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Egyptian cuisine consists of the local culinary traditions of Egypt. Egyptian cuisine makes heavy use of legumes and vegetables, as Egypt's rich Nile Valley and Delta produce large quantities of high-quality crops.

History and characteristics[link]

Ful Medames, one of Egypt's national dishes, served with sliced eggs and vegetables.

Location of Egypt

Egyptian cuisine's history goes back to Ancient Egypt. Archaeological excavations have found that workers on the Great Pyramids of Giza were paid in bread, beer, and onions, apparently their customary diet as peasants in the Egyptian countryside. Dental analysis of occasional desiccated loaves found in tombs confirm this, in addition to indicating that ancient Egyptian bread was made with flour from emmer wheat. Though beer disappeared as a mainstay of Egyptian life following the Muslim conquest of Egypt in the year 641, onions remain the primary vegetable for flavoring and nutrition in Egyptian food. Beans were also a primary source of protein for the mass of the Egyptian populace, as they remain today.

Egyptian cuisine is notably conducive to vegetarian diets, as it relies heavily on vegetable dishes. Though food in Alexandria and the coast of Egypt tends to use a great deal of fish and other seafood, for the most part Egyptian cuisine is based on foods that grow out of the ground. Meat has been very expensive for most Egyptians throughout history, and a great deal of vegetarian dishes have developed to work around this economic reality.

Bread[link]

Bread forms the backbone of Egyptian cuisine. Bread is consumed at almost all Egyptian meals; a working-class or rural Egyptian meal might consist of little more than bread and beans. The local bread is a form of hearty, thick, glutenous pita bread called Eish Masri or Eish Balad (Egyptian Arabic: عيش [ʕeːʃ]; Modern Standard Arabic: ʿayš) rather than the Arabic خبز ḫubz. The word "[ʕeːʃ]" comes from the Semitic root ع-ي-ش ʕ-I-Š with the meaning "to live, be alive."^[1] The word ʿayš itself has the meaning of "life, way of living...; livelihood, subsistence" in Modern Standard and Classical Arabic; folklore holds that this synonymity indicates the centrality of bread to Egyptian life.^[1] In modern Egypt, the government subsidizes bread, dating back to a Nasser-era policy. In 2008, a major food crisis caused ever-longer bread lines at government-subsidized bakeries where there would normally be none; occasional fights broke out over bread, leading to fear of rioting.^[2] Egyptian dissidents and outside observers of the former National Democratic Party regime frequently criticized the bread subsidy as an attempt to buy off the Egyptian urban working classes in order to encourage acceptance of the authoritarian system; nevertheless, the subsidy has continued after the 2011 Revolution.

A street breakfast in Egypt

In a culinary level, bread is most commonly used as an edible utensil besides providing the carbohydrate and much of the protein in the Egyptian diet. Egyptians use bread to scoop up food, sauces, and dips and to wrap kebabs, falafel, and the like in the manner of sandwiches. Most pita breads are baked at high temperatures (450°F or 232°C), causing the flattened rounds of dough to puff up dramatically. When removed from the oven, the layers of baked dough remain separated inside the deflated pita, which allows the bread to be opened into pockets, creating a space for use in various dishes.

Aish Merahrah [ʕeːʃ meˈɾɑħrɑħ] is an Egyptian flat bread made with 5-10% ground fenugreek seeds and maize. It is part of the traditional diet of the Egyptian countryside, prepared locally in village homes. The loaves are flat and wide, and usually about 50 cm in diameter. The bread is made of maize flour that has been made into a soft dough that is fermented overnight with a sourdough starter, shaped into round loaves that are then allowed to rise or "proof" for 30 minutes before being flattened into round disks, which are then baked. They can be kept for days in an airtight container. The addition of fenugreek seeds increases the protein content, storage length and digestibility of the bread; on the other hand, it causes the eater to exude a distinctive odor in his or her sweat, which is occasionally mocked by more urban Egyptians.

Entrées[link]

Egyptian cuisine is characterized by dishes such as Ful Medames, Koshari, rice-stuffed pigeon, 'Molokheyya, and Fetir Meshaltet. Egyptian cuisine also shares similarities with food of the Eastern Mediterranean region, such as rice-stuffed vegetables, grape leaves, Shawerma, Kebab, Falafel (طعمية, [tˤɑʕˈmejːɑ]), Baba Ghannoug (بابا غنوج, [ˈbɑːbɑ ɣænˈnuːɡ]), and baklava (Egyptian Arabic: [bæʔˈlæːwæ]).

Some consider Koshari - a mixture of rice, lentils, and macaroni - to be the national dish. In addition, Ful Medames (mashed fava beans) is one of the most popular dishes. Fava bean is also used in making falafel (also known as "ta`meyya"), which originated in Egypt and spread to other parts of the Middle East.

Kushari served at an Egyptian restaurant in Cairo.

Fried falafel (ta`meyya)

A slice of Egyptian Macaroni Béchamel

Ancient Egyptians are known to have used a lot of garlic and onion in their everyday dishes. Fresh mashed garlic with other herbs is used in spicy tomato salad and is also stuffed in boiled or baked aubergines (eggplant). Garlic fried with coriander is added to Mulukhiyya (IPA: [moloˈxejːæ]), a popular green soup made from finely chopped jute leaves, sometimes with chicken or rabbit. Fried onions can be also added to Koshari.

Desserts[link]

Basbousa topped with walnut

Egyptian desserts are not so different from other Eastern Mediterranean desserts. Basbousa (IPA: [bæsˈbuːsæ]), sometimes called Harissa (in Morocco and Alexandria), is a spicy dish made from semolina and is soaked in a sugar syrup. It is usually topped with almonds and traditionally cut vertically into pieces so that each piece resembles a diamond shape. Baklava (Egyptian Arabic: [bæʔˈlæːwæ]) is a sweet dish made from many layers of phyllo pastry, an assortment of nuts, and soaked in a sweet syrup. Eish el-Saraya^[4] Fatir are pancakes (filo dough) stuffed with everything from eggs to apricots or fruit of choice. Polvorón (Egyptian Arabic: غوريبة, IPA: [ɣoɾɑjˈjedbæ]) is a common dish in all of North Africa. It is a sweet dish similar to kahk (كحك, [kæħk]) but much thinner. It is like shortbread and is usually topped with roasted almonds.

Kahk is a traditional sweet dish served most commonly during Breakfast Feast (عيد الفطر, [ʕiːd el ˈfetˤɾ]) in Egypt. It is a shortbread biscuit covered with icing sugar, which may be stuffed with dates, walnuts, or agameya (عجمية, [ʕæɡæˈmejːæ]) (like Turkish-delight) or just served plain. Kunāfah (IPA: [koˈnæːfæ]) is a dish of batter "fingers" fried on a hot grill and stuffed with nuts (usually pistachios), meats, heavy whipped cream or sweets. Luqmat al-Qadi (IPA: [ˈloʔmet el ˈʔɑːdi]) literally translates to "The Judge's Bite". They are small, round donuts which are crunchy on the outside and soft and syrupy on the inside. They may be served with dusted cinnamon and powdered sugar. Qatayef (IPA: [ʔɑˈtˤɑːjef]) is a dessert reserved for the Muslim holiday of Ramadan, a sort of sweet crêpe filled with cheese or nuts. Roz be laban (IPA: [ˈɾozz‿eb ˈlæbæn], “rice pudding”) is made with short grain white rice, full-cream milk, sugar, and vanilla. It may be served dusted with cinnamon. Umm Ali (ام على, [omme ˈʕæli]), a national dish of Egypt, is a raisin cake soaked in milk and served hot.

Other desserts include:

Konafa, an Egyptian dessert made of thin pastry strands, nuts, and syrup.

Cakes[link]

Traditional apple cakes are seasoned with various spices such as nutmeg or cinnamon, which provide additional flavour. Upon the addition of spices the batter can also be accompanied by crushed nuts, the most popular being walnuts and almonds. Sponge cake is a cake based on flour (usually wheat flour), sugar, and eggs, sometimes leavened with baking powder, that derives its structure from an egg foam into which the other ingredients are folded Vanilla slice (ميل فى, [mel feːj, mil-, -foːj] or [mil fœj], from French: Mille-feuille) is a pastry made of several layers of puff pastry alternating with a sweet filling, typically pastry cream, but sometimes whipped cream, or jam. It is usually glazed with icing or fondant in alternating white and brown (chocolate) strips, and combed.

Religious varieties[link]

Although Ramadan is a month of fasting for Muslims in Egypt, it is usually when Egyptians pay a lot of attention to food in variety and richness, since breaking the fast is a family affair, often with entire extended families meeting at the table just after sunset. There are several special desserts almost exclusive to Ramadan such as Kunāfah and Qatayef (كنافة و قطايف, [koˈnæːfæ w(e).ʔɑˈtˤɑːjef]). In this month, many Egyptians will make a special table for the poor or passers-by, usually in a tent in the street, called Ma'edet Rahman (Arabic: مائدة رحمن‎, Egyptian Arabic: [mæˈʔedet ɾɑˈħmɑːn]) which translates literally as Table of (God) the Gracious (Merciful). These may be fairly simple or quite lavish, depending on the wealth and ostentation of the provider (dancer and actress Fifi Abdou's Ma'edah is famous for its unusual richness to the point where jokes about it are common).

Observant Copts (Egypt's Oriental Orthodox Christian population) observe fasting periods according to the Coptic Calendar that practically extend to more than two-thirds of the year. The Coptic diet for fasting is essentially vegan. During this fasting, Copts will usually eat vegetables and legumes fried in oil as they avoid meat, chicken, and dairy products including butter.

Beverages[link]

Tea (شاى, [ʃæːj]) is the national drink in Egypt, followed only distantly by Egyptian or Turkish coffee. Egyptian tea is uniformly black and sweet, usually not served with milk, and generally in a glass. Tea packed and sold in Egypt is almost exclusively imported from Kenya and Sri Lanka. The Egyptian government considers tea a strategic crop^{[citation needed]} and runs large tea plantations in Kenya. Egyptian tea comes in two varieties, Koshary and Saiidi.

Koshary tea (شاى كشرى, [ʃæːj ˈkoʃæɾi]), popular in Lower (Northern) Egypt, is prepared using the traditional method of steeping black tea in boiled water and letting it sit for a few minutes. It is almost always sweetened with cane sugar and is often flavored with fresh mint leaves. Adding milk is also common. Koshary tea is usually light, with less than a half teaspoonful of tea per cup considered to be near the high end.

Saiidi tea (شاى صعيدى, [ʃæːj seˈʕiːdi]) is common in Upper (Southern) Egypt. It is prepared by boiling black tea with water for as long as 5 minutes over a strong flame. Saiidi tea is extremely heavy, with 2 teaspoonfuls of tea per cup being the norm. It is sweetened with copious amounts of cane sugar (a necessity since the formula and method yield a very bitter tea). Saiidi tea is often black even in liquid form.

Tea is a vital part of daily life and folk etiquette in Egypt. Tea typically accompanies breakfast in most households, and drinking tea after lunch is a common practice. Visiting another person's household, regardless of socioeconomic level or the purpose of the visit, entails a compulsory cup of tea; similar hospitality might be required for a business visit to the private office of someone wealthy enough to maintain one, depending on the nature of the business. A common nickname for tea in Egypt is "duty" (pronounced in Arabic as "wa-jeb" or "wa-geb"), as serving tea to a visitor is considered a duty, while anything beyond is a nicety.

Green tea is a recent arrival to Egypt (only in the late 1990s did green tea become affordable) and is highly unpopular. This contrasts with certain parts of the Maghreb and Sahara, where gunpowder tea has traditionally been used to make Touareg tea and the tea for the Moroccan tea ceremony.

Besides true tea, tisanes (herbal teas) are also often served at the Egyptian teahouses. Karkadeh (English: /ˈkɑrkədeɪ/; Egyptian Arabic: [kæɾkæˈdeː], كركديه‎), a tea of dried hibiscus sepals is particularly popular, as it is in other parts of North Africa. It is generally served extremely sweet and cold but may also be served hot. This drink is said to have been a preferred drink of the pharaohs. In Egypt and Sudan, wedding celebrations are traditionally toasted with a glass of hibiscus tea. On a typical street in downtown Cairo, one can find many vendors and open-air cafés selling the drink. In Egypt, karkadeh is used as a means to lower blood pressure when consumed in high amounts. Tisanes of mint, cinnamon, dried ginger, and anise are also commonly found, as is sahlab. Most of these tisanes are considered to have medicinal properties, as well; particularly common is a tisane of hot lemonade in which mint leaves have been steeped and sweetened with honey, used to combat mild sore throat.

Coffee (قهوة, Egyptian Arabic: [ˈʔæhwæ], Saidi Arabic: gahwah) is considered a part of the traditional welcome in Egypt. It is usually prepared in a small coffee pot, which is called dalla (دلة) or kanakah [ˈkænækæ] (كنكه) in Egypt. It is served in a small cup made for coffee called (فنجان, Egyptian Arabic: [fenˈɡæːn]; Sa'idi: fenjān).

In Egypt, sugar cane juice is called "aseer asab" and is an incredibly popular drink served by almost all fruit juice vendors, who can be found abundantly in most cities.

Licorice teas and carob juice drinks are traditionally drunk during the Islamic month of Ramadan, as is qamar ad-din, a thick drink made by reconstituting sheets of dried apricot with water. The sheets themselves are often consumed as candy.

A sour, chilled drink made from tamarind is popular during the summer.^[which?]

See also[link]

Food portal

• African cuisine
• Middle Eastern cuisine

References[link]

Bibliography[link]

• Balkwill, Richard. (1994). Food & feasts in ancient Egypt. New York: New Discovery Katie Syndrome.

External links[link]

• Ancient Egyptian Food
• Eating the Egyptian way
• Egyptian Food and Cookery
• Egyptian food from cooks.com
• Cairo live recepten site

my name

Anthony Bourdain

Bourdain in June 2006
Born	Anthony Michael Bourdain (1956-06-25) June 25, 1956 (age 56) New York City
Cooking style	French
Education	Vassar College Culinary Institute of America
Spouse	Nancy Putkoski (1980s–2000s) Ottavia Busia (April 20, 2007–present)
Television show(s) A Cook's Tour Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations The Layover

Anthony Michael "Tony" Bourdain (born June 25, 1956) is an American chef, author and television personality. He is well known for his 2000 book Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly, and is the host of Travel Channel's culinary and cultural adventure programs Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations and The Layover.

A 1978 graduate of the Culinary Institute of America and a veteran of numerous professional kitchens,^[1] Bourdain is currently a chef-at-large, whose home base is Brasserie Les Halles, New York^[2] where he was executive chef for many years.

Early life and family[link]

Anthony Bourdain was born in New York City to Pierre (d.1987)^[3] and Gladys Bourdain, and grew up in Leonia, New Jersey.^[4] Bourdain has French ancestry on his father's side; his paternal grandfather emigrated from France to New York following World War I.^[5] Bourdain's mother worked for the New York Times as a staff editor^[6]. Bourdain was a student at Englewood School for Boys, graduating in 1973.^[7] He attended Vassar College before dropping out after two years, and graduated from the Culinary Institute of America in 1978.

Bourdain married his high-school girlfriend, Nancy Putkoski, in the 1980s, remaining together for two decades before divorcing; Bourdain has cited the irrevocable changes that come from traveling widely as the cause of the split.^[8] He currently lives with his second wife, Ottavia Busia. Together, they have a daughter, Ariane, born on April 9, 2007; the couple wed on April 20, 2007.^[9] Busia has appeared in several episodes of No Reservations – notably the episode on Sardinia, her birthplace; the Tuscany episode, in which she plays a disgruntled Italian diner; the Rome episode, and the Naples episode.

Culinary training and career[link]

In Kitchen Confidential, Bourdain describes how his love of food was kindled in France when he tried his first oyster on an oyster fisherman's boat as a youth while on a family vacation. Later, while attending Vassar College, he worked in the seafood restaurants of Provincetown, Massachusetts, which sparked his decision to pursue cooking as a career. Bourdain graduated from the Culinary Institute of America in 1978, and went on to run various restaurant kitchens in New York City – including the Supper Club, One Fifth Avenue, and Sullivan's – culminating in the position of executive chef at Brasserie Les Halles beginning in 1998. Brasserie Les Halles is based in Manhattan, with additional locations in Miami and, at the time of Bourdain's tenure, Washington, D.C. and Tokyo, Japan.

Media career[link]

Writing[link]

Bourdain gained immediate popularity from his 2000 New York Times bestselling book Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly, an outgrowth of his now famous article in The New Yorker called "Don't Eat Before Reading This".^[10] The book is a witty and rambunctious exposé of the hidden and darker side of the culinary world, and is a memoir of Bourdain's professional life as well.

Bourdain subsequently wrote two more New York Times bestselling nonfiction books: A Cook's Tour (2001), an exotic account of his food and travel exploits across the world, written in conjunction with his first television series; and The Nasty Bits (2006), another collection of exotic, provocative, and humorous anecdotes and essays mainly centered on food. Bourdain's additional books include Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles Cookbook; the culinary mysteries Bone in the Throat and Gone Bamboo; a hypothetical historical investigation, Typhoid Mary: An Urban Historical; and No Reservations: Around the World on an Empty Stomach. His latest book, Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook, the sequel to Kitchen Confidential, was published in 2010.

Bourdain's articles and essays have appeared many places, including in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Observer, Gourmet, Maxim, Esquire (UK), Scotland on Sunday, The Face, Food Arts, Limb by Limb, BlackBook, The Independent, Best Life, the Financial Times, and Town & Country. On the Internet, Bourdain's blog for Season 3 of Top Chef^[11] was nominated for a Webby Award for best Blog – Cultural/Personal in 2008.^[12]

Television[link]

The acclaim surrounding Bourdain's racy memoir, Kitchen Confidential, led to an offer by the Food Network to host his own food and world-travel show, A Cook's Tour, which premiered in January 2002. In July 2005, he premiered a new, somewhat similar television series, Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations, on the Travel Channel. As a further result of the immense popularity of Kitchen Confidential, the Fox sitcom Kitchen Confidential aired in 2005, in which the character "Jack Bourdain" is based loosely on the biography and persona of Anthony Bourdain.

In July 2006, Bourdain was in Beirut filming an episode of No Reservations when the Israel-Lebanon conflict broke out. Bourdain and his crew were evacuated with other American citizens on the morning of July 20 by the United States Marines.^[13] Because of the unexpected conflict only a few hours of footage were available from the first restaurant on their agenda. Bourdain's producers compiled the Beirut footage into a No Reservations episode which aired on August 21, 2006. Uncharacteristically, the episode included footage of both Bourdain and his production staff, and included not only their initial attempts to film the episode, but also their firsthand encounters with Hezbollah supporters, their days of waiting for news with other expatriates in a Beirut hotel, and their eventual escape aided by a "cleaner" (unseen in the footage), whom Bourdain dubbed "Mr. Wolf" after the character portrayed by Harvey Keitel in the movie, Pulp Fiction. The episode was nominated for an Emmy Award in 2007.^[14]

Bourdain has appeared five times as guest judge on Bravo's Top Chef reality cooking competition program: first in the November 2006 "Thanksgiving" episode of Season 2; and then again in June 2007 in the first episode of Season 3, judging the "exotic surf and turf" competition featuring ingredients including abalone, alligator, black chicken, geoduck and eel. His third appearance was also in Season 3, as an expert on air travel, judging the competitors' airplane meals. Bourdain also wrote weekly blog commentaries for many of the Season 3 episodes, filling in as a guest blogger while Top Chef judge Tom Colicchio was busy opening a new restaurant. Bourdain next appeared as a guest judge for the opening episode of Season 4, in which pairs of chefs competed head-to-head in the preparation of various classic dishes; and again in the Season 4 Restaurant Wars episode, temporarily taking the place of head judge Tom Colicchio, was at a charity event. He is also one of the main judges on the Top Chef All-Stars Season 8.

Bourdain appeared in an episode of TLC's reality show Miami Ink which aired August 28, 2006. Artist Chris Garver tattooed a skull on Bourdain's right shoulder. Bourdain, who noted it was his fourth tattoo, said that one reason for the skull was that he wished to balance the ouroboros tattoo he had done on his opposite shoulder in Malaysia while filming Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations.

Bourdain made a guest appearance on the August 6, 2007 New York City episode of Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern; Zimmern appeared as a guest on the New York City episode of Bourdain's No Reservations airing the same day. On October 20, 2008 Bourdain hosted a special, "At the Table with Anthony Bourdain," on the Travel Channel. Bourdain also has a brief cameo appearance in the 2008 movie Far Cry.^[15]

In 2010, Bourdain appeared on Nick, Jr.'s Yo Gabba Gabba! as Dr. Tony. He is currently consulting and writing for the HBO series, Treme.^[16][17]

Travel Channel announced in July 2011 that it would be adding a second one-hour ten-episode Bourdain show to be titled The Layover, premiering November 21, 2011.^[18] The show's concept is that each episode features an exploration of a city that can be undertaken within an air travel layover of 24 to 48 hours.

Also in 2011, Bourdain voiced himself in a cameo on an episode of The Simpsons entitled "The Food Wife" in which Marge, Lisa, and Bart start a food blog called "The Three Mouthkateers" and Homer winds up in a meth lab.^[19]

In May 2012, Bourdain announced that he would be leaving the Travel Channel to host a show for CNN focusing on other cuisines and cultures.^[20]

Publishing[link]

Ecco Press, a division of HarperCollins, announced in September 2011 that Bourdain would have his own publishing line, which would include acquiring three to five titles per year that "reflect his remarkably eclectic tastes".^[21] The first books that the imprint will publish, to be released in 2013, will include Spaghetti Junction: Riding Shotgun with an L.A. Chef by Roy Choi, Prophets of Smoked Meat by Daniel Vaughn, and Fight Shark by Mark Miller.^[22] Bourdain has also announced plans to publish a book by Marilyn Hagerty.^[23]

In describing the line, Bourdain said, "This will be a line of books for people with strong voices who are good at something – who speak with authority. Discern nothing from this initial list – other than a general affection for people who cook food and like food. The ability to kick people in the head is just as compelling to us – as long as that's coupled with an ability to vividly describe the experience. We are just as intent on crossing genres as we are enthusiastic about our first three authors. It only gets weirder from here."^[24]

Public persona[link]

Bourdain in Chicago in 2007

Because of Bourdain's liberal use of profanity and sexual references in his television show No Reservations, the network has placed viewer discretion advisories on each segment of each episode. In recent seasons, the advisories include animation that is related in some way to the episode.

Known for consuming exotic ethnic dishes, Bourdain is famous for eating sheep testicles in Morocco, ant eggs in Puebla, Mexico, a raw seal eyeball as part of a traditional Inuit seal hunt, and a whole cobra – beating heart, blood, bile, and meat – in Vietnam. According to Bourdain, the most disgusting thing he has ever eaten is a Chicken McNugget,^[25] though he has also declared that the unwashed warthog rectum he ate in Namibia^[26] and the fermented shark he ate in Iceland^[27] are among "the worst meals of [his] life."

He has been known for being an unrepentant drinker and smoker. In a nod to Bourdain's (at the time) two-pack-a-day cigarette habit, renowned chef Thomas Keller once served him a 20-course tasting menu which included a mid-meal "coffee and cigarette": a coffee custard infused with tobacco, together with a foie gras mousse.^[28] Bourdain stopped cigarette smoking in the summer of 2007 because of the birth of his daughter.^[29] He is also a former user of cocaine, heroin, and LSD. In Kitchen Confidential he writes of his experience in a trendy SoHo restaurant in 1981: "We were high all the time, sneaking off to the walk-in refrigerator at every opportunity to 'conceptualize.' Hardly a decision was made without drugs. Cannabis, methaqualone, cocaine, LSD, psilocybin mushrooms soaked in honey and used to sweeten tea, secobarbital, tuinal, amphetamine, codeine and, increasingly, heroin, which we'd send a Spanish-speaking busboy over to Alphabet City to get."^[30] In the same book, Bourdain frankly describes his former addiction, including how he once resorted to selling his record collection on the street in order to raise enough money to purchase drugs.

Bourdain is also noted for his put-downs of celebrity chefs, such as Paula Deen, Bobby Flay, Sandra Lee, and Rachael Ray, and appears to be irritated by both the overt commercialism of the celebrity cooking industry and its lack of culinary authenticity. He has voiced a "serious disdain for food demigods like Alan Richman, Alice Waters, and Alain Ducasse."^[31] Bourdain has recognized the irony of his transformation into a celebrity chef and has, to some extent, begun to qualify his insults. He has been consistently outspoken in his praise for chefs he admires, particularly Thomas Keller, Gordon Ramsay, Eric Ripert, Ferran Adrià, Fergus Henderson, Marco Pierre White, and Mario Batali.^[32] Bourdain has also spoken very highly of Julia Child, saying that she "influenced the way I grew up and my entire value system."^[33]

Bourdain is also known for his sarcastic comments about vegan and vegetarian activists, saying that their lifestyle is rude to the inhabitants of many countries he visits. Bourdain says he considers vegetarianism, except in the case of religious strictures as in India, a "First World luxury."^[34] He has clarified that he believes Americans eat too much meat, and admires vegetarians who allow themselves to put aside their vegetarianism when they travel in order to be respectful of their hosts.^[35]

Bourdain's taste in music is also a matter of public record. His book, The Nasty Bits, is dedicated to "Joey, Johnny, and Dee Dee" of the Ramones. Bourdain has declared fond appreciation for their music, as well that of other early punk bands such as The Stooges, Dead Boys, Television, The New York Dolls, and The Voidoids. Additionally, Bourdain writes in Kitchen Confidential that the playing of music by Billy Joel in his kitchen was grounds for immediate firing (coincidentally, Joel is a fan of his and has subsequently visited the restaurant^[36]). In the 2006 No Reservations episode in Sweden, Bourdain proclaimed that his all-time favorite album (his "desert island disc") is the groundbreaking punk record Fun House by The Stooges; he also made it clear that he despises the Swedish pop group ABBA. On his 2007 No Reservations Holiday Special episode, the rock band Queens of the Stone Age were the featured dinner guests, adding food-inspired holiday songs to the episode's soundtrack.

Interests and advocacy[link]

Bourdain is an advocate for communicating the value and tastiness of traditional or "peasant" foods, including specifically all of the varietal bits and unused animal parts not usually eaten by affluent 21st-century US citizens.^[37] Bourdain has also consistently noted and championed the high quality and deliciousness of freshly prepared street food in other countries – especially developing countries – as compared to fast food chains in the U.S.^[38]

Bourdain often acknowledges and champions the industrious Spanish-speaking immigrants – often from Mexico or Ecuador – who make up a majority of the chefs and cooks in many U.S. restaurants, including upscale restaurants, regardless of cuisine.^[39][40] Bourdain considers them to be talented chefs and invaluable cooks, underpaid and unrecognized even though they have become the backbone of the U.S. restaurant industry.^[41][42]

Awards and nominations[link]

Bourdain was named Food Writer of the Year in 2001 by Bon Appétit magazine for Kitchen Confidential.^[43]

A Cook's Tour was named Food Book of the Year in 2002 by the British Guild of Food Writers.^[44]

The Beirut episode of Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations, which documented the experiences of Bourdain and his crew during the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict, was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Informational Programming in 2007.^[14]

Bourdain's blog for the reality competition show Top Chef^[11] was nominated for a Webby Award for best Blog – Culture / Personal in 2008.^[12]

In 2008, Bourdain was inducted into the James Beard Foundation’s Who’s Who of Food and Beverage in America.

In 2009 and 2011, Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations won a Creative Arts Emmy Award for Outstanding Cinematography for Nonfiction Programming.

In 2010, Anthony Bourdain was nominated for a Creative Arts Emmy for non-fiction writing.

In 2010, Anthony Bourdain was awarded an Honorary CLIO Awards, which is given to individuals who are changing the world by encouraging people to think differently.

Bibliography[link]

Nonfiction

• Bourdain, Anthony (2000). Kitchen Confidential. New York: Bloomsbury. ISBN 1-58234-082-X. 
• Bourdain, Anthony (2001). A Cook's Tour. New York: Bloomsbury. ISBN 1-58234-140-0. 
• Bourdain, Anthony (2001). Typhoid Mary: An Urban Historical. New York: Bloomsbury. ISBN [[Special:BookSources/1-58234-133-9|1-58234-133-9]]. 
• Bourdain, Anthony (2004). Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles Cookbook. Bloomsbury. ISBN 978-1-58234-180-4. 
• Bourdain, Anthony (2006). The Nasty Bits. New York: Bloomsbury. ISBN 978-1-59691-360-8. 
• Bourdain, Anthony (2007). No Reservations. New York: Bloomsbury. ISBN 978-1-59691-447-6. 
• Bourdain, Anthony (2010). Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook. Ecco/HarperCollins. ISBN 0-06-171894-7.

Fiction

• Bourdain, Anthony (1995). Bone in the Throat. New York: Villard Books. ISBN 0-679-43552-2. 
• Bourdain, Anthony (1997). Gone Bamboo. New York: Villard Books. ISBN 0-679-44880-2. 
• Bourdain, Anthony (2001). Bobby Gold. Edinburgh: Canongate Crime. ISBN 1-84195-145-5. 

References[link]