7/6/2023 0 Comments Patrick radden keefe rogues![]() ![]() ![]() In later life, Tony would recount his literary origin story in breezy terms: he wrote a little article about life in the kitchen, sent it off to The New Yorker, and, Whaddayaknow! They wanted to publish it. ![]() He was a good chef but never a great one, and, recognizing his limitations, he hustled to establish a writing career, eventually, in 2000, publishing the bestselling memoir “Kitchen Confidential,” which grew out of an article that appeared in this magazine. As a young man, he had plunged, willfully, into heroin addiction-he had wanted to be an addict, he told me-and then decided, willfully, to quit. ![]() Tony will be remembered for his infectious enthusiasms and his brash exuberance, but I was most inspired by his capacity for reinvention. Everything that had happened since, he told me, was “extra innings.” He bloomed late-it was only in his mid-forties that writing, and then television, secured a career for him outside the kitchen-and he never forgot that the first quarter century of his professional life had been spent toiling in sweaty, thankless, underpaid obscurity. Tony was endlessly generous with his time: he liked to say yes to people. When, a couple of years ago, I proposed a Profile to Bourdain and he accepted, I was delighted by the prospect of following him around for a while, hanging out in New York and travelling with him to Vietnam. Journalism can occasionally afford an opportunity for vicarious living. If you are having thoughts of suicide, call or text 988 or chat at. ![]()
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