Anthony Bourdain, the man who might not have invented the food-travel show but made it into a literate and beautifully-shot art form, is now on CNN and he's bringing his Emmy-winning crew with him.
Bourdain's new program, set to debut any day now, is called Parts Unknown, and from the mostly non-informative teaser they've put up on the CNN website, it looks like it will be pretty much what we have come to expect from the man. That's to say, it looks like A Cook's Tour, No Reservations, and The Layover.
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The host does wax poetic in an intro piece
published along with the teaser, saying that the human race is
“essentially good” and that he came to this conclusion from sharing all
those countless meals with friends, chef compatriots and complete strangers.
“People feel free, with a goofy American guy who has expressed interest
only in their food and what they do for fun, to tell stories about
themselves — to let their guard down, to be and to reveal, on occasion,
their truest selves,” he writes.
“The world,” the author says, ” is, in fact, filled with mostly good and decent people who are
simply doing the best they can. Everybody, it turns out, is proud of
their food (when they have it). They enjoy sharing it with others (if
they can). They love their children. They like a good joke. Sitting at
the table has allowed me a privileged perspective and access that
others, looking principally for 'the story,' do not, I believe, always
get.”
More than anything, Bourdain's move to CNN feels right. He
was getting too cerebral, too smart, too journalism-y for a channel that
seems more and more apt to showcase auction reality shows and hotel
make-overs.
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Before becoming an award-winning restaurant critic for OC Weekly in 2007, Edwin Goei went by the alias “elmomonster” on his blog Monster Munching, in which he once wrote a whole review in haiku.