Completing Tony’s portrait

Laurie Woolever’s new book is an intimate glimpse into the man, as told by the people he held dear

There’s something about Anthony Bourdain that we just can’t get enough of.

This year, the late chef and author (among other things), featured in Roadrunner , a documentary by Morgan Neville celebrating his life, as well as World Travel: An Irreverent Guide , a book co-authored by his colleague and collaborator Laurie Woolever. Most recently, Woolever is out with another book, this time as author, Bourdain in Stories (Bloomsbury Publishing). With it, she completes her portrait of the man she worked alongside for about 10 years.

Woolever first met Bourdain or ‘Tony’ in 2002, when he hired her to help with a cookbook ( Anthony Bourdain’s Les Halles Cookbook ) he’d just begun writing, in the wake of the success of Kitchen Confidential . In 2007, she worked with him again and a few years later, became his assistant. ‘I started working for him then, and in some ways, I haven’t yet stopped,’ she writes in the introduction.

Her work, after his untimely death in 2018, took on new form. “The idea [for this book] came up in a conversation between myself, editor Daniel Halpern, and my agent, in the immediate aftermath of Bourdain’s death. We were deciding what to do with his unfinished projects and how to move forward. They suggested this idea as a way to address his legacy in an efficient manner,” she says.

Laurie Woolever

Tales from the 91

The book took close to three years and involved reaching out to the people in his life — about 100 (91 made it to the book) — and interviewing them. She had existing relationships with a number of them, so she curated a core list and started reaching out. The interviews took her from Los Angeles to New York (pre-Covid-19) and ranged from 30 minutes to hours. “It depended on the subject and how well I knew them, and how effusive they were. Because people had such extraordinary memories, it became free ranging conversations… a way to remember him and tell his stories,” she adds. The final list includes his family (wife, mother, brother, daughter), television hosts, chefs, journalists, musicians, directors, producers, and others from the many shows he was part of.

For Woolever, it was important that this not be a “glowing portrait”, but a chance to share a more nuanced portrait of a man who had his flaws and wasn’t shy about them. “He was a complex person, honest about his flaws and bad decisions and the things he didn’t know. It was important to include all those things.” The stories thus tell us how he knew where the “shittiest bars were”, didn’t like being around writers, chose to “stay in some of the dumpiest hotels, so he could experience it as close to the ground as possible, and write about it later”, and how he hurt a lot of people in his last years. And, of course, his struggle with heroin addiction.

Bourdain at his drawing desk (1972) — he harboured the dream of becoming a professional cartoonist

Power of two

Bourdainin Stories follows a conversational style, with each person sharing anecdotes, thoughts, and memories of the man. The chapters begin with his early life, covering Bourdain’s childhood, and then moving on to his career and key aspects of his life. It’s fascinating to learn that he was a gifted illustrator, or one of the foremost scholars in the United States on the Kennedy assassination, or that he was a tiny kid who would be jammed up in the luggage racks of long-distance buses.

Stories are for listening

• There’s also an audiobook version, ‘ Bourdain: The Definitive Oral Biography’ (Harper Audio), featuring the voices of people Woolever interviewed. She recorded her interviews, then used the transcripts to create the manuscript, which was then read and recorded by the subjects. “I think that the audiobook contributes to the collective portrait of Tony in the way that the individual voices keep the story lively and engaging. He was a gifted storyteller long before he became famous as a writer and television host, and this oral format serves to reflect that legacy of storytelling, in the voices of his family, friends and colleagues,” she says.

Woolever enjoyed doing this oral biography format because it makes for engaging reading and listening. “I enjoyed doing the interviews and letting the subjects have their words largely unadulterated in the final text.”

Woolever’s voice is missing from this oral biography. “Just by virtue of conducting the interview, sort out the subjects and writing the questions, I am making decisions on what to include in the narrative. That is the expression of mine that’s in the book,” she adds.

With this book, her second this year, Woolever is now ‘done’. “I may write about my experience and the impact he had on me personally, but in terms of contextualising the man himself, I have said most of what I have to say,” she says.

Bourdain in Paris — summer 1973

The cult of Bourdain

Bourdain, undoubtedly, is a fascinating subject. But can there be something like Bourdain fatigue? “I think that he was such a complex person that there is room in the world for more interpretations. He may end up cementing a place in the cultural memory that is closer to Jim Morrison, Andy Warhol, and David Bowie… someone about whom people will continue to write and create art and films. There is room to explore his work and his legacy given his global impact and the things he addresses: eating, cooking, travel, and geopolitics, which are very broad subjects that many can relate to,” she says.

As Jeff Zucker, president of CNN Worldwide, says towards the end of the book, ‘We haven’t been able to, and nor do I think we will be able to, ever replace Tony Bourdain.’

Priced at ₹699, it is available online and at all major book stores.