Janković was Bourdain’s host during his visit to Croatia.
The news about the death of Anthony Bourdain shook the world yesterday. The famous chef and TV presenter was found dead in a hotel room in France where he was filming a new episode of his TV show. In 2011, Bourdain visited Croatia and filmed an episode of his “No Reservations” show. His host was Croatian chef Mate Janković, who shared his thoughts on the late colleague.
“Yesterday, my phone rang the whole day, and my inbox was full of messages about Anthony Bourdain’s death. I was shocked and needed time to comprehend the news. The shock was even greater when I found out that it was a suicide.
In fact, the story of Bourdain and me begins in the early 2000s, when I first read his book Kitchen Confidential. His style of writing was very close to me and the bittersweet description of the culinary world was something which we had all experienced. That was a story about chaos, about demons of a man who has decided to become a chef. The story actually had a happy end, or at least I thought so until today.
I met Bourdain for the first time in Bermuda, where he was a guest chef and hosted a dinner at the restaurant I worked at. His “No Reservations” show was well-known at the time, but it was still far from the popularity which came in later years. Tall, slim, smiling, eloquent and charmingly vulgar. At the presentation of the dinner in front of prominent guests, it was the first time that ‘one of us’ stepped forward and without hesitation began to talk using the classic chef vocabulary, including curses.
I was happy to be present at the moment when someone violated all the rules of restaurant communication. Never in my life have the curses sounded so good and proper. The guests jokingly approved of his cheerful approach and rewarded him with a long applause. He sat down at the table with guests, but after the third course he got up, took his drink and went to the kitchen where he remained for the rest of the evening. The night ended with heavy drunkenness in the walk-in refrigerator where 10 chefs drank beer until dawn.
He left and I started watching his show more closely. I often thought how great it would be to be his guide during a visit to Croatia. Seven years passed, and the destiny did its job. I don’t know how, but they reached me and asked me to work with them.
I think that was one of the happiest days in my life. I contacted the colleagues I knew would do a phenomenal promotion job. His production staff said which areas we should cover, and I picked what I thought were the best venues. For nine days we travelled and filmed. In reality, it was not a job; it was like a dream. The atmosphere was perfect. He was relaxed, humorous and ready for the adventure. We drank a lot, maybe too much, and there is not one scene in the show which was filmed in a completely normal state. The conversations were sometimes deeply intimate. Stories of addiction, of family, of a devastated and complex life. One evening we sat on the terrace of Boškinac, where he told me at which moment he decided to get off heroin. That story will forever be engraved in my mind. In front of me was a man who had overcome addiction, who made a step forward and wrote a book about the beautiful and ugly moments in his life.
While drinking Cabernet Merlot during that warm autumn night, listening to his story, I was sitting beside a man who had defeated his demons. He spoke with enthusiasm about his role as the father of a child and of the husband of his wonderful wife. But today I realized that these demons never leave, they are always with you and are just waiting for a moment of weakness to take everything from you. In this story, everyone can find themselves, and I see a part of myself here. I am sorry I never saw him again; I was secretly hoping that we would again sit on a terrace somewhere and discuss life.
A great man is gone, for only a great man can return from hell and do what he has done. I do not know what happened to him, but something broke and the life stopped. Chef, wherever you are, eat an oyster for me as well,” wrote Janković on his Facebook profile.
