I was seated at a table of 18 with Bourdain and Rathbun. I was in the middle of the table to the immediate left of Rathbun and two seats over and across from Anthony (never did figure out if he prefers Tony or Anthony).
For those of you who are not familiar with Kent Rathbun, he and his brother beat Bobby Flay on Iron Chef America in an Elk competition. Or rather, they whipped his butt and wiped the floor with it.
He also worked at Mr. B's in '87 & '88 and is still friends with the Brennans. Bourdain truly seemed to enjoy himself even though it was a fund raiser and book signing. He was just as you hear him on his show. Sarcastic at times but overall friendly, he made sure he conversed with everyone at our table. I told him that I really appreciated the show he did on New Orleans. That it was long enough after Katrina that it got some of us back out to the local restaurants that were still having tough times. I also told him that I felt that particular show had a very different atmosphere from his usual tone. He said that he was very angry the whole time he was in New Orleans. He felt sorry for all the people who needed help so desperately and is still afraid that some of the restaurants will not make it back. I came clean and told him that I have a personal dislike of TF but was glad that he took him to Antoine's. I remember TF talking about Antoine's pre-Katrina and telling callers not to take someone there unless they just wanted to show them classic New Orleans and that the first and service were just average. TF always talks well of them now. Tony said that TF told him he would never bad mouth another restaurant; he felt all restaurants needed all the support they could get now.
On the smarter end of the table, a woman who works as General Manager of some restaurant had questions about Cuba. Her father was from there. B said he wants to do a show from there before Castro dies but doubts it will happen. They are trying but have not been able to get in. There were questions about his other travels, family, etc.
He said his next series will be he and his wife hunting for a villa in Vietnam. He loves it there and is looking forward to spending more of his free time there. The most interesting line of the night was when someone asked him about success. He said that he measures his success by the amount of time he can spend barefoot and drunk. Someone laughed and said he couldn't be serious about the drunk part and he assured her that he was. And by the amount of wine he drank, I am sure he is serious. He seemed to have the tolerance of the Irish for alcohol (not a necessity but a routine part of relaxation).
And then we had the stupid end of the table which consisted of 6 people from one company. The owner made sure we all knew that he paid for all 6 tickets and he had plenty of money. When we were talking about New Orleans, he said that he was here a few weeks ago and everything is just like it was before the hurricane. Tony and Kent both assured him that it was not. Even though the Quarter looks good, the restaurants do not have nearly the business they used to. I have a feeling this guy spends most of his time in strip clubs any way. Another of his group asked Tony how he got such a large vocabulary because she knew he didn't have much of an education. I thought he was going to fall out of his chair. He told her that when he was 5, he found a book in his home titled, "Why Johnny Can't Read" and he took it as a challenge. He said he has always been an avid reader. She also thought he had never written anything before "Kitchen Confidential". One of them also asked him about being a parent at his age (he is 52, his son 19 months). He said that he had just never wanted a child until the last few years and was surprised to find that he did and how much he enjoys marriage and family. His in-laws are Italian so he and I had some fun Italian mother-in-law chit chat (all good - we both enjoy it).
The stupid end of the table also thought Kent had cooked everything we ate. There were 250 people there and he sat at our table the entire time so I'm not sure when she thought he cooked it. Kent brought out my nephew and his corporate chef and gave them kudos after dinner. The corporate chef is a character. Tony called my nephew the tall red head and Aaron the cueball with piercings. He's a short, thin bald guy with multiple piercings and some really odd tattoos that I heard about. He seems to be a very sweet guy though.
