Book Review: "In the Weeds: Around the World and Behind the Scenes with Anthony Bourdain" by Tom Vitale

This memoir is a funny, sometimes emotional look at what it was like to work with Anthony Bourdain by someone who knew him well.

“Is there such a thing as vacation-of-a-lifetime PTSD where your main tormentor is also your hero, mentor, and boss? After having had these intense experiences of being in the trenches together with Tony and with the crew, sharing these adrenaline-inducing, life-altering experiences, going back to my regular life felt like the real trauma.”

When famed chef, author, and television personality Anthony Bourdain committed suicide in June 2018, it shocked the world. This man, a kind of culinary badass, always seemed to be tearing into travel and food experiences around the world with such gusto and bravado.

But as much as his death shook the world, it affected his colleagues tremendously. Tom Vitale started working with Bourdain in 2002, and worked with him almost nonstop for 16 years, traveling the world with him, directing and producing nearly 100 episodes of three Bourdain programs—No Reservations, The Layover, and Parts Unknown.

In this tremendously affecting book, Vitale details what it was like to go along for the ride of his life with Bourdain. He recounts shooting in some of the most exotic—and some of the most dangerous—places, where they were threatened with violence, war, corruption, poor sanitary conditions, and sometimes, horrible food. (Being a picky eater, the latter was often a problem for Vitale.) It’s amazing just how much detail, stress, and often, strife, went into every show.

But where In the Weeds truly shined was where Vitale tried to make sense of his relationship with Bourdain, the finality of his loss, and what to do next with his own life. He shed light on the good and bad aspects of Bourdain’s personality, and what he learned about himself from doing the show and working with Tony. He also tried to figure out, as many others did, what signs they might have missed.

I thought this was excellent. It gets a little graphic sometimes in its descriptions of preparing animals for cooking, but that’s easily skimmed over. So glad I read this and that Vitale was willing to share his memories of Bourdain with us.