Anthony Bourdain Stops By To Chat About The Balvenie's "Raw Craft"

You'd have to be crazy to spend 65 hours making a single sear or use 300 layers of steel to create a night or to make whiskey from multi-year barley, brewing your own casks and applying a half-century-old malt master. Perfecting your case is crazy, but once you've tried crazy, nothing else comes close. I am on a mission to tell the stories of notable artisans. Balvenie presents the art of law Boyet, thank you for being here. It was a pleasure for me the last time you were here. We were talking about bail money and we were talking about this series you do on YouTube.

This is the second season. It premiered about a month ago. To move around a little bit, we try to move it a little bit away from traditional

craft

s or things that you know, you go to a

craft

convention, you go to a craft fair, you're going to see certain fields represented pretty regularly, we thought, why not do some cuts? bakery with Dominique Ansel, for example, who said he was a tremendous traditional craftsman, but also an innovator in an artist, this guy Takashi, that old school Tabari tattoo artist did it, yes, he did a piece for me, the old stick and prick, yeah, my second, but yeah, in the chamber, yeah, it's something you know, if you notice there's a sound component and you know what, like these, you know they go in with these multiple blades right under the skin and They stand up and there is a sound very similar to the sound when your hand cut steak tartare is the same kind of very familiar noise that is a little disturbing when you know your own meat but gives you insight into the meat of the animal we are all made of of meat, presumably you know meat. dead, so let's take a quick sip and talk some more yeah, it's definitely the sun that passed the penol, it's time, I think we can do this, oh, so good, so smooth, can you drink this neat?, yeah, yes, what is it? you, what is, what is your, I mean, I'm going to say, I guess it's this because you're here for this, but your favorite relaxed drink, what is it that you usually drink, is it a beer, oh you? re drinker, I mean, generally speaking, you know the drink of choice is drinking a pint of beer, there's more of a special occasion, are you eight years old when it comes to which pint of beer you drink? are you drinking any of your standard beers? like Budweiser or something like that, going for the micro craft beer type somewhere in the middle would be ideal, you know, I mean, I get a huge amount of grief online on social media every time I can show that I'm drinking. from a commercially available beer in a green bottle, now a respectable and reasonably respectable mass market beer.

I always said, how could you be in Portland and not be drinking Mumford & Sons' craft raspberry IPA? you know because I like cold beer you know I like beer that's on hand and frankly I don't like warm beer and you don't want a heavy beer you want I don't want fruity notes or I don't want to I don't have to think about that. I certainly don't want anyone talking about it while they serve it to me. You know, they're telling me this story about You know, you know, a few notes of him is not something I want in my beer.

When it comes to your liquor, do you like the story that comes with it? um, I don't need that, but I mean, overall, I appreciate it. I mean, this is a good one and I really appreciate it. You know, I've actually seen them do these things, but it's unbelievable, but I mean, I'll be honest with you when I go to a restaurant or a bar, I just give myself the basics and I think the product that you know if it's wine or beer or whatever another thing, it will speak for itself, I love good wine, but I... now, after I have been given a certain amount of details, yes, I just need the year where it is from and what I can expect incorrect taste terms and wait and then if there's more I'm like, oh yeah, I thought I was drinking it five minutes ago, you're still talking like it shouldn't take you 12 minutes to make my drink. or you know there's a tall dropper and the 1213 components, how are you doing?

Have you ever been to one of the craft cocktail bars? you know, you go and you're, yeah, you go in with a friend. I mean, the idea of ​​going to a bar is drinking with your friends, you don't sit there staring at your drink waiting another 10 minutes for your friend to have their drink or when your friend knows you, they build this 12-component drink, they squeeze the pomegranate and jam everything fresh. herbs from the sausage or whatever, you know you're done, so it's antisocial if you can't make me my drink in a couple of minutes and you like it too.

I can no longer taste the liquor or my drink. I want nothing. to do with that, I especially never want too much sugar in my drinks. I don't know why it happened. I really hate myself. I want to go to a tiki bar once a year, you know, just face plant a scorpion ball. It's like a dark alley hunter in you that was once the worst thing life can offer, just do the right thing tonight. I need to drink out of a skull and wake up and feel very, very, very bad about myself tomorrow, so when you set out to do season two.

On this you said that you were moving away from the original idea of ​​what we consider artisanal wood manufacturers driving it. I mean, I think look, the pastry chefs and the possibility of that dough coming out of the same medieval guild system as the metal workers, the leather makers. They work with glass, so I think it's not that far-fetched, although I think people inappropriately don't refer to cooking as an art when tattooing is and always has been. I think maybe that was new, but you know. here you are working with a very traditional style that you have learned through the old school apprentice repetition system and working with a master until you reach a certain level most of the time you are working with classic designs rather than always drawing.

Although in this case it is done freehand, I thought it would be interesting that the way you define the craft is like working in a classical field, a learning style in which you learn to improve. The passage of time is certainly a common thread among the artisans we have focused on. Most crafts go back a long time. There are certain traditions and methods that perhaps only a minority of people still adhere to. practice or do this adhere religiously In this series we tend to look for those people who are doing things that work the old way, going the extra mile, taking the extra time, you know, doing it less profitably, unless it's efficient, then the modern era really requires that kind of sacrifice for quality.

I do, but I like that old school where you could trace the craft back to medieval times and before, often yes of course, maybe it's because I cooked for so many years and I really was, to some extent, part of that system , Yeah. That attracts me is cooking is still your job I think I was an artisan and when I was a cook I was certainly not an artist at any time I was not an innovator I was a great cook or chef but I was part of a very old system, I emerged through of a very rigid, downright oppressive hierarchy and, rightly or wrongly, I still have a lingering pride in how difficult any kind of oppressive hierarchy was at the end of the road. because of what they went through and what someone has to go through, I mean, to overcome that hierarchy, I mean, I see, I see, I see someone even doing something as simple as making a really good French fry or grilling a steak and letting it rest. appropriately for this day I respond I respond to that you know I think it's someone who knows someone who knows someone who took the time to not only learn how to do it but in practice we do it that way where it's not necessary.

I mean, there are little things: eggs are always my go-to when I see someone who knows how to cook an egg really well or make a really good scrambled egg. Everyone should know how to make an omelet, so all sentients should be taught. Humans in America should be taught how to make a DC omelette in school, and if you don't know when it's time to leave high school, you should be ashamed. You know, I think it should be a basic life skill, like you know, cleaning. your ass use money responsibly the same goes if you are not vegetarian and eat meat you should know how to roast chicken you should know how to let us sit properly if you are going to eat meat you should know how to eat it you should know how to cook and prepare it yes you should To do it, you have to know how to cook it for yourself and a few others, and you know that anyway if you're any kind of member of any kind. from society group school anything, I mean, you don't want to be the useless one if you share a house with people or a dormitory, you know, no one should be the useless one, everyone involved in this group should be able to roast a chicken. if they're asked to do it, and frankly, they should be made to feel bad about themselves if they can't, also knowing how to do those things gives you a different respect for the flesh.

I think there's also, yeah, I mean, there's also, you know, we should make the most of the ingredients that we're lucky enough to have? Do you think there's something, I mean, specifically, with profiling people who craft and innovate as artisans, as well as profiling these remote destinations that make you go to parts unknown. You know, I think you probably wouldn't want to say it has importance because you're too humble for that, but do you feel like there's a slight importance to be ranked? from profiling the Kraftwerk people who dedicate their lives and time to a specific craft and also profiling far-flung destinations that some might not see in restaurants until I was 44, for me it's honestly a privilege to be able to do this , I'm lucky to be able to do it, it's a joy most of the time to be able to do it because most people can't travel like me, they can't apply all these terrible powers of video cameras to any topic that interests them and in post-production and editing so that the ability to tell a story is creatively satisfying so that I can focus exclusively on the people and places that interest me.

I mean, you know most people in the media, you know what the boss tells them, you know you're doing a Nixon-shaped segment on rutabagas today, or you know the heartwarming story of someone you don't care about at all. I don't live by those rules. I've been very fortunate to do what I want and, if you know, in an almost evangelical way, talk about people doing things. I care about the good ones, so it's a privilege, so I don't know if they're important. I mean, ultimately it's kind of a selfish act, it makes me feel good to do it, so I do it.

Do you think the unwillingness to commit comes from having found success a little later in life and you think, look, right? I don't want to I don't have to do this if I'm not going to do this if I don't want to do it so don't put me in a position where I don't want to do it I think it's a Based on having made many mistakes in my life before being successful with Kitchen Confidential, I think it's also good luck that I made a mistake on TV as the only guy in the room who didn't care at all and I realized very early on that this was a really powerful negotiating position, so that I never had to do it from the beginning and I got used to it very quickly and now I just won't do it any other way.

It's not necessarily integrity, it's just a quality. on the topic of life I don't want to wake up tomorrow and feel bad about what I did, yes, today and I've been careful, but I mean having had those mornings, you know, much of my adult life, I've been careful not to find myself in a position where you know I have to do something which I feel bad about is true. I like to compromise in such a way that I feel bad again. It is not so much the principle or the integrity, but it is a question of quality of life.

I would like to feel good. tomorrow I don't want to hate myself, I know what that's like, you know, now we talked about the importance of profiling people who make crafts and your show that profiles destinations and this weekend you have a Puerto Rico episode coming up on the The episode was obviously filmed before Hurricane Maria, but yeah, I think you talked. I haven't seen the episode, but from what I've read, you talked a lot about the debt that Puerto Rico has. Yeah, you know why that was the kind of The crisis that they were facing while you were there is now a very different issue that's happening.

Was there talk of returning after Maria and juxtaposing then and now? Yeah, it was logistically an impossible situation at the time Maria happened, I was already, you know, in Armenia and you know rural Newfoundland and you know well in a very elaborate, painstaking, expensive itinerary built for the new episodes, I couldn't , but I think what Puerto Rico shows, even though it was before Maria stands out, is how just the terrible, indefensible state of helplessness in the limbo that this wonderful place was in before, I mean, Puerto Rico, they are Americans, They serve in our military, they give so much to this country, we like them when we go play golf and vacation there but we are not so sure about rent that they cannot vote in the presidential elections, they essentially have no power to determine their ownfuture and because of this, for a number of factors, they now find themselves so indebted to basically predatory hedge funds and bankers that they stepped in and bought bonds knowing full well what. was going to happen, they are run by an unelected group of, I think, four or five people who were appointed by the banks to basically strip them of their assets when they choose to distribute those assets, so these are like four or five people appointed by banks foreigners who can Tell them well, I'm sorry, you will have to take money from the pension fund from this matter.

You have to close this many schools. Sorry, you can't make a hospital sell that statue. I mean, they have the right by law to get their money back. you get mud first before you spend anything there, so this is a carbon gecko bought from Wall Streeters or as a tower and it's just falling apart as it wants, it's like Gordon Gekko bought himself a country, although of course, This is part of the United States. and so we explored that and we talked to people who know what can be done and I have to say no, I really didn't talk to a single person from Puerto Rico who saw their way out of this, this is before, now they are what 70 percent still no power no power, people drinking from dirty water and streams this weekend, than the actual death toll after fighting after burning their dead, you know, this again, this is America and I think that's something despite that we filmed before. hurricane we were asking how American Howell American wants to be Porter Rico and how we want American Hui to be, meaning continental, you know, full voting rights, American citizens as they are, they are American citizens, so as an emotional spectacle, and?

What has it been like for you after you've shot after you've made that shot? That show and Hurricane Maria happens and the response of you know this country, this administration to the devastation of Hurricane Maria and Puerto Rico. How has it been for you? many things that make me angry, you know, ashamed, I'm ashamed and angry, but I'm also inspired by people like you, you know José Andrés, my chef, good chef, friend and colleague, who went there and started setting up mobile community kitchens and started feeding people and beginners, 10,000 people and 50,000 people, then a hundred thousand people, more than a million people and he was there for weeks tirelessly doing what needed to be done.

You know, I think he's an inspiration as a chef, as a human being, as a humanist. Dude, so this is one of those cases where you probably feel like you can add a little depth to the national conversation that's going on look, I usually get angry, I'm really angry about things that you know we do, we talk about the hurricane and the voice-over. and we added a little bit of footage at the beginning of the show to let people know, but yeah, I like what I could do on an angry show, well, a lot of what you do I'm so much about having fun and traveling.

Many times you recreate and know the tone and style of your favorite movies or shows in these different parts of the world. You're also doing everything you can to draw people's attention to the way a culture lives, the way a culture thrives, yeah and the food of a culture and anyone will tell you that the way people eat and how they eat and the traditions of eating in different cultures is really the backbone of those calls. Yeah, great, extend an explanation of what you know about a history and a culture, but we do. What we do more of is some more serious shows these days, but I know I'm always careful to include some episodes that are just food porn or a broken ass who broke a shin with Erick's repair, you know, and a A show full of idiots bouncing around the French Alps, you know, just having a great time.

You know, we really like to change things. Nobody wants to get hit. that that's not a reflection of who I am, I mean, I'm a bit manic, you know, I have happy days and then dark days, and you know, I think the work expresses that and I think in terms of a kind of food porn or The kind of beautifully filmed craft event series that you have on YouTube really has the opportunity to have a lot of that porn, it's for lack of a better word, even work, Ted to the pies, motorcycle craft, you know, those are the three episodes of this season that are. that are out right now and there are incredibly beautiful images of people executing their craft, yeah, I mean, I have a fetish about the details of preparing certain foods and even things that you wouldn't think I would respond to, you know?

I'm surprised that, you know, he's looking, so he spent a month introducing you to the best chef's knife in the world and it's hot, you know, we should. I mean, as people, we should be excited and excited by people who execute something to the best of their ability. doing it and the process behind it first for decades. I personally blame the boomers for decades. We've been kind of a culture that devours what's easiest, what's around us and what's easiest, and we have no interest in the details behind those things. and I think something like, you know, the series that you're doing, hopefully, pushes people to get a little more involved in the processes behind what they eat and the tools.

There is something really deeply beautiful and satisfying about holding or using a carefully made object. I never thought it would be, you know, looking longingly at the shoes or the suits, you know it was never me, but this show has been on numerous times, you know, you want to wave your hand over there, no necklaces, when that's like a job really amazing now that I. I know how it's done and how difficult it is. You know, now I noticed the shoes. Okay, I might be a little scared about that. You know, I've never done it before.

It was the last thing, but now I'll do it. I will notice it. kind of a couple, those are like some custom made Jews, I didn't know which one, I still can't identify them, but I've learned things I never thought I'd know anything about, do you feel like you have a newfound respect for crafts that are aligned with the place you originally came from when it came to crafts, did you always have that respect? It's not the exposure if I had known, I would have been respectful, but from my experience I think it was so limited.

I've never been exposed to people who made shoes by hand, for example. I mean, I always appreciate and respect people who put in the time and effort to do things really well. I mean, those are basic human qualities that should be admired and brought to me. able to respect those qualities, I just didn't know people in those fields, I haven't seen what it takes, I haven't seen them do the work, so now I want to say, you know, I know better, I have been and I am. aware of the details of what it really entails and you know, of course, that it makes you more grateful.

Have you brought any of these hobbies into your home or any of these other crafts? Have you tried working on them yourself? I mean Daniel Day-Lewis. He became a famous furniture maker shoemaker after one performance and now he is a dressmaker after his new movie, yes, but to make anything, I mean anything, I'm not that smart, I don't know how long it took me most of 20 years to become even reasonably good at a French bistro kitchen I think it's too late you know, you know, maybe one day I'll make bad sausages, you know, that would make them start now and that big bad sausage been in my backyard and and and and you know, subject my friends consider it scientific experiments when they come, yeah, that's right, it's my new batch before I open it to the kinetic audience.

I don't know if I've asked you this before, but if I have, I apologize and I apologize for not asking it, if I haven't, what's your because we're talking about, do you know how long you let a stake sit or and I said eggs, do you know? what is your favorite thing to cook? You know, it's generally considered simple. but you still have fun doing it well pasta pasta pasta pasta it's still magical like making pasta by hand there most Italians don't eat fresh pasta often that's a suture something seasonal or something occasional you know a good commercially available dry pasta It is a beautiful thing, it is about obtaining it.

I have come to that. I come for Italian food. I had some restaurant experience in Italian restaurants, but not for long, it's not my area of ​​expertise, but. At the end of my life I have it alone for some reason, it makes me very happy and there is a moment when you make the sauce and finish it while the pasta is finished in the boiling water and the sauce is reduced and ends in the in the pan , when you drag almost fully cooked pasta straight out of the water, you drag some starchy water into the pan and start dumping it in to completely dress now too much sauce, now dress the pasta and this is the time when you jacket maybe with a final drizzle of olive oil and there is a moment when the pasta settles and swells.

You could say that something happens physically where the pasta absorbs the sauce and the whole dish starts to behave differently. This is deeply satisfying. For me, it makes me incredibly happy and I cook pasta at every opportunity and am very proud of my modest pasta skills. The tomato sauce that you normally use tomato, tomato would be one, but I mean, I love it, like we forgot about alla bottarga, which is super. simple, it's basically mullet or tuna roe, cured chili flakes, olive oil, super simple or spaghetti with sea urchin roe again, super simple, but there is a time when the three or four simple ingredients come together to perfection and are the simplest pastas. those are the heart, those are the hardest, like cacio e pepe, which are three ingredients, super simple things, you know, a real carbonara, there's no cream in the carbonara, it's easy to make with creep, do it without, it's complicated .

I want to mention the brand ambassador. the Balvenie who will answer all our questions about it. Her name is Gemma Patterson, let's get her here right now. Give him a round of applause. Everyone you know is suitable for this. Yeah, why don't you talk to? Tell us how the process of making a bottle of Balvenie goes and I'm going to pour us a couple more drinks while you talk, yeah that sounds good so I'll tell you about the process, well there's a lot that goes into doing this. whiskey, not only do we mature for 12 years and the barrel rests and in our warehouse before it is ready for us to drink and enjoy, but it is also decades of experience, which calms anything to make this, I mean our longest serving craftsman in the Bovania distillery has been with us since 1958, we have a team of approximately 40 craftsmen and if I add up the combined decades they have spent making this whiskey, that's over a thousand years of experience combined, the guy of person who is there with you, who is He has been there since 1958, yes, our copra Smith Dennis McBain, you have a little bit of shoulder.

Toni met him at the distillery. It's like you're working in a completely steampunk environment. He is very old. A tinker. she, a copper distillation equipment, yes, yes, he lights it, he maintains the copper stills that we distill in, yes, you seem to know one of those old laboratories from the Victorian era, it is extraordinary to see that they have people from Cooper making barrels, it's one of those incredible ones. things that I think about when we talk about occupations in this country and the idea of ​​occupation is something that you constantly advance on some kind of ladder, but when you actually have a profession like this, the advancement is more and more It's comfortable to experiment and innovate and you just know that working a little at your craft is a different experience, it requires a huge amount of dedication and you spend decades of your life coming to the same workplace doing the same thing working with the same material with copper, no, those little differences with each other and little by little the NDI becomes almost instinctive and so Tony was talking to the pasta with the chefs in the kitchen, it's the same thing, it becomes instinctive when you look at our malt master. he spent 12 years as an apprentice sniffing barrels just by smelling whiskey and in the end he made between 50 and a hundred different samples every day after 12 years, at the age of only 29, he was in the position to take over as master blender of the entire company and there are 12 of these guys in the entire industry and in the entire industry, yes, there are 12 master blenders of Scotch whiskey, so at the age of 29 he became one of the 12 and now he is the 55-year-old gentleman with us, but each barrel is unique, just like when you cook.

In the kitchen, your grocery store, the raw materials you cook with, will not necessarily be the same every day, so the barrels are unique to each one and constantly have to change and balance to ensure this consistency, so that when we have our double. with 12 by the way, any kind of sip of this, yeah, let's applaud guys. Greetings, wait, so I'm curious. He's been there for 55 years. He became the masked master at 29. Do you have an apprentice who is ready? Ready and ready to take his place in case you know God forbid yes,very important for all learning learning structure the distillery obviously incredibly important these are skills that need to be passed down from generation to generation so it is very important that you have an apprentice to choose from Improve these skills, yes we are covering well, well.the bar exam we did, I mean, and this was, I mean, we first released it in 1993, so we're celebrating 25 years of this whiskey next year and it's the same day that we first did it because of his nose. and your palate, so you're training someone, how much whiskey do you drink daily?

Me personally, it depends on the day. I got some questions from the audience here, who has a question right here, okay, hello, thanks for being here among all the books. that you have written, which do you find the most fun and why, of all the books I have written, is it enjoyable to write? I think probably Kitchen Confidential because I didn't have time to write, I didn't have time to think about what I was writing. I was still working 12 to 14 or 16 hours a day. I would wake up in the morning before going to the kitchen and write in a state of complete freedom, free of any hope or expectation that I would sell a single book or that anyone would ever read it, and it was a very liberating experience for me.

By not having to think about expectations, I never thought for a second about what people want because I was pretty sure no one would read it if I didn't have time to talk. Stress from, you know, trying to make every sentence perfect. I just woke up Jamis with the cigarette in my face and started writing and then when it was time to go to work, I got to work. What was the point? I wrote it below. I had written an article that ended up in The New Yorker and a few days later I received a phone call saying that we will give you 50 grand to write a book and 50 grand for me at that time was an imagined Abal spectacular shipment of money that was going to cure all my hills and I really did what do you mean?

Oh my god, I hadn't paid rent in months. I wake up, I remember that I can express that they have been calling me and I have not answered for 10 years and I have not filed taxes for about the same period of time, so I am not a true addict. The next question. Hi, so it's just with a good whiskey or some alcohol. Isn't it better to drink it alone or were they at a cocktail? Do you think the cocktail might take you away? For part of the fun, I think the most important thing to note about the rope, can you talk to him?

I mean, my job is to travel the country talking to people about drinking this drink and I've learned that everyone has their own ritual. way they like to enjoy it whether it's with water whether it's with ice cold beer mixed into an old fashioned stirred cocktail there are so many different ways to enjoy this the most important thing is to find your own way and how you enjoy it and the reason why you're drinking it, I mean, just drinking it, enjoying it on its own, it might be what you're looking for, it might be 90 degrees outside and you're in Florida, which I learned when I first moved to the country.

I'd like to drink my old whiskey with a cube so you know it's versatile. Do people drink scotch like an old whiskey? I mean, I drink old whiskey regularly, but I've never had it with whiskey, can you? I mean, we work. with some amazing bartenders across the country making great cocktails with this thing you're using, make a quality cocktail, use a quality liquor, each one has its own kind of subtlety, variation and differences, yes you can do whatever you want with it, it's yours. drink if you want to mix it in a cocktail mix it in a cocktail I prefer to drink one like yeah, yeah, okay, for a 25 year old single malt whiskey.

I'd like just, oh, maybe a rock, what, a rock, possibly, many. I won't agree, you open it in a way that I like a little coke for myself, maybe like a scotch and coke, please don't here, hello, do you think it's like location matters when It's about creating, you know, you know? alcoholic beverages, whether it's whiskey or scotch, there's such a big bilocation issue that that big question has anyone from Scotland. I got it pretty good, we have one hundred and twenty distilleries spread across the country in Scotland, not too bad for five million people. We are fine, we are producing a good amount of whiskey, but we can explain the country in whiskey production regions, so bhavini is in a region called space that like, which is where almost 50% of our distillery czar, in Actually, if you go out. west and there's another region called ila, it's an island off the west coast of Scotland where we have a handful of distilleries that make very smoky peated whiskeys, so there are some regional variations, but speaking of them, there's a question and whiskey It's about terroir and what does that really mean when it comes to making Scotch whisky?

Because we have, I mean, the west coast of Scotland is a lot wetter, believe it or not, than the east coast, it's a little bit drier, but a lot of distilleries use it commercially today. source of barley that they are using, they have a central location, as we say, in the central belt of Scotland, so they are not actually even maturing their whiskey where it is made and something that we are really proud of with bovania is that we are doing everything on site, from having a room using our water source throughout, growing our own barley, malting ourselves on site as well and that whole maturation period for the whiskeys to rest and if Tony is drinking a bhavini of twenty-five years that I spent 25 years maturing next to our distillery and it's something that I can count on one hand the number of distilleries that I have, those hundred and twenty distilleries in Scotland that are doing that today there is a reason why you know the wines of Burgundy.

They are revered through a history throughout the world and you know that the wines from Paterson, New Jersey are not as famous. Well, I'm a big believer in terroir and it was the other way around, like when I travel around Italy, I even drink local wine. if the local wine is not that wonderful because if I eat food from a particular region of Italy I am interested in drinking that regional wine even if it is not particularly good it seems like they go together it is an expression of something I know where I know I am in a different place from where I was, maybe yesterday?

So I think the answer is short. Yes, it really does make all the difference in the world, whether it's the animals you eat, the produce, the wines or spirits, the cheese, whatever it is. the soil that terroir the air the water and the experience of the people who grew up around those things we have been making whiskey in Scotland since at least the 1400s so, by the way, they don't call it Scotch in Scotland. call it whiskey, oh, you've mentioned that you fell in love with food when you tried your first oyster in France and I'm wondering when it was, what was the moment when you fell in love with maybe whiskey or liquor and why did you choose whiskey too, the Same question goes for you, why whiskey versus wine or something, you know, whiskey snuck up on me, I mean alcohol, the pleasant derangement of the senses is something you know all humans are, most humans are. humans crave or liked at some point.

It certainly became clear to me very early on as a chef that it was not only an important part of my personal lifestyle choices, but also an important part of the food. You know, there's a bit of a stir. You know, the wine pairing. You know there's something. For me, bar culture is wonderful, even sitting alone in a bar and drinking a decent shot of whiskey. There is something about this environment that is good for the soul. You know, in moderation, whiskey came late. Scotch whiskey's appreciation of the good of good whiskey arrived. For me, a little late, for me it was a function of age.

I started thinking about it a little more. To appreciate it a little more. It became a war where, as I learn more about it, I become more aware of the nuances. There are certain times when I drink whiskey and other times when I don't, when I'm feeling really good about the world or I'm feeling really bad about the world, that's when I tend to go and I tend to reach for brown liquors in general, it's on the spectrum. , is rarely in the middle. I'm in a philosophical mood when I tell the truth when I drink whiskey and I often drink it neat, not sitting tragically in front of the TV watching The Simpsons in my underwear drinking from the bottle, I mean I like sitting in a bar, what a picture, Lada, you know, a gallon jug of Wolf's Gloves in a box of, you know, Cap'n Crunch, we already have Ball, man, but now you know there's something about, you know, I've talked about the ideal whiskey.

Drinking situation, it's four in the afternoon in a pub in Scotland or Ireland, and you know you're sitting at the bar and you know there's something you have to do, you know Tom Waits or Sarah Cain are poor or the Pogues are on the jukebox and the light is perfect and there are specks of dust floating in the few rays of light that pass through the dirty glass of the window, it's a good time to drink whiskey, everything that's been made by hand this way It goes back to what we were saying. before it has a history and what you just described is your perfect moment to get injured from drinking whiskey also embodies all those historical aspects you're talking about the Pogues you're talking about Scotland, so as if you know that, it ends up becoming something that the perfect moment embodies much of the story.

I think there are times in your life when you are more likely to be receptive to the wonders of food and drink. You know there are moments. I'm sure we've all had them. at some point you realize that it's forbidden, this wine is really good, it could even be magical too, you know, so when you are in a place willing to receive that kind of information and experience it, at best you're not experiencing food to For example, in an intellectual way or not, you're not reading it, you're not analyzing it, you're experiencing it in a very emotional way, so when can I do that?

When can I experience a really good whiskey or wine? in an emotional way, I'm not thinking about bubblegum notes and no, I'm thinking about God, he's just making my soul happy, I would say you know, smell and taste, are there evocative things as powerful as how many times have you smelled something? forks? It transported you instantly to a moment, to a time, to a place to bother, well, I mean, when people use this drink as an occasion to celebrate, let's say you fix it, celebrated a wedding, a friend's birthday and the Next time you try it it's almost like that. celebration, that moment comes back, when did you first fall in love with scotch whiskey?

Well, I mean, consistent. I grew up on the west coast of Scotland on an island called Lewis, which is beautiful, but the winters are dark, cold, wet and miserable etc. You know it's kind of a part of life there, everyone is, you know, enjoying a warm and drum at the end of the day and it's a feature in your bar, a warm and DRAM, a warm drum, warming up DRAM, so what It's, sorry, dramas, Shaw, okay. a drink is a drink, but there's more to a drink than just a drink, you know, so there's no real measure of what drama it is.

My definition of drama is Hello, Jenner, your hostess, so you served me the drum. I'd say you know. okay it's a pretty good job yeah it's a hefty DRAM we're starting to gel well but yeah it's a feature at home in the bar and you're my dad's bar we always had a bottle of whiskey and I . I mean space eight five years ago and when people, by the way, when I travel around the US and they ask me where I'm from, I say space view and I get this blank stare, like what I mentioned, drawn to you because I don't think everyone thinks in terms of whiskey, like there's no room in the whiskey producing region where we have over half the distilleries, so they were right around the corner and I mean name any other industry that is so generous and educates. people about their drink, I mean all our distilleries in Scotland, they invite people to come, explore and discover.

Visit us at Bovania Distillery and you will know that we will show you every part of the whiskey making process and take you on a tour. there, so I fell in love with it and got into the industry. I didn't really know much about Scotch, but there's a real community in the whiskey industry and that sucked me in and I like to joke, I lost my life. Scotch whiskey four years ago and I'm still doing it, the pubs in the space are amazing, I mean, as you can imagine, when everyone, all the customers, are with the experts and working in distilleries, good, good food and drink, last question , what do you say it was the toughest kitchen you've ever worked in the toughest kitchen look, it was probably my first full-time job in New York at the Rainbow Room, it was a big, high-volume restaurant on top of Rockefeller Center. .

It was a union house, it was a very, very, very hard kitchen, very cruel, brutal and you know, I was the new fish in the ward and it was hard, you know, physically hard, emotionally hard, the food wasn't particularly good. , but I just followed the rhythm of thisflattening. workload while I was, you know, a beauty mocked, physically and mentally abused by my superiors and colleagues, you know, in this, you know, 12 different languages ​​were spoken in the kitchen, none of them were mine, you know, this was a Steep learning curve for a young cook. from culinary school, but it was difficult, very difficult, do you have a deep fondness for that experience?

Also, as much as you say, mentally and physically abusive at times, you also have a kind of, like we said, those that come from the oppressed. overcome the oppressed hierarchy end up having a certain kind of you know, I don't know, I think my pride in putting up with that led me to glamorize it in a way that I now feel uncomfortable with, I mean, look, you know, Elsa could put it I mean, I was sexually abused in the kitchen openly every day. I now had the option of stabbing the offender in the hand with a meat fork which most people don't have and to everyone, I was a hero to everyone in the kitchen and let's just say it.

The relationship with the guy who was giving me trouble became a lot more civil after that, as you can imagine, but this is an option that most people don't have in other workplaces or any workplace for that matter. I think I was proud to have overcome it. I'm a little more ambivalent about how I could have portrayed that's all, whether it was a triumph or not, you know, looking back, I have my problems in the kitchen too, but they never got that far, so guys, let people see the new season of raw crafts up. any raw raw craft with Anthony Bourdain can go to the YouTube page.

I think that's it if you just type in your browser raw craft us it will take you directly there. 13 episodes online right now mm-hmm over three seasons. and Anthony parts unknown is Sunday night Sunday, barring unforeseen news, it will be Sunday and you know people can pick up all over the world, yes, all over the world, well, in most countries, but here , certainly, here in the US, in most liquor stores. you will be able to find the ball Benny Anthony Bourdain and Gemma Patterson thank you guys, thank you