--- title: Anthony Bourdain Doesn't Eat Airplane Food description: From seal eyes in the Arctic to balut to New Mexican Frito Pie, Anthony Bourdain has built a reputation on trying any food at least once. canonical: https://time.com/4325309/anthony-bourdain-airplane-food/ author: Melissa Locker article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-05-10T21:28:03.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-06T09:08:58.069Z og:title: Anthony Bourdain on the One Type of Food You Should Never Eat og:description: He'll eat anything once og:url: https://time.com/4325309/anthony-bourdain-airplane-food/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt60348eaa99c194e2/698892ad2dce0140d89e904e/anthony-bourdain.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4000 og:image:height: 2250 og:image:alt: Inside The South By Southwest (SXSW) Interactive Festival og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Anthony Bourdain on the One Type of Food You Should Never Eat twitter:description: He'll eat anything once twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt60348eaa99c194e2/698892ad2dce0140d89e904e/anthony-bourdain.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Anthony Bourdain on the One Type of Food You Should Never Eat > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=904cbc80-f52b-4ed2-953f-0129df5af95f&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: 10 Questions for Anthony Bourdain [Watch (HLS stream): 10 Questions for Anthony Bourdain](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/s2FRQx2i.m3u8) (4:45)  _Published 2007-10-31. The outspoken chef has a new book based on his adventure-travel eating show No Reservations. Anthony Bourdain will now take your questions._ by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker May 10, 2016 9:28 PM UTC by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker May 10, 2016 9:28 PM UTC From seal eyes in the Arctic to balut to New Mexican [Frito Pie,](http://entertainment.time.com/2013/10/01/anthony-bourdain-regrets-the-error-frito-pies-not-gross-just-gross-looking/?iid=sr-link3) [Anthony Bourdain](http://time.com/3987009/10-questions-with-anthony-bourdain/?iid=sr-link2) has built a reputation on trying any food at least once. But there are a few things the _No Reservations_ and _Parts Unknown_ host will never eat again, including Icelandic fermented shark, Namibian warthog rectum —and airplane food. In a conversation with [_Bon Appetit_](http://www.bonappetit.com/people/celebrities/article/anthony-bourdain-parts-unknown), Bourdain claimed that he never eats the food on the many, many plane rides he takes as he travels the world. “Never,” said Bourdain. “No one has ever felt better after eating plane food. I think people only eat it because they’re bored. I don’t eat on planes. I like to arrive hungry.” Even when he’s traveling from New York, where he’s building a massive [new food hall](https://www.instagram.com/bourdainmarket/), to Tokyo or New Zealand or some other far-flung destination, Bourdain refuses to scarf down airplane food. “For a super-long flight, I’d order cheese and s\*\*t load of port. I’d eat some cheese and drink myself stupid,” he said. Perhaps airplanes should consider serving still-beating cobra hearts to the author and chef because we know he’d [eat that.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovwj0FYN0Qg) ## Transcript >> We're here with Anthony Bourdain. Thank you very much for joining us for TIME's 10 Questions. All good. >> What do you think you'd be doing if you were doing one of these three careers that you've sort of set on. -[ unk ] become a dishwasher, I would have spiraled into petty crime, you know, Loserville, I wouldn't made it out of my 20's for sure. It was the first time that I had any reason to respect myself and the first time that I really found myself among people who's opinion of me I wanted and respected. So the rest for business in that question is save my life. >> Tony, why do you always pick on Rachael Ray. >> Why do I pick on Rachael Ray? Well, she can take it. She's incredibly powerful, you know, very successful, far more loved than I am. So, you know, it's not like I'm hurting her. And on the other hand, she genuinely offends me. I compare her to the standard I hold her to foolishly perhaps is Julia Child, who wasn't a professional chef either. When you watch Julia Child, you would see her make Coq Au Vin or some classic French dish and say, " Wow ." You know, that's the classic French food that's not so difficult. Julia, you know, can do it. I can do it. I'm gonna try that and it made people aspire the more. I think when Rachael tells you that it's perfectly okay to buy a pre- chopped onion from the supermarket, I mean, how hard is it to chop an onion to take away from Rachael Ray is, I could cook that. I feel better about myself now. I'm not gonna cook that but I will finish this bag of Cheetos and a gallon of jug of diet Pepsi before dying of diabetes. >> Are you naturally that arrogant or do you just do it for the ratings. >> I think like a lot of chefs. I'm actually often [ unk ] very shy and withdrawn and uncomfortable and I think that with the real world and I think that's why a lot of chefs, a lot of people like me personality-- similar personality types end up in the restaurant business in the first place. Yes, I am arrogant but I'm also regularly entertained the possibility, if not the likelihood that I'm absolutely wrong about everything. >> Readers wrote in about your health-- their concern. They also wondered smoking has affected your palette at all. >> Almost all the chefs I know smoke, and all the beloved, you know, the heavies, they smoke. Okay, they're just sensible enough to their reputations, to protect they're trying not to do it on camera. That's said I'm also a new father of an infant six- month old girl. So after 38 years of heavy smoking, waking up in the middle of the night to smoke, when it finally, you know, came down to. Well, I mean I realized once the baby was born, I couldn't smoke in my own apartment. I couldn't smoke in my favorite bar. I couldn't smoke in my place of work or in restaurants. And when I travel I found-- I couldn't even smoke in a pub in Belfast or in Sicily so I quit few months ago. >> You quit. This is-- your readers did not know about this. Your fans, they're-- some of them will be-- >> I don't want to encourage anyone to just quit smoking. I mean, in my experience it really does make you cool in school, chicks love it. But I quit. >> If you knew a meal was going to be your last, what would it be? P. S. you kick- ass, you sexy punk rock chef-- you. >> I like roasted bone marrow for my last meal, you know, a few lengths of veal leg bone just roasted with some toasted baguette, a little sea salt, a little parsley with caper salad and, you know, you smear all of that onto a toasted French bread, a little sea salt and that's a sumptuous, delicious and as often the case when you asks chef's a question. You get a very simple thing, you know. Failing that, I wouldn't mind going out with, you know, one piece of really high- end tuna belly, you know, a taro tuna sushi and some, you know, perfect still warm crumbly rice with this little bit of fresh wasabi, you know, made by a master would have to be, no utility sushi would do. 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