This was originally posted, in a slightly different form, to my LiveJournal blog on August 7, 2006…

One of my favorite TV shows is No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain. If you have never seen it, it is on the Travel Channel, Monday nights at 9:00 pm CST. Anthony Bourdain is a chef from New York City who wrote a tell all book about the chef business and left, for the most part, the kitchen and became a writer and now, host of this travelogue/cooking show. He is a hard living, hard drinking, chain smoking, cussing, opinionated SOB who knows his way around a butter sauce. He goes from exotic locale to exotic locale, seeing the sights and tasting the native cuisines. His motto, which I try hard to live up to in my journies is, “Be a traveler, not a tourist.” A tourist goes to Florida and visits DisneyWorld and eats at the Hard Rock Cafe. A traveler goes to Florida and visits Weekee Wachee Village and eats at O’Steen’s off of Route A1A….

One of the things I admire about Bourdain is his spirit of culinary adventure. He and I see things very much the same way. He will try absolutely anything that is placed in front of him. On past episodes, he has eaten rotten shark meat in Iceland (apparently it is a delicacy there) and sheep guts in China. A couple of weeks ago, he was in Canada and had gone above the Arctic Circle to visit an Inuit family. They went on a seal hunt and after much effort, finally bagged a good sized seal. Bourdain, who narrates his show, warned the sensitive viewers to turn away because what followed was a mixture of horror movie and heartwarming. The Inuit family put the seal in the kitchen floor and butchered and ate it on the spot. It was consumed raw, as is the Inuit custom. They treated Bourdain as an honored guest and gave him several choice morsels. Pieces of liver, kidney, cheek meat and whisker nuggets were offered and consumed. The eyeball was offered to him and he sucked it down with a spirit of gratitude and adventure. The whole episode with the Inuit family was gross and quite touching. The entire family gathered around this bloody carcass, offering thanks to the gods for providing the seal and then everyone dug in, from the grandmother down to the grand baby, with blood covered fingers and faces, grateful for the feast and the guest who had honored them with his presence. It was genuinely touching.

When asked, later in the show, about his proclivity to eat absolutely anything, his response struck a chord with me. “Anyone who calls themself a chef, or a gourmet for that matter, should taste absolutely everything for the experience and should never say no to any food put before them.”

I don’t call myself a chef as a rule. I am a cook but I am an adventurous cook and others have called me a chef. I have no formal training. I started cooking when I was a kid, scrambling eggs while standing in a chair at the stove. My first job, at age 14, was as a short order cook at a local diner. I managed a pizza restaurant and worked at a few other diners during my early work years. I left the restaurant business but I never left the kitchen. I have been cooking on a near daily basis for more than 40 years now and I love every minute I spend in the kitchen. I love the way a good knife feels in my hand and my uniform chop has reached legendary status. When people ask my mom if she taught me to cook, she will tell them that she taught me how to use the stove and I taught her how to cook.

 I totally agree with the above Bourdain quote. There are far too many people out there who say “EEEWWWWW” based on nothing other than the perceived fact that something sounds gross. “EEEWWWWW. I don’t like sushi.” “Have you tried it?” “Well, no. But it’s raw fish and I don’t like raw fish.” “First, Sushi is not raw fish. That’s Sashimi and, second, have you ever tried raw fish to know you don’t like it?” “No, I just know it will be nasty…” That makes me crazy!! You are making decisions based on insufficient information and that is just wrong.  I have heard that department store magnate, J.C. Penney, would take prospective executive employees to lunch for their job interview. If someone salted their food before tasting it, he wouldn’t hire them because they were prone to make decisions based on incomplete information. This seems like sound advice in both business and in life.

Personally, I have always been an adventurous eater. If something looks interesting on a menu, you can count on me to order it. I have had a Chinese server try to talk me out of ordering “Strange Tasting Pork” in Philadelphia’s Chinatown. (It was incredible and I was a minor deity with all the employees at that restaurant. I was apparently the only non-Chinese person to ever order it, much less rave about it) I have eaten snails, Japanese sea urchin roe, rabbit, squirrel, the proverbial mountain oysters, and molded barley. Other than the barley, they were all delicious!

There are a few foods that I don’t care for but that is based on the fact that I have tried them more than once and they just don’t agree with me. Cantaloupe gives me the runs and cow and chicken liver makes me want to retch. I have tried each of these multiple times and get the same reaction so I tend to avoid them. But in tending to avoid them, I am not stupid about it…

I was doing a show in Knoxville a couple of years ago. This was one of those all day event shows. They had bands and the like and they also had a French chef preparing a meal for the crowd. He had roasted an entire pig and the pork was excellent. The chef had seen my act and loved it and as we were talking, he learned that I am a cook/foodie too so we spent a long time talking food. A little later in the evening, he called me over. I approached him and noticed he had a foil wrapped package that had just come off the grill. He said he had something very special he wanted me to sample, something that he had saved for himself and wanted to share with me. I couldn’t wait!! He unwrapped it and informed me it was his special recipe for the pigs liver. My excitement drained a bit because of my past experience with liver but he sliced me a large chunk off of this liver, placed it on a plate and handed it to me and watched with a smile for my reaction. I took a big bite of it and…
It was one of the most incredible things I had ever put in my mouth. Delicate and subtle flavors and a velvety texture that practically melted in your mouth. It was amazing and I raved about it. Chef was pleased and I was pleased and happy that he wanted to share his special recipe with me.

I could have said, “EEEWWWWWW I don’t like liver.” and not tried it. Had I done that I would have missed out on one of the most amazing flavors I have had the pleasure of tasting.

I suppose the point of this rant is to try to encourage everyone to be more adventurous. Take a chance. Try something you think you will hate. It might just turn out to be a new favorite. Check out Anthony Bourdain’s show, No Reservations, and take his advice and be a traveler. And in your travels, when you dine at O’Steen’s (it is in St. Augustine), make sure you try the Minorcan Clam Chowder. It is delicious.