Q & A With Anthony Bourdain: The End of No Reservations, CNN + Throwing a Drink in Alan Richman's Face

Via Travel Channel

Anthony Bourdain on the set of No Reservations

But I'm a big believer in winging it. I'm a big believer that you're never going to find perfect city travel experience or the perfect meal without a constant willingness to experience a bad one. Letting the happy accident happen is what a lot of vacation itineraries miss, I think, and I'm always trying to push people to allow those things to happen rather than stick to some rigid itinerary.

Paris and Rome are perfect examples of that. People go to Paris and Rome with these very detailed itineraries of "must-see" destinations. That's just no way to enjoy a great city like Paris -- waiting on line for three hours to get to the top of the Eiffel Tower. That's a misery. You're not going to be falling in love or accidentally finding a great little bistro by standing on line at the Eiffel Tower.

SI: So for this final season of No Reservations, was it more difficult making the list of places to go, knowing it was your last?

AB: Not really. For the most part I really didn't know. Many of these were shows I've wanted to do for a while. There were some last-minute substitutions. I'm really happy that Brooklyn is going to be the last show because, no irony intended here, it's uncharted territory for me. I was shamefully ignorant of that part of my own town, and I felt a real obligation to plunge in there.

But Emilia-Romagna and Burgundy had been on the wish list for a while. The Rio show is something -- I did want to get in there because it's built around my wife [fighting in] a Brazilian jujutsu match there, in the home of the sport. We basically dragged her down there and had her trainers make a match for her with absolutely no idea how it was going to turn out. In fact, she was stacked against a white belt with nine months' experience and she was stacked up against a blue belt with significantly more experience. We shot it with the understanding of everyone involved that, however it turned out, it turned out.

We tried to do an Israel show that didn't work out. We weren't able to get permits in time, so that's going to have to be on the wish list for the future.

We've been trying to get into Libya since Gaddafi started to have real concerns about his future. Even from that point, we were hearing from friends and contacts we've met through securing companies over the years who were telling us, look, it's awesome here. You should come in, it'll be great, we'll eat well, we'll have a great time, we'll meet some really cool people, and you'll be here at an important point in history. But even in the months and year after, we somehow haven't been able to do that. Congo is another show I've wanted to do for a long time.

So yeah, I'm hopeful about the future. But we'll also be doing self-indulgent, food-driven shows in Los Angeles and Rome, in all likelihood. It won't all be serious, weepy and news-driven.

SI: Are you also still involved with Treme?

AB: Yes! Their new season starts in, I think, late September and, of all the stuff I'm doing, that's the one I'm really most excited to see air. I haven't seen the new episodes. I did a lot of writing for it this season, this year. There's a lot of food and a lot of chef-driven action in the story this season. I haven't seen this stuff, and like any other fan of the show, I can't wait to see it.

SI: I have to ask, how in the world did you convince Alan Richman to come on the show and get a drink thrown in his face?

AB: I didn't. We haven't spoken. Well, let's call it what it was: It's fair to say we were arch enemies.

SI: You do have a whole chapter in one of your books about him being a douchebag, so ...

AB: I wrote the part assuming it would be an Alan Richman-like character, and I even wrote a review of post-Katrina New Orleans very much like his review, but not his review, obviously.

Well, in the story meeting, David Simon said, "Well, why don't we call Alan Richman and have him do it?"

I said, "I don't think that's going to happen," but I guess when David Simon calls, it's pretty amazing.

To [Richman's] credit, I think it was a very cool thing for him to do. I think he felt maybe a little uncomfortable. I can't speak for him, but I'm pretty sure I've heard from mutual friends that he felt he owed New Orleans at least that. I thought it was very ballsy and showed remarkable good humor of him to appear in a show knowing that your arch-enemy is writing for you. He handled it with very good humor.

SI: So finally, though it's a cliche, people always say they want to "see the world" before they die, and you've done that. Can you die happy?

AB: [Pause.] Yeah. I mean, if I were hit by the proverbial ice cream truck, sucked up in the wheel well and dragged down the street, as I lay there bleeding out, I wouldn't have a lot of regrets about things I missed. I've ridden an elephant, I've jumped out of a plane, I've seen the Empty Quarter of Saudi Arabia, I've been to Vietnam, I've seen a lot of things. But as is so often the case with someone who's successfully gotten away with robbing a bank, I'd like to keep doing this as long as I can get away with it.

No Reservations -- The Final Tour premieres on Monday, Sept. 3, at 9 p.m. on Travel Channel.

See also: Anthony Bourdain: 5 Unexpected Lessons He Taught Us Last Night.
See also: Anthony Bourdain's Baja Episode of No Reservations Will Make You Want to Cross the Border Immediately.