Anthony Bourdain’s favourite late-night dining spot in the world
Anthony Bourdain was a true original when it came to the world of television chefs. His travel and food documentaries were awash with an honest, down-to-earth quality that is absent from the vast majority of food-based programming. Above all else, there was a distinct lack of pretentiousness, which shines through when it comes to the chef’s favourite late-night spot in the world.
Within the Parts Unknown documentaries, you got the sense that Bourdain was as excited and interested to learn about other cultures and their food as we, the viewers, were. He did not travel to these far-flung corners of the globe with the kind of arrogant, colonial attitude that various other Western chefs do. In essence, that quality goes back to the man’s humble upbringing in New York City.
Bourdain was an archetypal New York punk at heart, born and bred in Manhattan, and he imbued that spirit into his documentary work. Although he might have been travelling through small, remote villages on the other side of the planet, New York never left him. Admittedly, Bourdain never wanted it to leave him.
He was always outspoken about the culinary delights of New York, once saying in a travel piece for The Guardian, “There is better French food in New York these days than what they’re serving at Le Veau d’Or.” In an interview, when asked about what he misses most about the US when he is away from home, the chef immediately and decidedly answered, “The pastrami sandwich at Katz’s Delicatessen in New York City.”
The late chef had always been outspoken about his utter adoration for Katz’s Delicatessen, the NYC deli billed as the oldest in the entire city. With a history dating back to 1888, Katz’s has been dishing out their iconic pastrami sandwiches for well over a century. As Bourdain himself explained in an interview, “When you’re the best and everybody agrees that you’re the best and has always felt you’re the best, you tend to say open.”
Katz’s Deli not only takes the honour of being Bourdain’s favourite late-night dining spot, but the favourite dining spot of the chef altogether. Continuing in his loving speech about the place, he says “This is an institution in the best sense of the word. If you think of New York, you think of pastrami, you think of Katz’s.” While Bourdain might be somewhat overestimating global interest in pastrami here, the fact remains that Katz’s is one of the most popular and iconic spots in the entirety of the Big Apple.
The deli, which is open for 24 hours on Saturdays, remains operational to this day in the lower East Side of New York, where it has stood since 1888. More recently, the deli has opened up a secondary store across the river in Brooklyn, something that Bourdain was not overly keen on. However, the deli always remained a favourite haunt of Bourdain, with him decisively saying, in that trademark New York way, “This is it. They do it right, here.”
