One evening late last spring I left Split Rock Cafe in a gently falling snow. I sometimes curse unexpected fragments of winter when they arrive later than I consider appropriate, but I liked that spring dust up and I walked home in its pleasing silence.
It was Thursday so I didn’t have the kids and the house was silent as well. Anyone who has lived in a post-divorce family knows this can be both a blessing and a curse. On that night I was OK with the solitude. It had been a fun time at Split Rock; fun enough that it was a good thing I lived walking distance from the bar.
No kids and too much fun at the pub is usually the recipe for falling asleep in front of the television. This often leads to the disconcerting experience of waking in the middle of the night to the sound of some hyperactive infomercial pitchmen touting the benefits of the latest male enhancement wonder drug, or some other product only those awake at 4 a.m. can’t seem to live without.
That’s probably what would have happened that night, if my channel surfing hadn’t led me to an episode of “No Reservations” filmed a few years ago in Livingston.
I’ve made the point before that I consider “No Reservations” the best show on television, and that Livingston episode is for me the program’s high-water mark. Host Anthony Bourdain hits the Second Street Bistro at the Murray Hotel, hangs out with author Jim Harrison and painter Russell Chatham, and spends time in the Paradise Valley fly fishing. And in what is something of a “No Reservations” rarity, Bourdain even manages to catch a fish.
You’re not going to find this show down the dial on one of the outdoor channels. “Reservations” appears on the Travel Channel and is ostensibly a show about food. But it’s a common feature of the show for someone to hand Bourdain a gun or rod so he can supply the protein for whatever feast is to follow. I generally cringe at these moments, as Bourdain is no sportsman.
But what I appreciate is that he gets that these are the tools of the meat eater. Bourdain has always celebrated the human role as apex predator. There are no apologies here about eating meat, nor that animals have to die so we can.
Often the live meat on the show comes in the form of small farm animals the locals are eager to provide for the traveling celebrity. Bourdain almost always accepts these gifts — raised or hunted — with a dose of humility and appreciation, going so far as to eat every bit of the unwashed and barely cooked warthog anus presented to him by African bushmen. Legend has it Bourdain had a nasty bout of gastro-intestinal illness following that episode.
I think Steven Rinella, the host of MeatEater on the Sportsman Channel, has a similar take on Michael Ruhlman’s book “Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking and Curing.” Rinella calls it one of the most important books a hunter can own. Like “Reservations,” the book is in no way about hunting, except in the most important way: It is an unapologetic guide to preparing and eating meat.
Too often non-hunters are quick to pass judgment. There’s an attitude that suggests that with all that meat right there in the grocery store, the drive — frankly the joy — many of us take from pursuing and killing our own, is somehow barbaric. Bourdain is no hunter, but he gets better than most that there is something essential about meat eaters cutting out the middlemen, at least occasionally, and killing what we eat.
“Reservations” is in the midst of airing its ninth and final season. The show is going away, but that’s not such a bad thing. Most television concepts run their course well before they end. But I think “Reservations” has hit it just about right. There are only so many places to visit and cuisines to explore as a way to come to know a place. Bourdain will now move on to CNN where he is developing a new program. I’ll be curious to see how that plays out.