Q&A: Anthony Bourdain

(Credit: Jim Cooper, Associated Press)

Anthony Bourdain, globetrotting host of the Travel Channel's No Reservations and unabashedly biting culinary writer, recently took time to chat with us between filming and traveling to Los Angeles for the 13th annual UCLA Extension Restaurant Conference. True to his frank nature, Bourdain dished about industry issues, upcoming eating trends and the L.A. food scene.

You've traveled the world and eaten everywhere, from the high end to the low, and visited some places that have been around for hundreds of years. What is a common thread in restaurants that have stayed open through crisis, war and recession?
It's more what they aren't than what they are. They're never the best restaurants in town; they're never trendy. They understand that meal is a confluence of sorts. That it's service, that it's ambience, that it's a feeling you're creating for people.

What makes a good restaurant is where you can see the presentation of a single voice telling me, hopefully with some authority, "This is what I love. This is what I'm good at. This is what I'm proud of."

What is the biggest mistake people make going into the restaurant business?
When you rely entirely on market research, you end up with a three-headed, fur-bearing trout. Take Macaroni Grill for example: I mean, macaroni on a grill is senseless. Or the Old Spaghetti Factory: You don't want old spaghetti, and you certainly don't want to eat it in a factory.

In the restaurant business, the odds are already bad, even if you do everything right. It's wonderful to see people defying conventional wisdom—either because they don't know any better or because they're spiteful out of principle. One of the great things about the business, though, is that if you're full of shit, you will be found out.

Do you think social networking and digital media have a negative effect on maintaining the original spirit and integrity of a restaurant?
If you build a restaurant around marketing and networking before you're open, it's like writing a book to appeal to a perceived audience; you end up with no integrity. It's the same with writing a menu. If you try to be everything to everyone, you end up being nothing to anyone. I do believe that once you open your doors, whether you like it or not, you are, for better or worse, at the mercy of bloggers and Twitterers. You can't rely on the same old food critics anymore.

Is there any emerging international cuisine you predict will take over the dining scene soon?
Year after year, I'm hoping for Singapore-style cuisine...It's a style of eating that we're sorely missing.

What's special about L.A.'s cuisine to you?
I generally love the funky strip mall joints. I love Koreatown. I don't even know the names of the places because I was so drunk when I went. What L.A. does so well, better than anyone else, is the low end.

You have the greatest job in the world. Do you have any bigger, loftier dreams?
Much later, when it's all over, I'd like to teach a little bit. I'd like to teach creative writing to fifth-graders, or English 101.

You and [Food Network Semi-Homemade hostess] Sandra Lee share an affinity for booze. Would you consider drinking with her?
I wouldn't consider it. I could see myself getting drunk with Rachael Ray. By all accounts, she's pretty nice. My only problem with Rachael is the cooking part. Given she stopped cooking, I think we'd happily have shots of tequila together. But Sandra Lee's food is collaborating with the enemy. It's beyond compare. I couldn't do it. It's just wrong. That food is bad for the world. The exposure to it is dangerous.

What will you address at the Restaurant Industry Conference?
I will speak on the scary new world of dining in America: how things will change, what we have to confront, what menus of the future will look like, and what effect that will have—both good and bad—on the food itself.

What might these menus look like?
They'll look more Asian. We're in a situation where meat will be more of a flavoring agent than the main event.

Anthony Bourdain will address the tragedy of meatless menus and other restaurant related issues at the UCLA Extension Restaurant Industry Conference at the Sheraton Gateway Hotel, 6101 W. Century Blvd., Westchester, on Thurs., March 26, at 12:45 p.m.