FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM OCTOBER 28, 2021 • BUZZ • THE QUEENS COURIER 47
Jackson Heights author gives readers behindthe
scenes view into late celebrity chef’s life
BY TAMMY SCILEPPI
editorial@qns.com
@QNS
Th e news of global gastro
adventurer and celebrity chef
Anthony Bourdain’s unexpected
death in 2018 sent shockwaves
across the nation.
Bourdain was found in his
hotel room in France, where
he was fi lming an episode of
the award-winning CNN series
“Parts Unknown.” Fans worldwide
adored the uber-popular
TV host. He was remembered
by family members, friends and
colleagues as a remarkable and
talented person, and a doting
dad to his daughter Ariane.
Bourdain’s legacy has only
grown since his tragic death.
In the introduction to her
intriguing new book, “Bourdain:
Th e Defi nitive Oral Biography,”
Jackson Heights-based author
Laurie Woolever gives readers
a behind-the-scenes deep dive
into the complicated and amazing
life of an enigmatic man.
“Th rough my work as his assistant
and occasional co-author,
I thought I’d already gotten to
know Tony quite well,” Woolever
writes. “I knew where he was
nearly every minute of every
day, whom he was with, what he
was planning to do, and why. I
was steeped in his work, deeply
familiar with his voice and all
the beats of his highly public origin
story. However, in talking
with the people who knew him
in his youth, as a wayward college
student, fl edgling cook, dedicated
beach bum, thrill-seeking
drug addict, journeyman chef,
ambitious young writer, semireluctant
television star, steadfast
spouse and father, supportive
friend, and collaborator, I
came to realize that I’d really
known only a fraction of who
Tony was.”
Woolever said she wanted to
give the people who knew him
best “a chance to tell their stories
about Tony to someone they
trust, so that they, and the public,
could try to make sense of
his death, and the beautiful life
he led.”
In the words of friends, colleagues
and family members,
including his brother
Christopher Bourdain and his
late mother, readers will discover
the many sides of Bourdain —
from his childhood and teenage
days, to his early years in New
York and through the creation
of his game-changing memoir
“Kitchen Confi dential” in which
he wrote, “An ounce of sauce
covers a multitude of sins,” to his
rise as an author and TV personality.
“In the book, a number of chef
colleagues share their recollections
of Tony’s struggles with
heroin and cocaine in the 1980s,
which led him to be an unreliable
and at times, unemployable
cook,” Woolever said. “He was a
romantic, and at times could be
laid low by disappointments in
his love life and travels.”
Woolever worked as a cook
early on and had been writing
about food and travel for various
publications like the New York
Times and Food and Wine since
1999. When she met Bourdain
back in 2002, he quickly hired
her to help him with a cookbook
he’d been working on, aft er
“Kitchen Confi dential” unexpectedly
jumpstarted his success.
She ultimately co-authored
“Appetites: A Cookbook,” with
him, and later carried out his last
book project, “World Travel: An
Irreverent Guide,” which landed
the number one slot on Th e
New York Times bestseller list
this year.
It was a match made in culinary
heaven.
As his assistant for nearly a
decade, the Queens foodie had
accompanied the wandering
chef on one shoot per year, since
2014, when he was fi lming exciting
“Parts Unknown” episodes
in foreign lands. Highlights
from their exotic trips included
attending a bullfi ght in Okinawa,
Japan, exploring Kanazawa and
Tokyo, Japan, and spending
hours on motorbikes in Hue,
Vietnam – although they were
“just scratching the surface of
the food scenes in those cities,”
Woolever recalled during a 2017
interview with QNS.
Th e “Parts Unknown” episode
featuring the “World’s Borough”
aired in May 2017, as Bourdain,
a New York City native and
longtime Manhattanite, traveled
through Queens, sampling ethnic
fare at several local eateries
— no passport required.
On camera, he described
Queens as “a stewpot of neighborhoods
fi lled with the languages,
cultures, traditions and
fl avors of many lands,” and “an
international crossroads.” He
also acknowledged how hard the
immigrants, who make up the
backbone of the culinary scene,
have worked to make it in New
York City.
On the corner of Warren Street
and Roosevelt Avenue, Bourdain
discovered “Little Ecuador,” and
couldn’t resist the morcilla (blood
sausage) with potato cakes and
the succulent, crisp-skinned
roast pig (known as hornado
Ecuatoriano) served up fresh and
hot from a street food vendor.
His next stop was supper at
Yu Garden Dumpling House
in Flushing, where he chowed
down on cold beef tripe, lion’s
meatballs made with pork and
ginger, and ground pork soup
dumplings. Other featured
spots included Neir’s Tavern in
Woodhaven.
Th e fi nal lap of Bourdain’s gastro
journey brought the culinary
warrior to Aqueduct Racetrack
in South Ozone Park, where he
met up with Woolever.
“Th e Queens episode gave
viewers a taste of the rich culinary,
political and cultural landscape
of the borough,” Woolever
said. “Th ere are so many cuisines
represented in the restaurants,
grocery stores and vendors
throughout the borough,
with the vast majority at a very
reasonable price point. Th ere’s
enough fi ne dining, especially
in Long Island City and Astoria,
to satisfy that demand, and our
street food is the best in the city.”
Unparalleled in scope and
deeply intimate in its execution,
with a treasure trove of
photographs, many of which
have never before been seen,
“Bourdain: Th e Defi nitive Oral
Biography” is a testament to the
life of the remarkable man, in
the words of those who shared
his world.
“Tony was a complicated person.
He was both the person you
saw on TV and on the written
page — brash, funny, intellectual,
profane, sarcastic — and, also,
a much quieter, introspective
and shy person; at times, socially
awkward,” Woolever recalled.
Woolever said the confl ict he
felt about being an on-screen
personality made his persona
“compelling and believable.”
“He was quick to call himself
a competent chef, but not
a highly creative or skilled one.
He frequently pointed out that
he was nowhere near the level
of some of his famous chef
peers and friends, like Eric
Ripert, José Andrés and Daniel
Boulud. He was a writer at
heart, having been working at
the craft for much of his adult
life before publishing ‘Kitchen
Confi dential’ in 2000, a turning
point in his career,” Woolever
said. “He wrote very clean prose
that was packed with wit, literary
references, and the truth as
he saw it. And, he was a devoted
parent.”
Recounting a humorous
moment, Woolever added that
Bourdain was fascinated by, and
had a great respect for, medical
science.
“It’s not exactly funny, but it
struck me as funny at the time,
because it was so out of character.
Tony urged me, aft er getting
shingles, to make sure I got
a shingles vaccine. He famously
said that one’s body isn’t a temple,
it’s an amusement park, so
it struck me then that he would
give practical medical advice,”
Woolever said. “But on refl ection,
he was always up on his
vaccines, because he traveled so
much, and oft en had to get extra
shots for overseas travel.”
Woolever believes if Bourdain
were still alive, he’d still be entertaining.
“I think Tony would still be
making television, in some way,
perhaps, behind the camera
instead of in front of it. He’d
still be writing about his experiences,
adventures and opinions,”
she said. “He’d be spending
time with his family. And I
think he would be advocating,
as he always did, for cooks and
other restaurant workers, who
have been hit hard by the ongoing
pandemic.”
Read more on QNS.com.
buzz
Photo credits Ecco / David Scott Holloway
Author Laurie Woolever, a longtime Jackson Heights resident, spent nearly a decade assisting famed chef and author
Anthony Bourdain. Her recently published book “Bourdain: The Defi nitive Oral Biography,” is a testament to the complicated
life of a remarkable person, and provides readers with a behind-the-scenes view into his world from those who
knew him best.
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