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Anthony Bourdain Wine Dinner

Cape Cod Life  /  July 2019 / , , ,

Writer: Allyson Plessner / Photographer: Pedro Blanco 

Anthony Bourdain Wine Dinner

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Cape Cod Life  /  July 2019 / , , ,

Writer: Allyson Plessner / Photographer: Pedro Blanco 

Feeding the Soul

Local chefs come together to whip up inventive dishes that are as flavorful as the personality and legacy of the man they celebrate: Anthony Bourdain. Brought together by a love for food, these creative culinary professionals honor the exact qualities of food that Bourdain cherished—its ability to change, connect and hopefully save lives.

Last summer, the world lost an icon in Anthony Bourdain, and foodies everywhere will forever miss his spicy personality and willful sense of adventure. An inspiration to many, Bourdain held a wealth of knowledge, experience and thought-provoking opinions—ones that he was quick to share and slow to apologize for. His quick wit and unfiltered thoughts were exactly what made him such a relatable figure, and within that context it’s important to also recognize the equally relatable feelings of loneliness and depression that he harbored. Behind the larger-than-life figure was a man who struggled with many of the same things that people all over the world struggle with. There is perhaps no more meaningful way to honor his memory, his success and his incredible life, than to support the conversation around mental health and advocate for the life-saving services offered by suicide-prevention groups around the world. 

Bourdain famously got his start as a dishwasher at the Lobster Pot in Provincetown: an oasis for the open-minded and a place where a young Bourdain, not yet sure of his direction in life, felt at home. It was there he fell in love not only with cooking but also with the culture of the kitchen, with the type of people who spent their nights on the line and their days basking on the beaches of Ptown—the one constant in all of their fast-paced lives always food. From his days as a raucous young man to his later years as a wiser but equally vivacious celebrity chef, the Cape always held a special place in Bourdain’s heart, and his years in Provincetown propelled him into an incredible career as a celebrity chef, a writer and an all-around inspiration.  From his well-known CNN show Parts Unknown to his travel programs with the Food Network and his time as an author (of culinary topics but also fiction and historical nonfiction), food was the main ingredient that connected Bourdain to people and to the world abd helped him to understand the characters he met and places he saw. 

For a moment, or a second, the pinched expressions of the cynical, world-weary, throat-cutting, miserable bastards we’ve all had to become disappears, when we’re confronted with something so simple as a plate of food.
– Anthony Bourdain

Allyson Plessner

Allyson Plessner is a former editorial intern for Cape Cod Life and now works for the publication as a staff writer and digital media coordinator. Born in Florida, Allyson has been a lifelong summer resident of the Cape. She is a recent alumna of the College of Charleston, located in Charleston, South Carolina, where she completed bachelor’s degrees in both English and Spanish. In her free time, Allyson is an avid sailor, beach-goer, and—like her fellow Cape Cod Life colleagues—a dog-lover.