Anthony Bourdain’s Love for Culinary Arts Started in Provincetown

Anthony Bourdain was a celebrity chef and travel documentarian who created a career out of exploring the world and telling stories.

In his Emmy Award-winning series, No Reservations, he traveled around the globe to explore cities, villages, and countries to better understand the people and their cuisine.

In one episode, he shared the story of how his love for culinary arts blossomed.

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It all began in the 70’s in Provincetown, Massachusetts when a dishwasher didn’t show up for work. That was the butterfly effect that set into motion Bourdain’s illustrious career.

While walking along the shore of a quiet beach on the Cape, Bourdain reminisced on “happier, stupider times”, when he arrived in Provincetown in the early 70’s.

“A wonderland of tolerance (with a ) long-time tradition of accepting artists, writers, the badly behaved, the gay, the different…It was paradise,” he said.

Referring to those days as “a golden time,” Bourdain shared photographs of a young Anthony,

He was a self-described deadbeat with no direction and no plan.

READ MORE: This Cape Cod Attraction Ranked Among Best in the World

Thank goodness for Johnny Yuengling, the owner of Spiritus Pizza, who let a young Bourdain sleep on top of the walk-in for the restaurant.

“Tony was a little wilder than some and not as wild as others, but he was a guy that I always liked,” said Yuengling.

As the two friends caught up over fresh seafood at The Lobster Pot, Bourdain reflected on the exact moment his life began.

“I hadn’t been working for a while, I was a deadbeat…and Nancy Pool comes home from work and says, ‘Our dishwasher didn’t show up today. You are our new dishwasher.’ The next day I put on the apron and I didn’t take it off for thirty years,” he said.

His cooking career started at The Flagship, and from there, he would become a celebrity chef, accomplished author, and household name in the world of food.

Bourdain left this world in 2018, but his legacy will forever live on.

And to think, he has an absent dishwasher from the Cape to thank for it.