Anthony Bourdain's Secret For Ordering A Restaurant's Best Dish

Anthony Bourdain was passionate about the world of food, both as a chef and as a diner. Through his writing and television shows, he introduced his audience to culinary experiences that ranged from the seemingly mundane to the exotic, treating them all as worthwhile and enjoyable. When it came to enjoying food, he appreciated it in a unique way, thanks to his experience on both sides of the table. For Bourdain, the best thing you could order at any restaurant was whatever the chef thought you should eat.

In 2010, Anthony Bourdain spoke on the Good Food Podcast about how to have the best eating experience possible. "Ideally, eating should be a completely emotional, non-intellectual experience," he explained. He used the example of how a chef eats to clarify. "They generally walk into restaurants and say 'I'll have what you're good at,'" Bourdain said. That puts the trust in the chef, allowing them to focus on what they know will taste good, rather than the customer having to come up with demands.

Those were the meals that he said he enjoyed best. There were many spots Anthony Bourdain loved to eat at across the U.S., so his words carry some weight. He went on to explain that he saw a shift in how restaurants and younger chefs approached food, one that allowed customers to have a better dining experience.

"Chefs are freer to suggest 'this is what I think you should be eatin','" Bourdain explained, referring to what he saw as a change in the culinary world compared to a decade prior. You can see how that would result in a better meal no matter which restaurant you visit. Any chef, when tasked with doing what they do best, is going to give you their best dish.

The advice is deceptively simple. The best dish at a restaurant is going to be whatever the chef is really good at making. But we often don't approach dining that way, or at least we didn't used to. You go to a restaurant, look at the menu, and choose something the chef may not be passionate about. Maybe it's a new menu item they've never even cooked before. Depending on the restaurant, that could very well happen.

Not every restaurant used to be so chef-focused. When the kitchen staff is working with someone else's menu, it has little creative control. That tends to stifle passion. Bourdain was a man whose absolute best cooking lessons often focused on appreciating simple joys. Remember, he once defended a small-town Olive Garden fan who was falling victim to snarky critics. So his advice was to sidestep any constraints that a chef may have had and let them shine. Let them follow the passion that got them into cooking in the first place. You, as a customer, have far less control over what you're eating that way, but that goes back to Bourdain's first point that this should be an emotional, not an intellectual, endeavor. Don't think about it, just enjoy it.