Anthony Bourdain in the 2013 episode.
You likely recall that renowned chef and TV personality Anthony Bourdain's visit to Detroit in the season-finale of CNN’s “Parts Unknown” in 2013 ignited a battle royale over how he portrayed the city to his international audience. He ran around with Fox 2's Charlie LeDuff, and showed lots of blight while glazing over any sign of a resurgence in downtown and Midtown.
While he praised Detroit during the show, it wasn't enough to avoid angry social media comments.
He returns Oct. 30 for a one-man show, "The Hunger," at the Fox Theatre as part of a 14-city North American tour.
In an interview with restaurant critic Mark Kurlyandchik of the Detroit Free Press, he gushes about Detroit.
Here's a sampling:
Freep: How do you describe Detroit?
Bourdain: Beautiful. Magnificent. The boundless hope and dreams and optimism of its builders is reflected in the architecture. I feel anger seeing the extent to which it has been allowed to crumble. I feel hopeful.
And I feel a tremendous appreciation that people have stuck it out and are proud of their city. They're loyal to it. It's truly a great city and the font of so many important American economic and cultural improvisations and movements. That it could have been allowed to come close to failing is a national disgrace.
Freep: Was filming the Detroit episode of "Parts Unknown" the last time you were in town?
Bourdain: I might have come through for a speaking gig, but I'm not sure. I love going to Detroit. I'm hoping to do another project there sometime soon. I can't really talk about it -- but a pretty major big one.
Read more at the Free Press link below.
