Anthony Bourdain is a notorious chief, world traveler, friend, writer, and martial artist. He passed away in 2018. Two years before his tragic death, Bourdain published his first cookbook published in ten years in 2016, titled, Appetites. Many of the entries seen in his fridge come from Appetites.
Kindle | Hardcover | Spiral Notebook
Within this cookbook is the photo of the inside of his refrigerator showing how he organizes his fridge and the contents inside. You can organize your fridge like Anthony Bourdain for less than $4.
Organizing Your Fridge like Anthony Bourdain
To organize your fridge like Anthony Bourdain, you need some masking tape and a Sharpie. You can get fridge magnets to hang the tape on the fridge and make a little magnet fridge-bridge to set the sharpie on. You also need a container set; Bourdain used plastic in this image, and we recommend using glass where possible.
Everything that goes in the fridge that is perishable, does not have a listed expiration date, and is not expected to be eaten today or tomorrow gets labeled with tape and sharpie.
That’s how you organize your fridge like Anthony Bourdain. If you like, you can read on for more information about Bourdaine’s Fridge.
You can put your tape and pen in a drawer, as long as you use it. Every item in the fridge must have a label with the contents and the date. It’s helpful to write other things on the tape, like when you took something out of the freezer, or when to use it by. For things that will be used the same day, or soon, you don’t have to label, as you can see the pig feet in Bourdain’s fridge, an entry loved in Asia, the American South, and other parts of the world.
For the actual practice of food labeling and organizing, tear a strip of tape and attach it to the countertop, write the name and date, and stick it on the container. If you’re taking something out of the freezer, you can write the removed from freezer date too.
We don’t know what’s on the outside of Bourdain’s fridge or if he has a meal-planning calendar of some kind.
For those who are not pursuing mastery in cooking, a refrigerator meal planning board helps to make sure you are eating in accordance with your planning. Skipping meals, or eating poorly because you didn’t stick to the schedule will negatively impact all aspects of your pursuits.
All you need to organize your fridge like Anthony Bourdain is a Sharpie and some masking tape. You can do this for $5
The contents of Bourdain’s Fridge
LOTS of MEAT
Bourdain’s refrigerator is full of meats. Exotic meat, with what looks like some kind of snake on the second shelf. Bourdain ate like a bodybuilder. Or, better put, a French chef, of which he is and was trained in French Culinary arts, who also liked martial arts.
Notice there is a lack of carbs, and sugar, other than a single bottle of Orange Fanta. He mentions that he reduced his carbs and cut sugar out to become a better BJJ athlete, as well as building a superior physique.
Plastic Containers
Bourdain used the classic GLAD brand plastic containers. This is speculation, but we assume he uses these because he’s had them for ages. The longer you own an object, the greater your relationship with it.
There is research that shows that plastic, when heated, can leach chemicals into the contents, whether that be a water bottle left in the sun, or Lasagna in a plastic container getting microwaved. Instead of plastic, consider a glass container set. Even though glass is fragile, and more expensive, it is better for your body. You can slowly phase out plastic and move to glass over time.
Recommended glass containers:
- 10 Packs 30 oz Glass Meal Prep Containers
- PrepNaturals 5 Pack 34 Oz Glass Meal Prep Containers (3-compartment meal prep)
- 8 Pack Glass Containers Set for Food Storage with Airtight Lids (multi size)
- Pyrex Glass Containers Food Storage, 14 PC Set (plastic lids)
Recommended plastic containers:
- 2oz Plastic Soup/Food Container with lids (25 pack)
- These are the style of tall containers Bourdain had.
Be aware that the chemicals from plastic leaching into food is just what we know right now. The term “microwave safe plastic” could be safe, or it could mean that there are other chemical leaks occurring which have not been identified yet or added to common knowledge.
Soup Stock
When we look into Bourdain’s fridge, we see a large amount of soup stock. At least five stocks of soup are present. Soup is important to Bourdain’s development as a chief. Bourdain mentions that soup is the reason he became a chief.
The quote below is from the famous culinary autobiography, Kitchen Confidential:
“MY FIRST INDICATION THAT food was something other than a substance one stuffed in one’s face when hungry — like filling up at a gas station — came after fourth-grade elementary school. It was on a family vacation to Europe, on the Queen Mary, in the cabin-class dining room. There’s a picture somewhere: my mother in her Jackie O sunglasses, my younger brother and I in our painfully cute cruise wear, boarding the big Cunard ocean liner, all of us excited about our first transatlantic voyage, our first trip to my father’s ancestral homeland, France.
It was the soup.
It was cold.
This was something of a discovery for a curious fourth-grader whose entire experience of soup to this point had consisted of Campbell’s cream of tomato and chicken noodle. I’d eaten in restaurants before, sure, but this was the first food I really noticed. It was the first food I enjoyed and, more important, remembered enjoying. I asked our patient British waiter what this delightfully cool, tasty liquid was.
‘Vichyssoise,’ came the reply, a word that to this day — even though it’s now a tired old warhorse of a menu selection and one I’ve prepared thousands of times — still has a magical ring to it. I remember everything about the experience: the way our waiter ladled it from a silver tureen into my bowl, the crunch of tiny chopped chives he spooned on as garnish, the rich, creamy taste of leek and potato, the pleasurable shock, the surprise that it was cold.”
Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly (pg.9-10) | Anthony Bourdain
Bourdain found his path as a young boy via the medium of food, in particular, the cold soup variant, Vichyssoise. He remembers the moment his feet touched a path. Do you? Pay attention to these kinds of moments. They are revolutionary.
Protein shakes
Bourdain said he gave up carbs and sugar to achieve this physique. He appreciated food more than most, yet still didn’t use that appreciation as an excuse to neglect the body. He was obsessed with Brazilian Jujitsu and MMA, Training every day. When you look in his fridge, you see the classic Pure Protein RTD Shakes.
Bourdain was in his 50s in this image, competing as a blue belt at The International Brazilian Jujitsu Federation (IBJJF). He is a good example of maintaining your body as you age, instead of neglecting it.
Never neglect the body.
Probiotics
Anthony Bourdain has a bottle of probiotics, although a kids version. We assume he was taking it. When you eat exotic foods often, especially foods of an acidic nature, you can get heartburn, gas, and general gastrointestinal discomfort. Taking probiotics can reduce the effects of stomach acid by ensuring that you have more good bacteria than bad bacteria.
He may have needed probiotics for eating things like Warthog Anus.
You can take a probiotic every morning for general health even if you don’t suffer from acid. Bourdain mentions taking probiotics after the meal above. Physicians Choice Probiotics is one of the most potent on the market, is inexpensive, and doesn’t need to be refrigerated, unlike other probiotic products.
Exotic Fruit
The prickly, yellow-green hide on the top shelf of Bordain’s fridge is a Durian. Durian comes from parts of Asia, in particular SE Asia where many consider it the best tasting fruit available. Durian is a sweet fruit described as creamy, with an almond-like taste. Durian is most known for it’s legendary sewer pipe smell that dramatically contrasts its sweet taste. Durian smells so bad, many hotels in the SE Asia region, and businesses ban Durian.
Bourdain pursued culinary arts as his mastery. Exotic fruit allows him to expand his mastery, as well as all the exotic foods he tasted during his many documentary television show episodes. Consider trying different exotic fruits to follow in his footsteps; Rambutan is a good fruit to try and it doesn’t smell like the interior of a century-old sewer system.
- You can buy Freeze-Dried Durian if you want to try it without the smell
Cage-free eggs
Buying(or creating) high-quality food is an investment in your Triplicity of Body, Mind, and Spirit(BMS); food touches each realm.
Cage-free eggs are just better. If you look at the condition of caged chickens, you see an unhealthy creature forced into a small box without space to move. A caged chicken is a weak and sick animal. An unhealthy animal does not produce healthy food. Contrast this with harvesting a wild elk that lived a full life in the woods. It’s different.
When you see the difference in yolk with a cage-free egg, you will never want a caged egg again. Many of us think egg yolk is supposed to be yellow; it’s not. Cage-free eggs have a much brighter orange yolk, reflecting a healthier diet, and a healthier animal.
Sometimes buying something at a discount is more expensive–just not financially.
Invest in your food. Eggs are a superfood. Consider buying eggs from a farmer near you; make that connection and build a relationship. Or if territory allows, get a few chickens. You don’t have to harm them; they can be family members who make food for you, like miniature feathered farmers. You can then trade eggs for other food within the community. This only strengthens the community, which in turn strengthens the individual.
Diet soda
Anthony Bourdain was an athlete who cared about his body. He’s not going to consume sugar. Instead, he’ll consume substances that treat the craving for sugar, like fruit which sort of doesn’t count because of the fiber, or diet soda, which happens to be next to Dom Perignon.
Diet soda in peer-reviewed studies has not been shown to be damaging to your health. Studies have shown that the amount of soda you would need to drink in order to consume a damaging amount of aspartame is such a high quantity that it is not something the average person needs to worry about. If you’re having 32 diet sodas a day it could be a consumption issue for aspartame, but if you’re doing this already, your lifestyle has more concerns than aspartame.
Of course, water is better than diet soda. But if the choice is between a cheat meal, some cake, ice cream, or whatever, versus a Coke Zero, the Coke Zero is a better choice.
Rest in peace to one of the most interesting and unique individuals of our time.
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