Anthony Bordain vs. Julia Child
Dave Nelson
English 1010 (2:30)
While Bourdain and Child are both passionate and creative chefs, Mrs. Child’s dated practices
and ideas leave her as an iconic relic to Bourdain’s contemporary and modern concepts. Both Bourdain
and Child are classically trained French chefs with an established pedigree of cooking and fine dining.
Bourdain graduated from the Culinary Institute of America in 1978 and Child attended Le Cordon Bleu in
Paris, France. Both chefs moved on to write several books and have successful television shows in the
United States.
Julia Child was born 1912 in Pasadena, California and really had little experience growing up
with cooking and fine dining until 1946 when she married her husband while working for the OSS during
World War II. After WWII, Child and her husband moved to Paris where she attended her formal culinary
training and studied under many master chefs. Initially Child spent her time writing cooking book and
magazine articles and it wasn’t until she was a guest on a book review television show that she was
discovered as a television star. Mrs. Child is known primarily for her television show The French Chef
which ran for 10 years and won numerous awards. Child had a few smaller television shows in her
career but settled back down in Southern California for the remainder of her life.
Anthony Bourdain was born in 1956 in New York City, New York where he still remains a
prominent figure in the media. Bourdain was also fairly inexperienced when it came to cooking for the
first part of his life. He attended college for two years before dropping out to train to become a chef.
After graduation from CIA, Bourdain worked at small restaurants in New York until in 1998 he was hired
as the executive chef for Brassiere Les Halles. Bourdain was recognized nationtionally when his first
book received great praise from the media. He went on to write several more books but is best known
for his television show “No Reservations” which ran until 2012 when he left to work for CNN.
Both of these chefs have lots of similarities such as their love and passion for food, their writing
abilities, television shows, and such but they are two VERY different people. Child seems to be the pure
optimist whose cheerful demeanor and exuberance seemed to grab hold of American viewer’s attention
and brought them the culinary techniques she had learned throughout her years. Bourdain on the other
hand is a cynical pessimist who’s subtle humor, apathetic attitude, and intense sarcasm has gathered a
large following of fans and critics alike.
I have watched and enjoyed Bourdain’s television show No Reservations for years but my
experience with Child’s The French Chef has been limited to vague memories as a child of watching her
television show with my grandmother. I have also read one of Bourdain’s books while I have never read
any of Child’s literature. Most of this I attribute to the kairos of both individuals. With 44 years between
their births, they grew up in and produced their works in different generations. Some of this I give to my
bias towards Bourdain as we are both sardonic sarcastic asses.
Child’s show The French Chef was a cooking show which was filed mostly in her own home. (She
did have a custom built kitchen to adapt for her considerable height) She brought French cuisine to the
United States and into the homes of Americans across the country. He show was also the first to feature
closed captioning for the hearing impaired. Child’s exuberant attitude led to her subtle humor and was
almost as if she was funny without trying. She would drop a whole chicken on the floor of her kitchen,
pick it up, dust it off, and continue on like nothing had happened with a quick statement of “No one will
see” her only comment. Child’s self-giving attitude inspired new chefs and housewives across the entire
country.
Bourdain’s show No Reservations was on the Travel channel and showed him traveling the
world to different and diverse cultures and the cuisines that came with it. His apathetic attitude
facetiousness makes Bourdain entertaining and amusing. Even with his impoliteness, Bourdain has
successfully brought new cultures and ideas to not just the country, but much of the world. I believe
that Bourdain’s show didn’t entirely represent him and who he was. He seemed to be forced to do a lot
of things that he did not want to do but were a necessary evil to keep the fantastic job that he had. In
reading his books, you get to see a little bit of his lighter side. He also writes of dropping steaks on the
floor, picking them up, dusting them off, and calling it “seasoning”. (If I remember correctly)
In the end, comparing and contrasting the personas of Anthony Bourdain and Julia Child turned
out to have just as many comparisons as it did contrasts. While these two chefs have very different
attitudes and outlooks on life, they both just wanted to share culture with the rest of the world. They
showed people that there was more to the world than just what they saw around them. They inspired
young chefs, foodies, and culinary writers all over the world. So maybe Bourdain is just the Julia Child of
this generation. As society evolves and changes, so do our idols and icons. Bourdain seems to have
picked up the torch where Child left off. With his subtle humor, he has grabbed the attention of people
and showed them now more than just French cuisine but MANY different cuisines from across the
world. As our world lives and advances, we learn more and more about each other. Even though we are
all the same species and genetic material, we are all different and have great things that we can learn
from each other.