Anthony Bourdain was an incredible extraordinary chief and philosopher. He had strong opinions on what made a restaurant to eat, and one of his clearest rules (which he explained in an interview with First We Feast) was that, if a restaurant serves both steak and sushi, consider it as a red flag. For Bourdain, this type of menu was a sign that the restaurant tried too hard to please everyone – and probably did nothing particularly well. Steak and sushi are radically different dishes, each requiring specific skills, tools and supply.
One is all about fire, seasoning and seizure, while the other highlights precision, raw freshness and the maintenance of simple things with regard to flavor. When they are both listed in a menu, Bourdain saw this as a sign that the kitchen had no clear identity. It is a kind of interesting socket because we generally like to consider versatility as a good thing. Well, not so in the eyes of Bourdain, and who must we question its culinary chops?
This may look like snobbery, but Bourdain saw this subject through a lens of authenticity and concentration. He believed that good food came from in -depth understanding and repetition. A chief mastering the art of Nigiri should not grill juicy ribeyes, just as a steakhouse should not be silent in Sashimi or sushi. According to Bourdain, a menu trying to do everything usually ends up doing it well.
Read more: you must always ignore these aperitifs when you dine, according to the chiefs
The problem with the mentality “something for everyone”
An image divided with one side with a steak and the other side with sushi – Simpleimages & South_agency / Getty & Undefined
Anthony Bourdain thought that the mentality “Jack-of-All-Trades, Master of None” undermines the profession that real cooking requires. He was not against the variety in principle, because he actually loved food on the world street, but he was deeply wary of any restaurant that had no defined point of view. If you say, he argued, the objective should be to discover the expertise and the soul of the chef through food, and not to check all the possible boxes on a plair menu with the crowd.
Of course, Bourdain was not as rigid as it did not understand that exceptions exist. He did not hit buffet restaurants or did not all call, each combo menu a disaster. In cities like Las Vegas, you can serve as you can serve both steak and sushi – and sometimes surprisingly good – due to the scale, specialization and volume of demand. These are not restaurants that ball on the vision of an organized chef; They offer a variety and a value. But a mid-range restaurant trying to withdraw a night of surf-And-Turf-et-Uramaki could be a more difficult sale, and Bourdain simply did not trust him.
His advice did not concern the doors – it was more a question of recognizing what was going on to make really good food. A sushi leader spends years perfecting rice, knife skills and supply. A steakhouse strengthens the flavor with fire and technique, always aimed at reaching perfect cooking and presentation. From Bourdain’s point of view, it would seem that making justice at the same time requires more than ambition … It requires two fully separate kitchens. So, the next time you spot a menu that boasted of Wagyu and spicy tuna side by side, remember Bourdain’s advice: if they cannot choose what they are great, they are probably not great in anything.
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