---
title: "Bourdain, Anthony 🫡"
url: "https://loyalty.sarl/en/posts/2026-01-20-bourdain-anthony/"
date: 2026-01-20
tags: ["Upgrades","Lounge"]
city: "Hanoi"
source: "https://t.me/statkarusel/225"
language: en
---

# Bourdain, Anthony 🫡

I have a lot of namesakes.

But it was this particular Anthony who took his own life on 8 June 2018, in a room at the [Le Chambard hotel in Kaysersberg](https://www.reddit.com/r/travel/comments/gs1wcp/le_chambard_hotel_restaurant_kaysersberg_france/?show=original), France.

I've passed through that village many times. Often stayed nearby. I know [these parts near Colmar](https://chatgpt.com/share/696fb81e-66a4-800f-b1fd-ed7160f850f5) well. I know all the main paths into the local vineyards.

I stop, have breakfast or dinner, and [every time raise one glass without clinking](https://www.brasserie-meteor.fr/en/accueil-eng/), the way Russians do for those who are gone.

Not shock, not tragedy. More a quiet, associative kind of knowing.

Why this stream of thought?

Of all the world's cuisines, Vietnam was his number one.

[Anthony Bourdain](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Bourdain) was a chef, a writer and a travel rock star — long before travel became content and food became a pretext for monetisation.

In essence, he was the first professional food blogger. A decade before the YouTubers and food-grammers who eat for the hype.

Chef Tony was about food without the influencing.

He showed that street noodles in Hanoi can be more honest than any five-star tasting menu.

That a plastic stool matters more than a designer interior.

That if you drink with the locals and listen rather than film, you can understand a country faster than through any guidebook.

He ate everything that moved and everything that didn't, swore, philosophised, sometimes looked tired and often not especially happy. And that is exactly why people believed him.

Because it was never "how delicious", it was "why do people live like this".

[No Reservations](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Bourdain:_No_Reservations) and [Parts Unknown](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Bourdain:_Parts_Unknown) weren't food shows. They were conversations about people, politics, loneliness, depression and alcohol as a universal language. About a world without gloss and without apology.

His style: cynical, clever, self-deprecating. No vanilla. Just the truth, chilli sauce and a cigarette after dinner.

He's loved by the same people who, over time, come to value not lounges but random kitchens. Not upgrades but conversations. People with a mileage brain and an inborn allergy to tourist traps.

[Bourdain](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxqebF80D2g) is when the journey matters more than comfort, and a conversation over a bowl of soup is worth more than the view from the window 🫕

## Photos

![Bourdain, Anthony 🫡](https://loyalty.sarl/img/2026-01-20-%D0%B1%D1%83%D1%80%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%B9%D0%BD-%D1%8D%D0%BD%D1%82%D0%BE%D0%BD%D0%B8/photo_156@20-01-2026_17-46-57_hu_312b6f6768765a4c.webp)