I’d say that I’ve been thinking about Anthony Bourdain more since his biopic, Tony, came out in August 2026. The truth is, though, I never really stopped. At the ripe age of 21, I find myself increasingly motivated to position my character for success, and ever since I first watched an episode of Bourdain’s travel and food series, Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations, I knew what that would take.
Bourdain is a chef and a traveler, but I think his advice regarding those two frontiers actually translates to how you should approach your whole life. The truth about fulfillment is that you can never truly find it, but Bourdain’s life advice, shared through his travel and food series, gets you pretty close.
Never Order the Same Dish Twice
Bourdain has always been known to find inspiration beyond the confines of the home kitchen. In his book, Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook, he encourages readers to travel “as far and as widely as possible,” learning from “wherever you go.”
Restricting yourself to one walk of life is like shooting yourself in the foot before you even get your shoe on. Just going through the motions guarantees that you’ll miss opportunities.
I know it’s not reasonable for everybody to pick themselves up and travel “as far and as widely as possible,” but you can still apply this sense of adventure to your everyday life. Never order the same dish twice, talk to as many people as possible, and approach yourself with a sense of curiosity. Who could you be if you give yourself the opportunity to fill every unique space?
Experience Makes You Human
One of my favorite things to randomly bring up to friends is that “the journey is part of the experience… one doesn’t take a train to Mecca” (the joke lands well; you should try it). This quote from Bourdain’s book, A Cook’s Tour: Global Adventures in Extreme Cuisines, is life advice most of us have heard at this point but haven’t actually been following.
It doesn’t just have to apply to travel, though; the experience can be your whole life, and the journey is every single little moment that shapes it. Enjoy the morning sunlight shining through your blinds, enjoy your warm coffee, and enjoy the chill of tile under your feet. Take those simple chances for happiness and find similar ones throughout the rest of the day.
Not every moment is going to be perfect. Some of them might be straight-up bad, but you can still appreciate the fact that you got to experience it at all. If all else fails, if you can’t find any positive comment about a moment, know that you at least learned from it and that you’re more human for experiencing it.
To Be Human Is To Be Ever-Changing
So many of us are overly concerned with understanding. Bourdain captures this struggle when he says in his series, No Reservations, that “perhaps wisdom… is realizing how small I am, and unwise, and how far I have yet to go.” From my perspective, “understanding” is actually a word that limits you. We want to reach our goals, understand our problems, understand the solutions, and understand ourselves.
To be human is to be ever-changing. You can’t expect a complete picture when you haven’t even gotten to live your full life yet. Also, it takes a weight off your chest when you start loosening your expectations for yourself and giving yourself the opportunity to become yourself at all.
A well-known quote from De Profundis, a letter by famous writer and poet Oscar Wilde, accompanies Bourdain’s wisdom. It explains that when one desires to be “something separate from [themselves],” such as a specific profession, they’ll “invariably succeed,” but “that is [their] punishment.” Basically, at the very least, let yourself be human!
It’s not easy to change how we view the world, but I’ve found that the effort really pays off. There’s no one correct way to live. Claiming that would basically disprove everything I just said, but Bourdain comes pretty close.
You don’t have to be perfect, and you don’t have to be the most knowledgeable or skilled person. At the end of the day, all you really need is an open mind towards yourself and others, and a desire to experience everything the world has to offer.
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