Eric Ripert Remembers Anthony Bourdain

The Parts Unknown host's close friend remembers the legendary food personality. [ view in browser.   add esquire@newsletter.esquire.com to your address book ]             FOLLOW US       From Gonzo Chef to World-Renowned Traveler: Remembering Anthony Bourdain   The first time Eric Ripert met Anthony Bourdain, he had no idea Bourdain planned to put him on camera. This was back in 2000, when Bourdain's breakthrough memoir, Kitchen Confidential, was rattling the culinary world and beyond. While Bourdain's gonzo account of his life in the culinary underbelly was brutally honest about the New York restaurant scene, he wrote nothing but good things about Ripert's elite French seafood restaurant Le Bernardin. Flattered, Ripert invited Bourdain for lunch at his restaurant. "Anthony accepted my invitation and to my surprise, he showed up with a TV crew behind him," Ripert remembers. Casually, Bourdain explained that the film crew was following him for a British documentary and would only be around for 10 or 15 minutes. They talked on camera for a bit, then the film crew left and Bourdain and Ripert had a long, fantastic lunch. "He was very funny and witty and at the same time, very knowledgeable about food. Very kind and complimentary to what we were doing. I was very surprised, he had very good manners at the table. He was not this bad boy that I was picturing from the book," Ripert tells me. "And after the meal, we decided that we would see each other for a drink." That drink took place a week later when Bourdain took Ripert—a Michelin and James Beard-awarded chef—to a midtown dive bar called Siberia. "It was in the subway and that was really a real, real dive bar that I had ever seen in my life before. And I was very amused by the type of environment that he liked," Ripert said. "That was the beginning of a long friendship between him and I," Ripert remembers. That friendship became one of the most famous chef duos of all time—if not one of the most beloved real-life bromances on TV. Over the next 18 years, Ripert made nearly a dozen appearances on every Bourdain show from the early short lived Cook's Tour to No Reservations and Parts Unknown. They were filming an episode in June when Ripert found Bourdain dead in a French hotel room. "He was a dear friend and in life. We don't have too many good friends and I miss him tremendously," Ripert says. "He has been a tremendous inspiration in my life." READ MORE       If Donald Trump Is a Stress Test for Democracy, the Midterms Were Just a Warm Up Exercise   When I was watching the returns on Tuesday, the first national Election Day since Trump's victory, I processed the results in a different way than I had in the past. Every president faces a midterm backlash. But the question I and many others had was whether the scale of the backlash against Trump would be commensurate with the scale of the threat he poses to American democracy. Two years of extraordinary changes in American politics—marked by a return to the use of overt racism in campaigns, rhetorical attacks on the free press, efforts to undermine the independence of law enforcement, and a normalizing of attacks on the opposition party as illegitimate or criminal—ought to create an equally extraordinary backlash by voters. Did it? Read On         American Gun Culture Is Not Freedom. It Is Tyranny.   On Wednesday night, 28-year-old man walked into a Thousand Oaks, California, bar hosting its usual weekly country music night and shot 12 people dead. Some people in the bar, it turns out, had survived the attack at a country music festival on the Las Vegas strip just over a year ago. In America, you can survive one mass shooting, only to find yourself the victim in another one because you chose the wrong bar on the wrong night to go dancing with your friends. If you're an American, you can be shot anywhere: at school, at the mall, at a concert, at the movie theater. To be an American is to know that when you venture outside, you have a better chance than the citizen of any other country in the developed world of being shot by a complete and total stranger with easy access to incredibly powerful weaponry. A world where everyone could be out to get you, and you can't leave your house unarmed, is not a free world. Read On         The Best Books of 2018 (So Far)   We may live in challenging times, and there's no better escape than through a good book. From new novels from beloved writers to compelling non-fiction examinations of our modern world, 2018 has already delivered some excellent reads. Read On         Everyone Is Talking About Chris Pine's Dick, But Please Look at His Leather Jacket   Of all the Chrisses, Pine exudes cool more effortlessly than the rest. He put that on display Wednesday night in New York City during his Outlaw King press tour, which has been buzzing on the 'net the past few days, not because of his piercing blue eyes or acting performance, but because of his penis, which makes an appearance in the film. But forget about the dick and turn your attention to his very good leather jacket. Read On         5 Best Alcohol Advent Calendars for a Very Spirited December   The holidays are a time for love, good cheer, and gracious gift giving. There is no rule saying that gracious gift giving can't be for yourself. To truly do December right, consider buying yourself an Advent calendar filled with little bottles of liquor—whiskey, gin, and more—or wine. Here are five options to choose from, each good for 24 straight days of high spirits. 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