He is a man after my own heart, whose undying passions include good food (naturally), good booze, rock n roll, literature, writing and travel. He is the punk-rocker of celebrity chefs. He is notrious for his love of what he calls 'nasty bits' - bladder and trotter and brains and guts. He even ate bugs off a windshield with Marky Ramone once.
His book Kitchen Confidential re-ignited my passion for cooking and reiterated the cowboy image of life in the kitchen that my chefin' mates talk of. His Les Halles Cookbook is an essential if you want to take your cooking above the basic Jamie Oliver whip-something-up-on-a-Sunday level. There you'll learn how to make proper stock, demi-glace and a raft of dishes that will take a whole weekend to make and have you sweating in your saute pan with their complexity. Anthony's tone throughout the book is that you're basically a shmuck and you have no fucking idea. He is the only chef I know of that has managed to get this attitude across in a Cookbook rather than expletitive-filled rants on the telly (and get away with it). It works though, in a drill-sergeant kinda way and it also provided me with the best recipe for a Steak Au Poivre et Frites you'll ever get anywhere.
I have recently discovered his new television series called 'No Reservations' on YouTube and I'm loving it. The show consists of 'Tony' travelling around the globe eating, drinking, philosphising and discovering (and quite often eating) some really weird shit - and he has John Spencer Blues Explosion doing the intro music.
Check below for a 'tube of Tony eating the beating heart of a cobra in Thailand .
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