Freakishly tall silver-haired raconteur Anthony Bourdain flew into San Sebastián to provoke a room full of Spanish foodies. It was like a bullfight except with words instead of capes; a well-mannered attentive audience instead of a wounded bull. Nevertheless, Bourdain played picador. His lecture was entitled, "Intelligent Incitement" and was meant to light a fuego under the ass of the attendees. Now whether he did or not was unclear. Bourdain mostly riffed and rambled, which is SOP for his speaking engagements. The audience greeted him warmly if not a bit befuddledly. A few left, most chuckled, some grumbled and then we all had a siesta.
I'm not sure Bourdain's shtick is the same when translated into Spanish by a very sexy sounding lady translator. But, here are his most salient incitements which fall somewhere between Jack Handy's Deep Thoughts and Brillat-Savarin's La Physiologie du Goût.
· If cooking is about control. eating is about submission.
· Who and why is as important as the how in cooking?
· Perhaps there should be term limits in food writing.
· What makes Japanese pornography so disturbing is what makes their cuisine so amazing. Its an attention to detail.
· If you look in the heart of any great chef, there's a Chinese man inside.
· I've become a freak, a culinary pervert.
· The first person to eat escargot bourguignon wasn't a gourmet. It was one hungry son-of-a-bitch.
· All Gastronomika Coverage on Eater [-E-]
· All Anthony Bourdain Coverage on Eater [-E-]