{"id":4320,"date":"2021-06-23T14:36:49","date_gmt":"2021-06-23T14:36:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eatmcr.co.uk\/?p=4320"},"modified":"2021-06-25T13:43:17","modified_gmt":"2021-06-25T13:43:17","slug":"how-to-celebrate-anthony-bourdain-day-in-manchester-part-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eatmcr.co.uk\/culture\/how-to-celebrate-anthony-bourdain-day-in-manchester-part-one\/","title":{"rendered":"How To Celebrate Anthony Bourdain Day In Manchester: Part One"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

“Meals make the society, hold the fabric together in lots of ways that were charming and interesting and intoxicating to me. The perfect meal, or the best meals, occur in a context that frequently has very little to do with the food itself”<\/em><\/p>– Anthony Bourdain<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Separation, both temporary and tragically permanent, has brought communities closer together than ever over the last 16 months. Enduring a year without a family Sunday lunch or a pissed up BBQ with your mates in favour of staring at the same four walls, while you and your unwashed and uncut hair await your fifth Deliveroo of the week, has been a grotesque existence to suffer through. The vigour with which the general public soared back into restaurants and pubs over the last two months was proof, if ever it were needed, that we are a society that, at it’s absolute core, yearn for the simplistic; A pint, a plate of food and people to share it all with.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is this exact spirit which the late, great Anthony Bourdain championed for the last two decades before his untimely death, in 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The chef turned world travelling documentarian and iconic adventurer covered all manner of subjects across various ends of various spectrums during his multiple circumnavigations of the globe (much of which is meticulously documented in Drew Magary’s breathtakingly good biography in GQ<\/a> a few month’s after his passing), whether they be culinary, political, socio economic or just stupid, half cut bar debates. The one constant that remained, however, was food and drink as the ultimate unifier. It didn’t need to be the best quality produce, it just needed to be enjoyed in an atmosphere of tolerance and trust – The happy places where we can most comfortably feel like ourselves, whether it’s nursing a solo pint on a slow afternoon or Lady and The Tramping a ramen noodle with a best mate or partner after one too many between-course cocktails.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This Friday (25th June) will mark the third annual ‘Bourdain Day’, on what would have been the great man’s 65th birthday (almost unthinkable to fathom he was only three years shy of pensioner age when he passed, isn’t it?). The day was christened by two of his closest friends, chefs Eric Ripert (who had accompanied Bourdain on his final trip, to Strasbourg, in June 2018) and Jos\u00e9 Andr\u00e9s, who told Esquire<\/a><\/em> in 2019 that, \u201cI hope that this is a place that many people will go, will enjoy life, will have a drink. They will cook, they will go to a food truck. They will go to [a] picnic. They will go to [a] street vendor. A hot dog, a fancy restaurant, whatever. And they will toast Tony and wish, \u2018Happy Bourdain Day.\u2019\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I suffered so much grief after what happened that I only hope people will turn all that grief into happiness of life, and remembering how Tony made the world a smaller place by bringing us all together.”<\/em><\/p>– Jos\u00e9 Andr\u00e9s<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Turning grief into happiness is precisely what we, as a society, have been attempting to accomplish for the last few months, once the doors to hospitality were flung back open, albeit still with varying degrees of restrictions and dangers in place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many of us will have suffered the heartbreak of grieving for a loved one, while countless have mourned job losses, the disappearance of their favourite establishments, relationships, you name it, we’ve all grieved in one way or another since last March and this Friday, in memory of a man who so often made us forget our anxieties by allowing us to learn of vibrant, far flung cultures and cuisines, we can continue that process in the most positive, beautiful way possible. By not only toasting Uncle Tony and the invaluable life lessons he taught us, but by indulging in the pastime he became so renowned for – breaking bread across countless tables around a city, from back alley noodle shops to Michelin Star manors and, of course, to Waffle Houses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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