FOOD NEWS
The Place Anthony Bourdain Worked His First Job In The Food Industry
BY AUTUMN SWIERS
Anthony Bourdain was an outspoken New Yorker through and through, but the chef-slash-writer first cut his culinary teeth in Massachusetts at the now-closed Flagship Restaurant.
The year was 1972 and Bourdain was fresh out of high school. At the Flagship Restaurant restaurant, which he nicknamed "The Dreadnaught," Bourdain got a job as a dishwasher.
In his book, "Kitchen Confidential," Bourdain described the restaurant as a sleepy, welcoming, unfancy, driftwood-forward seafood joint where the cooks ruled the roost.
"In the kitchen, [the cooks] were like gods," wrote Bourdain, adding, "They dressed like pirates ... They had style and swagger, and they seemed afraid of nothing."
Bourdain didn't start working in kitchens out of a desire to be a cook. He started working as a dishwasher because his friends were annoyed that he wasn’t helping with the rent.
Bourdain’s roommate got him a job at a restaurant where she worked and his journey began. He wrote, "It was from these humble beginnings that I began my strange climb to chefdom."