A cook's tour: in search of the perfect meal - Anthony Bourdain

Anthony Bourdain is the executive chef at brasserie Les Halles in New York. After two years at Vassar College, he attended the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park. He has since spent more than two decades working in professional kitchens. His memoir "Kitchen Confidential" (2001) was expanded from an article he'd written for "The New Yorker" magazine about life behind the scenes in restaurant kitchens. The book described life in those kitchens in even more lurid detail, and it became a surprise international bestseller. In late 2000, Bourdain set out to travel his way across the globe, looking for, as he puts it, "kicks, thrills, epiphanies" and the "perfect meal." The book, and its companion Food Network series "A Cook's Tour," chronicle his adventures and misadventures on that voyage. Bourdain is also the author of two satirical thrillers, "Bone In The Throat" and "Gone Bamboo", as well as the "Urban Historical, Typhoid Mary.