From my vantage point, Anthony Bourdain is immensely popular with friends of all kinds of political and cultural flavors. I actually can’t think of a single person I know who dislikes Anthony Bourdain. If there’s some kind of cultural headwind against his style, it certainly isn’t manifest in mainstream consumer culture itself.
I'm personally a fan of Tony, but there's no denying that he was quite often an asshole. He was notoriously demanding of his crew, dumped his first wife after he got famous, dumped his second wife and child when he met an Italian actress half his age, nepo'd her to shittily direct some episodes and fired his cameraman when he dared complain, etc etc.
Yeah, I don't think he was a nice person. I also don't particularly like or dislike him, but I think the idea that he's some sort of representative of a lost time in American cultural values is basically incorrect -- he exists in a large and extremely popular "gonzo" pantheon that is basically a direct production of American cultural values.
Those are more gossip fodder than things to actually complain about. Was often an asshole? Who isn't? Divorced twice? So, like tens of millions of people?
Fell for a hot italian actress half his age? And his writing and descriptions of his spirit made you think this would be out of character for him, like he was some victorian pearl clutcher or something, and so this dissapointed you?
I quite disliked him. He always came off as a smug asshole, and I think the evidence backs that up.
His core shtick was being a food hipster which often involved putting down others preferences to prove how superior he was. For example saying that a Chicken McNugget was the most disgusting thing he has ever eaten.
He treated his staff like trash on one hand while publicly proclaiming "Mistreat the floor staff and you are dead to me." for cool guy points.
Add to that the incredible narcissism of dumping both his wives for younger women as soon as he could, but then playing the victim when his new younger wife cheats on him.
>His core shtick was being a food hipster which often involved putting down others preferences to prove how superior he was. For example saying that a Chicken McNugget was the most disgusting thing he has ever eaten.
