What is it about Anthony Bourdain?

I’ve been pretty damn obsessed with Anthony Bourdain for damn near a decade….and I’m not the only one either. Millions tuned into each episode of every one of his shows. Millions have rewatched each episode too, as I have.

I’ve sought to write like him, eat like him, travel like him and occasionally even walk like him — the crooked and goofy gape we’ve all come to love.

And I keep asking myself why? What is it about him that I (any many others) like so much? It’s borderline embarrassing now….but not too embarrassing to not write this article.

You see, it goes beyond some sort of celebrity worship. Sure, we’d all like to have the success he’s had doing what he’s done (what a fucking dream job), but the only reason he’s had all of that is because of who he is.

Anthony, at his very core, was a curious human being.

Food, culture, the human condition…you name it. He was always searching for a different perspective — a deeper understanding of who someone is and how they came to be. Food was always just the hook. He’d get us salivating just in time to serve us up the main course: thoughts on the current War in Iran, a political crisis in North Korea, etc. Notice how the conversations never stayed on the food. It was never really about the food.

I told my dad the other day that if I want to be one thing throughout my life, it’s curious. Curiosity has so many positive side effects. We’re better listeners when we’re curious. We’re better lovers. We’re gifted new perspectives and new friends. I’d like to stay curious. I never want to feel like I have it all figured out because I never will. There’s always someone I can learn from. Some perspective I hadn’t though of.

It’s only when we’re so sure of ourselves that we stop being so curious.

When we’re children, we are ONLY curious. We’re curious about how our foot tastes, about how the sun sets everyday, about how our heart beats with such impeccable timing. It’s only when we find the answers to a lot of things in adulthood that we stop asking so many questions. We abandon our curiosity — happily trading it in for what we believe is certainty.

Anthony may have been certain that meat was good and Vegetarians were what was wrong with the world, but he was still curious enough to sit down with one and ask them about their experience.

If I have anything to thank Anthony for, it’s for igniting my own curiosity. Without that push, I might have suppressed it a little longer…and what a shame that would have been.

Thanks for listening. Stay curious.