Anthony Bourdain called America’s professional kitchens “the last refuge of the misfit,” in an essay published in The New Yorker in 1999.
They’re a place, he wrote, that embraces those who have turned their backs on the 9-to-5 grind and have given up on “ever having a Friday or Saturday night off” or a “normal relationship with a non-cook.”
On Monday night, many self-described “misfits” went to the movies.
In 25 cities across the country — including Austin, Philadelphia and Los Angeles — hundreds of restaurant workers gathered at cinemas for an early screening of “Tony,” a feature film directed by Matt Johnson that follows Bourdain during a summer in the 1970s he spent working as a dishwasher at Flagship, an oyster joint in Provincetown, Mass.
The events, organized by OpenTable, Square and the movie’s production company, A24, ahead of the film’s release on Friday, were a kind of salute to Bourdain’s world.
In New York, servers, hosts, bartenders, line cooks, dishwashers and, of course, chefs, from a range of the city’s dining staples, including the Odeon, Black Seed Bagels, Wegmans and L’Artusi, were invited to spend the night at the Regal Cinemas Times Square. They greeted one another with hugs and fist pumps as they picked up caps that read “support local restaurants” and reached for sodas served in giant plastic deli containers.
“I went into an Anthony Bourdain spiral last night,” one woman admitted to another.
“Me too!” her friend replied.
The screening opened with a prerecorded message from Johnson; Dominic Sessa, who plays Bourdain; and Leo Woodall, who plays a line cook, for the restaurant industry workers in the room.
The movie “is a love letter to you,” Johnson said.
As the film played, many in the audience winced at rookie mistakes from a man who, when he died at 61 in 2018, had ascended to some of the greatest heights of the food world. They laughed at the familiar on-screen grime of the kitchen, and when the movie ended, they applauded and cheered.
Guests then walked a few blocks through Times Square to an after-party at the Mermaid Oyster Bar, in a nod to Bourdain’s culinary roots and his publicly declared love for oysters.
“It’s quite rare that all these people have a night off,” said Jihan Lee, chef and partner at Nami Nori, a temaki restaurant. “The fact that everyone showed up shows what kind of impact Anthony Bourdain had on the people in our industry.”
Lee said the movie gave him “a lot of flashbacks,” as someone who climbed the ranks in some of New York’s most esteemed Japanese restaurants, including Kappo Masa.
“Tony” — like the award-winning television series “The Bear” — arrives as fascination with kitchen culture and obsession with flavorful foods have reached new heights (or lengths, if you measure it by the lines). And some in the industry feel this shift has also brought a new respect for their labor.
“There’s a lot of cultural capital now with being in the industry because you’re part of an experience,” which became increasingly valuable after the Covid pandemic and amid rising fears about A.I., said Leonardo Reale, a beverage manager at MoMA, who began his career at City Bakery and Daily Provisions. “You’re part of the institutions that people look up to now.”
As partygoers mingled around the room, the words “Kitchen Confidential” — the title of Bourdain’s best-selling memoir — seemed to be uttered almost as frequently as drinks were poured at the open bar.
“I never thought I wanted to be a chef growing up, but I always loved cooking,” said Elliot DuBois, a sous-chef at Kabawa. DuBois read Bourdain’s tell-all memoir after dropping out of college, and remembered thinking: “Oh, this sounds exactly like me. I connected with his story so much. And then I got a job at a local whiskey bar in my area. And I just like worked my way up from there.”
When plans for “Tony” were announced several years ago, there were online grumblings that Bourdain would have hated the mythologization. That, of course, is hard to know, but perhaps he might have enjoyed a few oysters among the industry friends he often referred to as comrades.
Max Glogau, a manager at Momofuku Noodle Bar, said the movie captured the “family vibe of a kitchen where you hate each other, you love each other, you see each other every day.”
Standing next to him, Sarah Wanger, his friend and co-worker, laughed and agreed.
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