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Anthony Bourdain might have been one of the last authentic adventurers.

Introducing us to cuisines and cultures that we would otherwise have not been exposed to, he proved that delving into the unknown is more fulfilling than the familiar comfort of a couch.

Navigating unexplored corners of the globe and providing fresh insights into familiar urban landscapes, the swashbuckler’s cerebral and straightforward approach epitomises the zenith of travel and culinary television. Parts Unknown is a significant cultural staple for many reasons.

Naturally, with such an array of physical and philosophical voyages, the late New Yorker was bound to come across a few bad surprises.

In 2016, when Forbes asked Bourdain to name his worst travel experience, he emphatically asserted it was the Parts Unknown episode, ‘Sicily’ from 2013’s season two, recalls Farout Mag.

You might recall the famous disaster, which featured the host embarking on a supposed trip to catch octopus and cuttlefish with a local chef/fisherman, but it was actually a staged ploy by his witty guide. It turned out, a friend of the conniving restauranter was throwing shop-bought and very much dead fish into the sea where Bourdain was snorkelling and looking for a catch.

Bourdain, who knew it was all a rouse from the get-go, got out completely irritated. It was simply not possible to find such artisanal fish swimming in an area so heavily trafficked by tourists and leisure boats.

Openly recalling in his voiceover that he “snapped”, the producer plonked him in a café to calm down, which was a mistake and resulted in him downing what he claims were 18 negronis.

With all that booze consumed, Bourdain was blackout drunk for the next filmed scene, which he reckons was acceptable since the wily fisherman had taken him to his ‘traditional’ eatery.

Filmed on his birthday, which drove the earlier slight home a little more, he was unknowingly joined by a local couple, with the wife also not best pleased, as it happened to be her day of birth too, which she clearly would have spent anywhere else than with a drunken and annoyed New Yorker. For the final indignity, Bourdain was served a square plate with a metal ring’s worth of tuna tartare, with avocado and squeeze bottle designs on top. He recalled to the publication: “It was a low point.”

Watch the episode if you dare:

Feeling completely slighted by the small Italian island, Bourdain said: “I am snake bit as far as Sicily”.

“You cannot make great TV in Sicily. It’s a fantastic location, the food is awesome, the people and everywhere you look is great, but for some reason both times I have made shows in Sicily everything has gone wrong.”

He said that the notorious episode had become “a hideous, funny failure”, but he took it rather personally and was deeply affected:

“But it wasn’t funny to me down there where those dead octopi were splashing down behind my head. I felt like I was speaking in manic, double speed for the next week. I couldn’t breathe, my crew was very concerned and there were some personnel changes afterwards. I’m still pissed about it. This is sort of a dangerous paradox about the shows over the years where the producers understand that when things go really, really badly, its comedy gold sometimes, but its not fun for me. I don’t go out there looking to make a funny show mocking this well-meaning but thoroughly corrupt fisherman who was just trying to make things entertaining.”

Bourdain said that he gave up on shooting again in Sicily, declaring “I think if I went back and screwed up again it would break me. I don’t think I could bear it.”

[source:faroutmag]