A Response to "A Cook's Tour" pg. 1-128

While the first half of Anthony Bourdain's book A Cook's Tour offers much to discuss, what I am most struck by is his commentary on the way food and travel relates to memory.  Bourdain sets out on a quest to find the world’s greatest meal and through his quest he finds the roles memory and experience play in the enjoyment of a meal.

Bourdain is brutally honest while depicting his opinionated view of the world, and one of these views includes his less than perfect portrayal of the effect memory has on experiences.  This is present particularly in the chapter “Back to the Beach” when he returns to the France of his childhood.  He recalls the oysters that were perfect in his memories and these expectations make the reality more disappointing: “I’d recreated, as best I could, all the factors present in my youth.  But once again, I felt restrained from pure enjoyment,” (Bourdain 42).  Through imitating the senses present in his childhood memories Bourdain adds pressure to the memory.  He claims to be looking for the perfect meal but this is a mask for what he is truly trying to find: a tie to his dead father.

Bourdain’s discussion of the pressure involved in memories and experiences I found fascinating because it is both relatable and unexpected.  In class we have discussed how certain foods can bring us back to the place and time we associate them with, but rarely is the power and potential for disappointment with these memories discussed.  This element of the book made me think of experiences in my own life where putting too much pressure on a situation made the outcome less than desirable.  Finding “the perfect meal” is a ridiculous goal.  This has not been discussed yet but I can guess that is where this is leading.  Because it is not just the food but the combination of the time, the experience, the work that went into the meal that makes it perfect in that moment.

Not only does this book handle the danger of nostalgia but also offers examples of experiences untainted by expectation that result in wonderful experiences.  When in Morocco, Bourdain was not expecting to find a moment of solace in the desert and when he does, it is an extraordinary experience: “I looked, for the first-and probably the last-time in my life, at something I’d never seriously imagined I’d cast eyes upon: a hundred miles of sand in every direction, a hundred miles of absolutely gorgeous, unspoiled nothingness,” (123).  This is a spontaneous moment that leaves a lasting impact on Bourdain.  Without the pressure of expectation he is able to enjoy this unexpected moment in his travels, a moment he recognizes will probably never happen again.  Through this contradiction to his other examples where expectations soiled experience the reader is able to grasp the concept of enjoying the moment for what it is, not the imaginations we create and hope that it will be.