Whiskey, Wisdom & Bourdain: Remembering Anthony Bourdain on Bourdain Day

Summary

In this special Bourdain Day episode of The Sipping Point, Laurie Forster revisits a rare and unforgettable conversation with the late Anthony Bourdain. Recorded during his tour with Balvenie Scotch—a journey that celebrated master craftsmen across the country—Bourdain opens up about the intersection of food, storytelling, and authenticity.

Raw, real, and unapologetically Bourdain, this episode is a tribute to the man who inspired the world to taste more, travel deeper, and question everything. Pour a glass, raise it high, and join us in honoring the legacy of a legend.

Takeaways

• The importance of celebrating craftsmanship in food and drink.
• Old school methods of production are becoming rare.
• Culinary exploration can lead to unexpected adventures.
• Stories behind food and drink create deeper connections.
• Supporting artisans helps preserve traditional methods.
• Exploring new flavors can enhance life experiences.

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Transcript

Laurie Forster (00:00)

Welcome to the Sipping Point podcast. Join Lori Forster, the wine coach, as she guides you through the world of wine, food, and so much more. Lori brings a fresh and fun approach to the world of wine. So whether you're a seasoned wine lover or just getting started, this is the place to explore how to sip, savor, and live your most delicious life. And now here's your host, Lori Forster.

Laurie Forster (00:26)

Welcome back to The Sipping Point. Today is June 25th, Anthony Bourdain Day. So we're going to do a little something different. Today's a day to honor this culinary legend who redefined how we experience the world of food and travel. Before he left us, I had the incredible privilege of interviewing him about 10 years ago while he was on tour with Balvenie Scotch. He was celebrating the artistry of craftsmen, passionate makers who put their heart and soul into everything they do.

including the Scotch makers in Scotland. It was a wonderful conversation full of honesty, curiosity, and the signature Bourdain grit. So pour yourself a glass of wine or maybe a dram of Scotch and join me in celebrating the man who didn't just savor flavors, but lived them. Here's to Anthony Bourdain, the craftsman behind the scenes and to the stories that keep inspiring us. Have a listen.

Speaker 2 (01:20)

This is Lori Forster, the wine coach with The Sipping Point, and I am honored to be here with celebrated chef, TV show host, and author of Kitchen Confidential, Anthony Bourdain. We're here for the Balvenie Rare Craft Collection exhibit. I met one of the craftspeople immediately, and they're from Baltimore, the first person I met. So this is wonderful, because we broadcast in Baltimore, DC, and then across the country through iTunes. So Anthony, thank you so much for.

being on the sipping point.

Speaker 1 (01:48)

Thanks for having me with you.

Speaker 2 (01:50)

All right,

so I thought we'd start with an in-depth conversation about cold weather terroir wines and malolactic fermentation. No, we're not. No, that's a joke. That's a joke. That's the opposite of my show. I'm all about making wine, spirits, beer fun, approachable. And just from knowing your persona out there, I think we'd probably fall asleep.

I thought maybe that might break the ice a little bit. We have Jersey in common. I understand you grew up in New Jersey. So tell me a little bit about what about these craftsmen and the craft of making Belle Venne made you want to be a part of this movement, if you want to call it that.

Speaker 1 (02:25)

Well, I was given the opportunity to select cool people who are doing things that I think are good for the world. mean, I have sort of an evangelical attitude about some things. I admire people who make things.

anybody who makes things, who's decided when to make things. And I particularly admire people who do things the old school, slow, foolish, counterintuitive way. You know, the romantic pursuit of quality over quantity. And that's something that's disappearing. And here I was given an opportunity to work with a brand whose stuff I like, whose stuff I actually drink and admire, who make things in a very...

ludicrously old school, obstinately old school way, and to choose artisans and craftspeople around the country whose work I either knew of already or could reach out and find and make some beautiful films celebrating their work and acknowledging their work. So it seemed like a fun and good thing to do.

Speaker 2 (03:27)

And all the Balvenie you can drink, I'm sure.

Speaker 1 (03:29)

I am drinking a ridiculous amount of very fine scotch whiskey. mean, it's a blessing and a curse. Hanging out with these people, they are constantly pulling out these rare limited edition little bottles or big barrels of just insanely rare delicious stuff and wow.

Speaker 2 (03:51)

And if you go to YouTube, to the Balvenie US channel, that's where your Raw Craft series, I guess it's a web TV series if you want to think of it that way. I got the pleasure of watching almost all of them. The Bob Kramer episode about these crazy knives he's making out of meteors. Did I get that right?

Speaker 1 (04:10)

He makes his own metal, first of all. So he's making his own steel and he's pounding in layers of different, I don't know what you call them, alloys or metals. And he bought some meteor and incorporating this meteor into one particular knife.

Speaker 2 (04:28)

I told my husband not to get too excited because I'm pretty sure I can't afford the meteor knife.

Speaker 1 (04:32)

He makes incredible knives. I don't own one, okay, because you have to get on a waiting list. I mean, he makes each one by hand. They take a long time, as you'll see in the film. It could take years. They are incredibly expensive. The one that he makes in the film, which is an unusually amazing one.

is currently being bid on online and the price is up at $22,000 for a knife, I believe. I want one so badly and I don't have one.

Okay, and it is the ultimate chef's knife. Incredible craftsmanship. But this guy puts, he makes each and every one by hand. as you will see, they are truly incredible. On a par with the great samurai swords of medieval Japan. In fact, better in many ways, because he's the actual material himself.

Speaker 2 (05:28)

So just magically appeared in front of us some Balvenie scotch. So tell me a little bit about why you love it so much.

Speaker 1 (05:35)

Look, I'm a guy who honestly, for instance, if I'm sitting in a good restaurant and a sommelier comes over and it takes him, if he's spending more than...

45 seconds telling me about the wine I'm about to drink my eyes glaze over. Okay, you're ruining the experience for me This is good stuff. This is a 21 year old portwood It's a very risky Project as I understand. I mean, it's this is very old whiskies that have been Put together which is seems like a really bad idea. You got all of this really great old whiskey Why would don't mess with it? So it was a risky sort of a thing but Dave Stewart

David Stewart who does this stuff for Balvenie believed in it and got these I guess port wood casks and you know it all goes in the barrel and out comes in this case magic. mean it's pretty amazing right.

Speaker 2 (06:23)

It does, it smells delicious and I know it's gonna taste the same. But I did put out to my listeners any questions they would want to ask you. this speaking, this is delicious. But along the way you host a show called Parts Unknown and you taste some really crazy stuff. So have you ever had a moment where you got actually sick or refused to taste something because you knew it would make you sick?

Speaker 1 (06:46)

No, the two times that I've only been ill in about 15 years of making travel television and eating stuff all over the world. I've only been physically ill the point of missing a day's work twice in all of that time and in both cases I knew beforehand.

that nothing good was gonna come of this. This was a tribal situation. The whole tribe looking at me as they fed me something that was clearly unwholesome and dirty in a less than hygienic situation. sometimes, to be a good guest is a very important thing on my show. I try to be a good and gracious and grateful guest for what people are offering me, often people with very little. In both of these cases, these were very poor people in hot climate in Africa eating food that was not good.

tribes looking at me, the chief is offering it, you know, I took one for the team and it was a couple of weeks of long course of antibiotics. But, so I mean the answer is, you know, no, I've never turned anything down and I think I'm doing pretty well for 15 years.

Speaker 2 (07:41)

Well, I understand that you're trying to craft the best pancakes in the world for your daughter. That is something she enjoys, as I see as you put out there on social media. I have a 12-year-old daughter, and I'm just wondering, my daughter's always asking my husband about being a chef. She looks up to her father and he says, absolutely not. I don't want you going anywhere near that world. Are you teaching your daughter to cook, and would you want her to go into this business?

Speaker 1 (08:06)

My daughter loves cooking. She loves cooking with me. Obviously that's something that I respond to very powerfully. mean I'm flattered that she's interested. I love spending time with her in the kitchen. She's very determined about it. She thinks just the, you know, the sun shines from Alton Brown. She he's like super dreamy.

Look, she loves cooking competition shows. mean, which is a wonderful irony to the fact that, you know, my daughter loves, you know, Bobby Flay's throw down and always, you know, MasterChef Junior and all of that stuff. Look, I joke about how I would be horrified if my daughter came to me and said, Daddy, I want to be a chef, because she has said that, know.

It could be worse. She could say, I want to marry a chef. That would be really bad news. Look, if when she's 18 and she's old enough to make these kinds of decisions for herself, then she comes and says to me, I want to be a chef, it would be reason for alarm at first because it's such a difficult thing. But then of course I'd be proud that my daughter knowingly

in the clear light of day had chosen such a difficult path, one that's in many ways stacked against women, a really tough, high pressure, often thankless, yet creative job.

Yeah, it would be a mix of both fear and pride. She's already been taking cooking lessons. She's a very adventurous eater. It gives her a lot of pleasure and that's something I'm not going to discourage her from, far from it. you know, I would never seek to raise a foodie child. I think that's sort of grotesque, you little hunter, look, she's eating sushi.

But the fact is when my daughter, at age three, picked up an oyster and slurped it down and said, good, it felt like pretty cool.

Speaker 2 (09:40)

That's awesome. And speaking of doing things the hard way or a hard, all these crafts people that you feature on the Raw Craft Collection are all definitely not taking the easy way out. saw that when Frank Shadduck made you the suit that takes 65 hours to make, I think it was 65 hours, to make one suit and it can only make so many.

Speaker 1 (10:03)

Maybe 12 a year. Maybe in a good year. And it's an amazing, I mean he has incredible reputation and you can see why. I mean most people would never know what he's doing, the kind of stitching he's doing on the inside that most people use ready-made stencils or for. You know, these are people who are obstinate about doing things

as best they can possibly do and they're constantly seeking to do them better.

Speaker 2 (10:29)

And I'm looking forward to meeting Ian the Cooper Smith downstairs that makes the barrels for Balvenie. And also, he's been doing that, I don't know how many years, we probably shouldn't say, but he's the top of his game. So I love what you're doing here with the rare craft and the raw craft collection. And I want to thank you so much. If folks want to watch Parts Unknown and find out more about what you're doing, where can they go? Connect with you.

Speaker 1 (10:54)

CNN, for sure the CNN website will tell you what's coming up next week as far as the shows and I think you can watch the shows now live stream or not live stream but you can watch them shortly after they air on CNN's website and keep doing what you know I'm gonna keep doing what I'm doing for as long as I can get away.

Speaker 2 (11:09)

I watched last night and I loved watching you make Eric repair Squirm and blush at the same time, I think.

Speaker 1 (11:16)

You know, Eric's one of these guys who can do just about everything well, but he can't make pizza that well. This pleases me.

Speaker 2 (11:22)

Anthony Bourdain, thank you so much for being on the Sipping Point. Cheers.

Speaker 1 (11:25)

My pleasure.

Laurie Forster (11:27)

I hope you enjoyed that walk down memory lane with a legend, a culinary legend. And Anthony Bourdain Day, the idea of it is to inspire people to celebrate him by getting out, go to a new restaurant, try a new type of food, just get out and explore. So I invite you to do that in his honor. And speaking of exploring, I hope you'll join me in checking out thewinecoachclub.com.

where I'm gonna take you quarterly on an exploration of new wines, maybe wines you've never tried, regions you've never been to. It's our chance to taste these wines together. Just go to thewinecoachclub.com and I invite you to share this podcast with any other wine lovers you know who might benefit.

Reach out if you have any ideas for future guests and topics, just shoot me an email at laurie@thewinecoach.com. And until next week, cheers.

Laurie Forster (12:20)

Thanks for joining us on the Sipping Point Podcast. We hope you enjoyed this fun and flavorful look at the world of wine, food, and beyond. If you liked what you heard, be sure to subscribe, leave a review, and share with your fellow wine lovers. Until next time, keep on sipping!