Chef, writer and television raconteur Anthony Bourdain, who died last week at 61, did not just open doors to unfamiliar cultures through the food he tasted but also revolutionised travel for his viewers. The insight from his peregrinations touched many lives, turning the uninitiated into food-and-travel obsessives. Here are some tips, culled from the itinerant’s interviews, books and television shows: Don’t keep an itinerary: Most of the episodes of No Reservations, Parts Unknown, and Bourdain’s first show, A Cook’s Tour, had the globetrotter strolling the streets. “Nothing unexpected or wonderful or magic is likely to happen if you have an itinerary in Paris. Anywhere you go, having that kind of a schedule, it’s punishing,” Bourdain was quoted as saying in an interview in Money magazine. While many travel documenters have adopted fly-on-the-wall as their modus operandi, not many choose their walls as astutely as Bourdain. He had simple rules. “If you see more than two people from your own country or home state in a restaurant, you are in the wrong place. After a half-century of experience with itinerant gabachos/round-eyes, the proprietor’s tourist restaurants have learned to make a deracinated, half-assed version of their own cuisine, because that’s what Mr Ugly Shorts and Sandals likes. Not you. You’re an adventurer. Find a place where locals go,” Bourdain wrote in No Reservations: Around the World on an Empty Stomach. Feel the place: Bourdain called out the perils of FOMO (the fear of missing out) before the adage slipped into common parlance, arguing for, instead the merits of wandering, discovering a land on foot. “I understand why you want to see Florence, Rome and Venice in one trip. I think that’s a terrible idea. I would much rather experience one of those. There’s no shortage of stuff to do and see. Maybe pick one diversion. But I think you are best served by exploring a finite area. The sort of frenzied compression of time to take the tour, to see the sites, keeps you in a bubble that prevents you from having magic happen to you. Don’t be afraid to just sit,” he said in the Money interview. Don’t seek familiarity: Bourdain’s travels through the predominantly non-English speaking part of the world had him walking up to hole-in-the-wall establishments and pointing to the food served on the adjacent table. But despite the reckless streak, he wasn’t one to send you into the bushes blindfolded. He proposed, in No Reservations, that one start where “all professionals do: with a decent guidebook”. “No matter where you go in the world… chances are someone from the Lonely Planet guide has been there before you.” But the clever-by-half glutton had developed a system to suss out the best places to eat at. “The best and most enjoyable way to exploit the Lonely Planet guide is by using its restaurant and eatery choices to provoke spirited responses on the internet.” Punch in the names of the popular restaurants recommended on travel and food websites on forums online and soon enough, a traveller will respond with the name and rough coordinates of a tiny, nondescript place where they had the most toothsome local delicacy. BE IMPULSIVE: “But no matter how well you plan and research, things will go wrong,” he wrote. “The place you end up will not be the way you imagined or hoped it would be. The restaurant you heard about will have moved, or changed hands, or burned down. Be prepared to move to Plan B. Even if there is no Plan B.” Bourdain did not only map new territory for his viewers but also slunk doses of wisdom into each episode, wrapped in his wry humour. “Be impulsive. Happy accidents, those perfect meals and experiences, happen only to those who are bold enough to let them happen.”
