Roast Bone Marrow and Parsley Salad

I became smitten with Anthony Bourdain since reading the first few pages of his book Kitchen Confidential. Immediately I loved his writing voice, I became hooked and continued to read his books.

And watch all of his tv shows. He was so fun to watch, and open my eyes to adventures I could have never dreamed of. I visited Les Halles on just about all my trips to NYC, knowing he was no longer the chef. But the pommes frites, the atmosphere, imagining him cooking in the kitchen was always drew me. I was sad to see it was closed on my most recent visit.

We were lucky enough to see him in person during his book tour in 2010. He was, of course, as natural on stage delivering his monologue as he was during the Q&A. While he always focused on food and feeding people, his adoration for his daughter brought his focus closer to home and inspired his latest family meals style cookbook.

“…They fuck with our children’s minds, we need to fuck with them right back…”

He said this regarding marketing tactics of what he referred to as the King, the Colonel, and the Clown. We have a child the same age. He told his daughter the Clown had cooties, a brilliant tactic for discouraging her from eating there at a young age. This presented a new level to relate to him, I wasn’t expecting that.

A favorite cookbook, My Last Supper, one that I can sit an re-read many times over. Though, perhaps it is not even considered a cookbook, but a book with gorgeous photos and memorable interviews with famous chefs that happens to contain recipes. Delicious recipes at that.

Anthony Bourdain stated his last supper as roast bone marrow with parsley salad. Mind you, as he states in the forward of the book, the My last supper game is played often. I’ve read many interviews where he states several other choices as well.

Life is busy, it goes fast, and tasks of daily living can be soul-crushing. Sometimes you just have to force your self to sit still and enjoy a meal with the ones your love. That is exactly what we did this weekend. Cooking this meal in his honor. Sharing a slow quiet evening. Enjoy it we did! The parsley salad is unexpectedly delicious compliment to the rich marrow.

On this rainy weekend, we also took time to watch the recent episode of Parts Unknown shot in Hong Kong. A recent interview revealed he felt the experience of filming this episode was the highlight of his career. The opening scenery was gorgeous, as was the dialogue. Here he spoke of his ferry ride, and falling in

“It’s a gift, a dream, a curse. The best thing, the happiest thing, yet also the loneliest thing in the world.”

There was also an amazing version of Rising Sun in the episode. A gut wrenching reminder of his uniquely amazing talent. It’s odd mourning someone you never knew, but he truly spoke to me and it is tragic the world has lost his voice. It was one of the good ones and he had a lot more of the world to open our eyes to.