Laurie Woolever, a former assistant to Anthony Bourdain, gathered a lot of voices—the list takes up seven pages—to create this “oral biography,” voiced by some of those who knew the chef and TV travel host, who took his own life in 2018. The most memorable voice is that of Bourdain’s brother, Christopher, whose affection and wry humor show in his recollections. A tone of bluntness is not surprising when chefs who worked with Bourdain talk about the drug and alcohol abuse that helped shape his “bad boy” image; he acknowledged his own past in KITCHEN CONFIDENTIAL. Listeners may be surprised as Bourdain’s story becomes darker through his TV years. People who worked with him express concern and regret about the spiral they saw during his relationship with director Asia Argento. J.A.S. 2022 Audies Finalist © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine
Bourdain: The Definitive Oral Biography
Narrated by Laurie Woolever, Christopher Bourdain, José Andrés, Nigella Lawson, W. Kamau Bell, Full Cast
Laurie WooleverUnabridged — 11 hours, 28 minutes
Bourdain: The Definitive Oral Biography
Narrated by Laurie Woolever, Christopher Bourdain, José Andrés, Nigella Lawson, W. Kamau Bell, Full Cast
Laurie WooleverUnabridged — 11 hours, 28 minutes
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Overview
An unprecedented behind-the-scenes view into the life of Anthony Bourdain from the people who knew him best.
When Anthony Bourdain died in June 2018, fans around the globe came together to celebrate the life of an inimitable man who had dedicated his life to traveling nearly everywhere (and eating nearly everything), shedding light on the lives and stories of others. His impact was outsized and his legacy has only grown since his death.
Now, for the first time, we have been granted a look into Bourdain's life through the stories and recollections of his closest friends and colleagues. Laurie Woolever, Bourdain's longtime assistant and confidante, interviewed nearly a hundred of the people who shared Tony's orbit-from members of his kitchen crews to his writing, publishing, and television partners, to his daughter and his closest friends-in order to piece together a remarkably full, vivid, and nuanced vision of Tony's life and work.
From his childhood and teenage days, to his early years in New York, through the genesis of his game-changing memoir Kitchen Confidential to his emergence as a writing and television personality, and in the words of friends and colleagues including Eric Ripert, José Andrés, Nigella Lawson, and W. Kamau Bell, as well as family members including his brother and his late mother, we see the many sides of Tony-his motivations, his ambivalence, his vulnerability, his blind spots, and his brilliance.
Unparalleled in scope and deeply intimate in its execution, with a treasure trove of photos from Tony's life, Bourdain: The Definitive Oral Biography is a testament to the life of a remarkable man in the words of the people who shared his world.
Featuring the voices of Adam Epstein ¿ Alex Getmanov ¿ Alex Lowry ¿ Alison Mosshart ¿ Amy Entelis ¿ Ben Selkow ¿ Beth Aretsky ¿ Bonnie McFarlane ¿ Chris Collins ¿ Christiane Amanpour ¿ Christopher Bourdain ¿ Daniel Halpern ¿ Dave McMillan ¿ David Choe ¿ David Rosenthal ¿ Diane Schutz ¿ Eileen Opatut ¿ Fred Morin ¿ Helen Cho ¿ Helen Lang ¿ Hilary Snyder ¿ James Graham ¿ Jared Andrukanis ¿ Jason Rezaian ¿ Jeff Allen ¿ Jeff Formosa ¿ Jeff Zucker ¿ Joe Coleman ¿ Joel Rose ¿ John Lurie ¿ José Andrés ¿ Josh Ferrell ¿ Karen Rinaldi ¿ Kimberly Witherspoon ¿ Laurie Barnett ¿ Laurie Woolever ¿ Lenny Mosse ¿ Lizzie Fox ¿ Lolis Elie ¿ Lydia Tenaglia ¿ Maria Bustillos ¿ Matt Goulding ¿ Matt Walsh ¿ Michael Ruhlman ¿ Michael Steed ¿ Mike Ruffino ¿ Morgan Fallon ¿ Mustafa Bhagat ¿ Nari Kye ¿ Natasha Phan ¿ Nathan Thornburgh ¿ Nick Brigden ¿ Nigella Lawson ¿ Panio Gianopoulos ¿ Pat Younge ¿ Patrick Radden Keefe ¿ Patti Jackson ¿ Peter Meehan ¿ Philip Lajaunie ¿ Rennik Soholt ¿ Rob Stone ¿ Robert Vuolo ¿ Robin Standefer ¿ Roy Choi ¿ Sally Freeman ¿ Sam Goldman ¿ Sam Sifton ¿ Sandy Zweig ¿ Shant Petrossian ¿ Steven Tempel ¿ Todd Liebler ¿ Tom Vitale ¿ W. Kamau Bell ¿ Web Stone ¿ Whitney Ward ¿ Yeganeh Rezaian ¿ Aspen Miller ¿ Barbara Rosenblatt ¿ Billie Fulford-Brown ¿ Cheryl Smith ¿ Dan Bittner ¿ Ewan Chung ¿ Gabra Zackman ¿ George Newbern ¿ Hillary Huber ¿ James Lurie ¿ Jason Culp ¿ Jean Brassard ¿ Joe Knezevich ¿ Oliver Wyman ¿ Rob Shapiro ¿ Roger Wayne
Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.
Editorial Reviews
08/02/2021
Celebrated chef and author Anthony Bourdain (1956–2018) cuts a charismatic yet enigmatic figure in this kaleidoscopic oral history. Woolever (Appetites), Bourdain’s longtime assistant and coauthor, interviewed 91 friends, relatives, chefs, editors, publishers, and producers to chart his rise from hard-living New York chef (Bourdain and co-workers, who did heroin together, would “turn their heads and throw up into garbage cans” while working on the line, a former colleague reports) to bestselling author with his restaurant tell-all, Kitchen Confidential, and host of the culinary travel shows No Reservations and Parts Unknown, and his death by suicide in 2018. Many of the recollections are retrospectively colored by Bourdain’s bleak end, and interviewees’ efforts to locate an inchoate darkness within him—“I saw in him this desire to be somehow swept away into the oblivion” says a former Parts Unknown cinematographer—yield little insight. The book does, however, succeed as a revealing account of the making of a celebrity, following Bourdain as he crafted a mediagenic persona—“he published Kitchen Confidential, and he never came off book tour,” observes an editor—that was brash, profane, articulate, empathetic, and seemingly wide open to new experiences and adoring fans, yet perpetually distanced. This fascinating mosaic doesn’t unearth Bourdain’s inner demons, but it does capture the inimitable legacy he left behind. Agent: Kim Witherspoon, InkWell Management. (Oct.)
[Woolever’s] book is the first to begin to reveal [Anthony Bourdain]: It’s the most splintered, fractal, and complex portrait of the star that has yet emerged, an enormous compendium of individual observations gathered from 91 people who knew him, including his mother, his brother, his ex-wives and his daughter, friends from school and college, ex-girlfriends, fellow chefs, writers, editors, and television colleagues.” — Maria Bustillos, Eater.com
“Woolever herself stays at arms length, to powerful effect, giving her cast of characters room to air their Bourdain grievances, both petty and life-altering, and unroots some rather profound conclusions—almost Parts-Unknown-narration-level profound—about the man.” — Esquire.com
“Laurie Woolever, a writer and editor who was Anthony Bourdain's longtime assistant, uses quotes to bring readers deeper into his world. . . . Through details shared by his friends and family, we learn more about Bourdain's kind heart, how much he wanted to be a writer, his habit of fidgeting when he was uncomfortable, and the dark world he inhabited, especially when traveling.” — Food & Wine
“Bourdain: The Definitive Oral Biography is a tribute to how [Anthony Bourdain] and his legacy live on.” — The Week
“A fascinating account…Bourdain's fans will find it impossible to put down.” — Booklist
"An unfiltered study of Bourdain's life, as seen by the people closest to him. . . . Woolever compiles the perspectives of Bourdain’s friends and family about the way [his] professional experiences impacted him, including during his tumultuous final year. . . . Any Anthony Bourdain fan, of which there are many, will enjoy this thoughtful tribute to an impactful cultural figure." — Library Journal
[Woolever’s] book is the first to begin to reveal [Anthony Bourdain]: It’s the most splintered, fractal, and complex portrait of the star that has yet emerged, an enormous compendium of individual observations gathered from 91 people who knew him, including his mother, his brother, his ex-wives and his daughter, friends from school and college, ex-girlfriends, fellow chefs, writers, editors, and television colleagues.
Woolever herself stays at arms length, to powerful effect, giving her cast of characters room to air their Bourdain grievances, both petty and life-altering, and unroots some rather profound conclusions—almost Parts-Unknown-narration-level profound—about the man.
A fascinating account…Bourdain's fans will find it impossible to put down.
Bourdain: The Definitive Oral Biography is a tribute to how [Anthony Bourdain] and his legacy live on.
Laurie Woolever, a writer and editor who was Anthony Bourdain's longtime assistant, uses quotes to bring readers deeper into his world. . . . Through details shared by his friends and family, we learn more about Bourdain's kind heart, how much he wanted to be a writer, his habit of fidgeting when he was uncomfortable, and the dark world he inhabited, especially when traveling.
A fascinating account…Bourdain's fans will find it impossible to put down.
09/01/2021
After decades of Anthony Bourdain candidly sharing his own story, his longtime assistant Woolever (co-author, World Travel: An Irreverent Guide) has written an unfiltered study of Bourdain's life, as seen by the people closest to him (among them his producer Zamir Gotta and CNN colleague Anderson Cooper). The narrative addresses Bourdain's life from childhood on: his kitchen career as a line cook and eventually executive chef; nominal writing success with early novels; breakthrough memoir Kitchen Confidential; and early awkwardness on camera, plus the cult success of No Reservations and widespread fame of Parts Unknown. Woolever compiles the perspectives of Bourdain's friends and family about the way these professional experiences impacted him, including during his tumultuous final year. Life was rarely rosy; Bourdain could be harsh, jaded, and disengaged when things didn't go his way. But those moments coexisted with Bourdain's global compassion and incredible personal selflessness (evinced by his championing Jason Rezaian's case and supporting writers via his book imprint). Woolever offers good insight about these aspects of Bourdain and his world. VERDICT Any Anthony Bourdain fan, of which there are many, will enjoy this thoughtful tribute to an impactful cultural figure.—Zebulin Evelhoch, Deschutes P.L., OR
Laurie Woolever, a former assistant to Anthony Bourdain, gathered a lot of voices—the list takes up seven pages—to create this “oral biography,” voiced by some of those who knew the chef and TV travel host, who took his own life in 2018. The most memorable voice is that of Bourdain’s brother, Christopher, whose affection and wry humor show in his recollections. A tone of bluntness is not surprising when chefs who worked with Bourdain talk about the drug and alcohol abuse that helped shape his “bad boy” image; he acknowledged his own past in KITCHEN CONFIDENTIAL. Listeners may be surprised as Bourdain’s story becomes darker through his TV years. People who worked with him express concern and regret about the spiral they saw during his relationship with director Asia Argento. J.A.S. 2022 Audies Finalist © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine
2021-08-13
A collage of remembrances creates a multifaceted portrait of the late author, chef, and TV host.
Journalist Woolever, who worked as an assistant and co-author for Anthony Bourdain (1956-2018), puts together recollections from nearly 100 people—including friends, family, co-workers, ex-wives, editors, chefs—to create a candid portrait of a complicated man. Growing up, Bourdain was smart and funny but difficult. “Firmly ensconced in the bad boy persona” (per a college friend), he consumed a cornucopia of drugs, including LSD, cocaine, and heroin. After two unsuccessful years at Vassar, he went to the Culinary Institute of America and worked in many restaurant kitchens before becoming executive chef at Les Halles in Manhattan. He aspired, though, to become a successful novelist; after studying in a creative writing program, he published two novels but felt frustrated that they didn’t catapult him to fame. He achieved instant notoriety, however, with Kitchen Confidential, his uncensored view of the underside of the restaurant scene, conveyed in a style that reflected what his editor called his characteristic “provocation and macho bravado.” Friends portray Bourdain as loyal, generous, charismatic, but always “slightly detached.” As his editor noted, “he had a way of talking to you where you still felt like you were part of an audience, but you were waiting for the other people to show up.” Others, too, noticed that Bourdain always seemed to be performing, “always playing with how he looked to other people; he was very conscious of it,” according to one of his NYC kitchen colleagues. Once he took to the road as a cultural journalist, hosting shows on the Food Network, Travel Channel, and CNN, he became a recognizable celebrity. Fame, though, exacerbated tensions that ended two marriages. “So much of his life was going to beautiful places and being all alone,” a producer observed. In the end, he was undermined by persistent demons and, as Woolever notes, self-destructive “bad choices.”
A chorus of candid voices creates an engaging biography.
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940176193787 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | HarperCollins Publishers |
| Publication date: | 09/28/2021 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
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