Bourdain set to have audience eating up restaurant-kitchen tales

Anthony Bourdain, above, along with chef Eric Ripert, will reflect on a variety of food-centric topics Saturday at Jones Hall. Anthony Bourdain, above, along with chef Eric Ripert, will reflect on a variety of food-centric topics Saturday at Jones Hall. Photo: Brendan Corr / Getty Images Photo: Brendan Corr / Getty Images Image 1 of / 17 Caption Close Bourdain set to have audience eating up restaurant-kitchen tales 1 / 17 Back to Gallery

Anthony Bourdain, author, speaker, comedian and "chef-at-large" at New York's Brasserie Les Halles, should have no shortage of topics for his Good vs. Evil tour.

The stop here on Saturday - in an event presented by the Society for Performing Arts at Jones Hall - comes on the heels of the election and only four days after the final episode of "No Reservations" airs on Travel Channel. The show, featuring Bourdain and chef Eric Ripert, is a combination of storytelling and observation about what goes on in a restaurant's kitchen.

Bourdain and Ripert are both chefs at famous New York restaurants - Bourdain at Brasserie Les Halles and Ripert at Le Bernardin.

"New experience is always something that I'm either really excited and passionate about or really pissed off about. I try to use that as a jumping-off point," Bourdain said of Good vs. Evil, which will feature clips from old shows and other material, as well as a classroom tutorial component.

After eight seasons of "No Reservations" and two seasons of "The Layover," Bourdain and Zero Point Zero Productions leave the Travel Channel for CNN to work on a travel docu-series in their familiar format.

"Hopefully, we'll be doing it on a larger scale and, in some cases, in places that we were just simply unable to get into with Travel Channel," he said. "CNN has infrastructure on the ground. They're used to making television in places like Libya, the Congo, places where security might be a concern."

Although he doesn't consider himself a reporter or critic, Bourdain engages his audience through his cultural food journeys, and there will be more of that to come.

"We're being given a lot of room to focus on either a single subject that we might want to explore in more depth or bigger-picture shows" from a food-centric viewpoint, he says. "We can explore more deeply what people eat, how people live, what makes them happy in cultures that haven't really seen much light, in places that we may not know a lot about until we read about them in the news. I think that will be a good thing."

More Information Good vs. Evil tour Who: Chefs Anthony Bourdain and Eric Ripert When: 8 p.m. Saturday Where: Jones Hall Tickets: $45-$75; 713-227-4772 or www.spahouston.org

Of all the traveling Bourdain has done, there must be a cuisine that stands out, something he would like to see more of here in the States.

"Korean is becoming a huge influence everywhere. I think the more Korean food that all of America has access to, the better," he said. "It's very uncompromising. They really haven't assimilated or changed for perceived American tastes, so it's retained a lot of its integrity and flavors without becoming bastardized."

With the new shows, Bourdain plans to cut back on travel, which in the past few years has been roughly 260 days a year. Though he will visit more exotic locations, he will make fewer shows, allowing him also to host "The Taste," a cooking-competition series with Nigella Lawson premiering on ABC, and spend more time with his family.

They just wrapped up a first-time extended family vacation, during which Bourdain did a lot of cooking.

"A lot of barbecuing, a lot of very simple straightforward seafood dishes, old-school Italian, pastas, things like that; nothing too ambitious," he said.

Yes, Bourdain is just like most home cooks who use simple ingredients and preparation even though he has tasted dishes and watched techniques all over the world.

"I'm not so arrogant as to think that I could master any of these things," he said. "I'm out there to eat, and to the degree that I can understand the difference between good and really, really good. I'm satisfied with that.

"Cooking it? I'll leave it to the experts."

Good vs. Evil tour

Who: Chefs Anthony Bourdain and Eric Ripert

When: 8 p.m. Saturday

Where: Jones Hall

Tickets: $45-$75; 713-227-4772 or www.spahouston.org

jmcinnis@express-news.net