montreal, Canada would be hopeless.

Luck is not a business model.

I think of [street food] as the antidote to fast food; it's the clear alternative to the king, the clown and the colonel.

One of life's terrible truths is that women like guys who seem to know what they're doing.

Don't lie about it. You made a mistake. Admit it and move on. Just don't do it again. Ever

There is no other place on earth even remotely like New Orleans. Don't even try to compare it to anywhere else.

Understand, when you eat meat, that something did die. You have an obligation to value it - not just the sirloin but also all those wonderful tough little bits.

There is no Final Resting Place of the Mind.