I’m one of those rare people who have never read Kitchen Confidential or watched Anthony Bourdain’s shows, but it’s certainly obvious that he was an extremely intelligent, dynamic, thoughtful person, and the way the food community has honored him in the years since his death has been really touching.
Our guest today, Laurie Woolever, was Bourdain’s assistant for nearly a decade; she was his assistant at the time of his death. Before that, she worked a series of other jobs, some food-related, some not, including as an assistant to Mario Batali. Her new book, Care and Feeding, is a memoir, and though the parts that are dedicated to Batali and Bourdain are interesting, and juicy, even, what I liked the most about Care and Feeding was Laurie’s story, Laurie’s perspective: what it was like to work in one of New York City’s most popular restaurants, what it was like to be a woman in that environment, working as a personal chef, getting married, having a child—and, throughout all of it, struggling with an alcohol addiction. Laurie is a wonderful writer, and the book has a flow to it that I admire so much; I was very happy to talk with her for the episode you’re about to hear.
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