Anthony Bourdain will be working a double-shift on the sauté station at his restaurant Les Halles on Park Avenue during the week before Christmas for a special "No Reservations" episode of his TV series — with help from a friend.
"Do you want to know who my grill bitch is going to be at dinner time?" he asked maniacally. "Eric."
As in Eric Ripert, chef of Le Bernardin — one of Gourmet's top 10 restaurants in America, a New York Times 4-star, Michelin 3-star — that Eric.
"Eric and I were sitting around talking and I mentioned I was going to do this and he said, 'Dees soundz like fun.' And I said, 'Yeah? You want to do it too, hotshot?'"?
"I'm going to come in there at 8 o'clock in the morning, set up my station, just like I used to, six-an-half-years ago. I don't think Eric ever in his life has ever worked anyplace where you don't wipe the rim of the plate. He's going to put the meat down and it's going to be salad, fries, out. It's going to be delicious. And I'm going to feed him fucking tequila the minute he walks in the door. It's going to be fun."
I met up with Tony for a drink last night in Chicago, before a standing-room-only signing for his new book, No Reservations: Around the World on an Empty Stomach. It's a behind-the-scenes travel journal covering the TV series, but it's also filled with candid, personal, and often poignant photos. (I know Bourdain because I was the "fixer" — local translator and guide — on the very first episode in Paris, shot nearly three years ago.)
Bourdain spilled plenty of beans during the open pre-signing Q&A with over 300 fans. But the biggest news? He has quit smoking. "Even I'm not so big a bastard as to smoke in front of a 7 month-old — or even in the same apartment." That 7 month-old is his infant daughter. Ariane, named for Ariane Daguin, the founder and owner of foie gras producer D'artagnan.
Earlier he'd shown me a photo of his daughter on his phone. When was it from? "Today," he said proudly. He flew back to his Ariane and wife this morning. "When I'm back in New York, I change every diaper."
Cigarettes are one thing; he wouldn't give up his foie.
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