So the general consensus I’m getting from my Kansas City friends on Facebook is that the “No Reservations” episode featuring our fair city was not an impressive show. In fact, many are saying it flat out stunk.
I’ll confess, my wife and I are pretty steady admirers of Bourdain’s rejection of the celebrity template for chefs. Of course, he has ridden this rejection of the Food Network fluffiness to his own brand of celebrity chef status.
Maybe it is my former journalism skepticism and my wife’s years in a professional kitchen, but no one can be as megawatt cheery as Giada, Rachel, Guy and Paula would have us believe. Bourdain was never trying to be someone he wasn’t. This is why his show has held such appeal to the Cummins household.
Yes, after such a long run with “No Reservations” Tony’s gruff, jaded New York City personality and take on the world has finally begun to wear on us. But he has had a very long run as far as his kind of show goes. Do you think “Man vs. Food” will do so well for so long? I doubt it.
Finally after his many years of featuring the world, “No Reservations” makes its visit to my fair hometown of Kansas City. Was it as awful as my Facebook friends are saying? No. Hardly a top episode, but in a world that deems “Bad Girls Club” an acceptable form of entertainment, I’ll take it.
We don’t have a massage parlor to bend Tony into a human pretzel or have a foreign culture like El Riyadh to create the fish out of water theme that was so entertaining in past episodes. Although Tony did bring his Russian friend Zamir to help us. But Zamir is more court jester than reflective writer, traveler, television-travel guide. While several moments were funny with Zamir, it just didn’t work nearly as well as watching Tony hang out with Ted Nugent and shoot guns.
Why the rejection from my KC friends I wonder? Perhaps it did stink by most viewpoints. What do I know? It’s not the first time I have been out of step with the hot trends. According to the Facebook peanut gallery, the consensus is it was endless footage of them eating barbecue and drinking.
Maybe someday Charlie Parker’s recordings will be relevant to more than a handful of enthusiasts. Robert Altman, Walt Disney and Walter Cronkite were excellent contributors to our nation. I guess Kansas City did make a pretty kick ass president, even though nearby Independence can take most of the credit.
I hate to say it folks, to the rest of the world, this is what Kansas City is: kick ass barbecue. It is our lasting accomplishment and perhaps greatest contribution. We should embrace it and embrace those that swallow it greedily.
What is so bad about that? Our claim to fame could be joyless square pizza, fried ravioli and a once-proud American brewery now owned by the Belgians. Is it shocking that city is still waiting for a “No Reservations” about them? Holding your breath is dangerous to your health, St. Louis.
Be proud Kansas City. Being singular at something so singularly American as barbecue deserves this kind of treatment.
Yes… we have tremendous chefs who don’t smother everything in molasses, ketchup spicy goop. Chefs doing really creative, daring things while using local food and participating in the organic, back to basics food movement. Tony did give these folks a brief nod. But it is 2012 folks, that kind of stuff is going on everywhere. It doesn’t make us special.
The Awesome:
1. Bourdain corrected his Russian friends (and 90 percent of America) for believing that our city is located in Kansas. What was nice was that Bourdain seemed to feel the need to correct his friend not because he wanted to exhibit his knowledge, but because he felt the fact was important. The 90 percent of America that doesn’t know that Kansas City is mostly in Missouri, doesn’t know because… frankly they don’t need to know. It’s not important to them. Because of what Bourdain cares about, he has to care about which Kansas City is in Missouri and which is in Kansas. Good for him and better for his viewers. He even used the hyper-local, old school pronunciation of “Missour-UH.” That was just hamming it up.
2. There was no convention and visitors bureau-approved tour of our ghost-town 18th and Vine Jazz District. Footage of their empty parking lots and unattended museums just wasn’t going to cut it. “No Reservations” must be doing lots of scouting and fact finding. It makes me trust the show more to give me the straight story when it goes to Dubai, New Orleans or Northeast China.
3. Show what we do best and what we contributed to the nation’s appreciation of food: barbecue. Yes, they ate a lot of it during this episode.
4. I will always like a show that expects a certain knowledge level among its viewers. This episode assumed you knew about Arthur Bryant’s and Gates and deliberately passed those location up to go to more unknown locations. My guess is most people don’t know those two as the major institutions of barbecue, but telling them they do know is a neat little trick to encourage them to learn more about them. It also establishes the show’s credibility. This is how the cool kids appear to be “in the know.” Am I over thinking this? Of course.
5. Quote of the night came from the Oklahoma Joe’s owner, stating that Kansas City has the sophistication to handle and excel with more than one kind of meat.
6. Tony calling Jack Stack Barbecue “too neat.” That is exactly how I feel. I need a little roadhouse feel to a good barbecue joint.
7. The History Lesson: why didn’t anyone every tell me about the 1930s Chesterfield waitresses’ and their work uniforms? I did not know this and I am a history guy.
The Not-So Awesome:
1. Oklahomas Joe’s. I’m sorry Tony and the many Kansas Citians, it’s good… it’s not that good. Listening to others rave about that place is kind of like listening to people rave about “Mad Men” or the movie “The Artist”… very quickly I wear down and have to say, “no, I don’t share your enthusiasm over this.” Yeah, I just said that.
2. The Chiefs tailgating. Yes, it’s a boozefest. I do love the Chiefs and love watching them win. But around 1994 I started to get really tired of this town offering up to the wider world as a major source of civic pride an NFL franchise that hasn’t been to the Superbowl since Nixon was president. Meanwhile, just about every other NFL city has at least been to the big game.
It would be interesting to sample the reaction from the people in living in the location this show covers. I wonder if anyone is that happy with the more gritty, boozy picture Anthony Bourdain and his show always describe a location. It’s not the chamber of commerce portrait of any of the places. But, like I said, sometimes I just don’t see thing the same way as others.
What did you think of the show?
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