The Ultimate Destination

Life is a one-way road, and there's a stop sign at the end. Enjoy the ride.

It’s the season of toddlers dressed like skeletons, falling leaves, and day-of-the-dead skulls japing out at us from parts unknown.

I’m using the title of Anthony Bourdain’s last show advisedly; he died, by his own hand, in 2018—transformed into another kind of antic death mask that makes us question the meaning of life itself.

But there he was, his commentary as lively as ever, in the New Yorker a couple of weeks ago, as part of an archival deep dive into the magazine’s food writing. Bourdain’s essay “Don’t Eat Before Reading This” was first published in 1999, and it was the first step on his own road to elsewhere. Next, a hop to his bestseller Kitchen Confidential, and then a skip and jump to a couple decades of gourmandizing around the globe, in his drool-inducing television series. He was a huge success, and killed himself anyway.

Before he went, Bourdain changed my life.

Though much in “Don’t Eat Before Reading This” was indeed stomach churning, this passage instantly made me a h…