Anthony Bourdain: Under the Volcano (Feliz 5 de Mayo)

"Mexico. Our brother from another mother. A country, with whom, like it or not, we are inexorably, deeply involved, in a close but often uncomfortable embrace. Look at it. It’s beautiful. It has some of the most ravishingly beautiful beaches on earth. Mountains, desert, jungle. Beautiful colonial architecture, a tragic, elegant, violent, ludicrous, heroic, lamentable, heartbreaking history. Mexican wine country rivals Tuscany for gorgeousness. Its archeological sites—the remnants of great empires, unrivaled anywhere. And as much as we think we know and love it, we have barely scratched the surface of what Mexican food really is. It is NOT melted cheese over a tortilla chip. It is not simple, or easy. It is not simply ‘bro food’ halftime. It is in fact, old— older even than the great cuisines of Europe and often deeply complex, refined, subtle, and sophisticated. A true mole sauce, for instance, can take DAYS to make, a balance of freshly (always fresh) ingredients, painstakingly prepared by hand. It could be, should be, one of the most exciting cuisines on the planet. If we paid attention. The old school cooks of Oaxaca make some of the more difficult to make and nuanced sauces in gastronomy. And some of the new generation, many of whom have trained in the kitchens of America and Europe have returned home to take Mexican food to new and thrilling new heights."

Floating down the river of Xcaret, Riviera Maya, Mexico pic.twitter.com/VurK8gka3Q
— Planet Earth (@planetepics) April 5, 2014

Anthony Bourdain, London

At the point where Bourdain is picked up by the two Indian ladies I realized, "pressure cooker." He's afraid of them. And sure enough, they use pressure and he acts afraid of it. And I do not understand that. I do not respect that in chefs. It is a thing that housewives know about and use and do all the time, so to act like it's odd and out of a chef's grasp is ridiculous. They do that sometimes, I notice, stake out an area to be resolutely closed about. I hear them say things like, "Baking is chemistry. I don't do baking." 

One episode on Food Network involved a contest between chefs taking place in Aspen. The deal was to impress other chef-judges with a meal at a decked out resort. The place has everything a chef could ask. All contestants had difficulty with altitude, none of them even considered using pressure to compensate. I was sitting at home thinking how ridiculous that is, how it makes everything else they are squabbling about moot. There was no cook to root for in that case, I wanted each one of them to lose.