No Reservations

As promised, I thought I would share a little of what went on at the Anthony Bourdain-Eric Ripert talk/show/discussion Friday night. Here are the highlights:

The Good

• Off the cuff and highly entertaining commentary on a wide range of topics from Bourdain’s recent quotes in a NYT article about marijuana use in professional kitchens to what they like most about their jobs (cooking for the Dalai Lama for Ripert and getting things by the censors for Bourdain) to what they really think about certain celebrity chefs (Bourdain would like Guy Fieri to grow up and stop wearing sunglasses on the back of his head while Ripert thinks Gordon Ramsey should be ashamed of himself for his public humiliation of contestants on Hells Kitchen)
• Ripert thanking PBS for letting people “with accents” have their own cooking shows
• Topical discussion on issues like factory farms and sustainable food sources, the role of immigrants in the running of America’s restaurants, and whether chefs play a role in the obesity epidemic in America.
• The easy, good natured banter between the two was entertaining and nice to see—they are clearly friends in real life (and Eric Ripert apparently introduced Anthony Bourdain to his current wife!)

The Bad

• They had a “host” for the night who introduced the Bourdain/Ripert and served as a moderator of sorts for the duration of the show. While I guess it makes sense to set it up this way—the guy they selected was a DJ from a local radio station and some of his attempts to be charming and/or humorous fell a little flat. It could have been a lot worse—when the guy first came out Jason and I both groaned but he ended up being tolerable for the most part.
• The last 30 minutes was devoted to audience Q&A (no, I did not end up trying to ask a question) which had Jason worried that he’d have to sit there and listen to a bunch of idiotic questions. For the most part the questions were good ones and elicited interesting and often humorous responses. The one REALLY ANNOYING thing was that at least 75% of those asking the questions started off with “I’m a really big a fan of the two of you….” Uh…..pretty sure that the fact that you a) bought tickets to come this event and b) raised your hand for 10 minutes or more so you could ask them a question directly proves your fan-hood. IT GOES WITHOUT SAYING…..SO STOP SAYING IT!
• Not a lot of Top Chef DC discussion

The HILARIOUS

• When we walked into the theater they had a slideshow of vanity shots of both of the chefs running on a screen towards the back of the stage. There was one particularly awesome of Eric Ripert resting his chin on his hand….a hand that was also grasping a large chef’s knife.  Not only that but he was clearly given instructions by the photographer to try and look sultry... the whole thing was just so ridiculous. Take a look and see for yourself:

From johnmariani.com

Overall I would say that it was a highly entertaining event and that Jason and I both really enjoyed it.