How Anthony Bourdain Inspired Two World Travelers for The Times

What would the world of travel and food reporting look like now without his gusto? Jada Yuan and Lucas Peterson on the adventurer who made the world more exciting.

'Last fall, when I was applying for a job I never thought I’d get, to spend the year traveling to each place on The Times’s 52 Places list, I got hooked watching Anthony Bourdain’s “Raw Craft” series on YouTube. It’s quieter than his food shows; he’s just highlighting master craftsmen, but his awe and appreciation of their skill is palpable. I had been trying to find someone less obvious for inspiration and just — of the hundreds of videos I watched, there was no one else who could make me care about a shoe or a sandwich the way that he did.

What would the world of travel and food reporting look like without the humanity he brought to it? Would I have had the confidence to apply for this job? Would this job even exist?

What I loved most is the gusto. Mr. Bourdain’s taste buds and legendarily steely stomach might have objected to a few of the delicacies he guzzled down on camera for our vicarious entertainment, and education, but he was, above all, a tireless ambassador for testing your comfort zone, for being all in.

He was even a fan of durian, the tropical fruit so pungent it’s banned from hotels in Thailand. “Your breath will smell as if you’d been French-kissing your dead grandmother,” he said. From him, that was a ringing endorsement. It was also the first time I had heard of durian. I’ve still never had the guts to try it.'>>>

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/11/travel/anthony-bourdain-jada-yuan-lucas-peterson.html?