Open this photo in gallery Anthony Bourdain poses for a photo during an interview with The Canadian Press in Toronto on Monday, October 31, 2016. Anthony Bourdain is pushing back after another controversy over potentially offensive Canadian nicknames. Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press
Anthony Bourdain has a point. The chef and host of the Emmy and Peabody-winning CNN series Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown is dismayed by the coverage of his recent and misfortunate foray into Canada to do a program on Newfoundland and Labrador.
His most recent point is that a National Post version of a Canadian Press story about alleged controversies related to the program was extremely dumb. He alluded to the story on social media and wrote, “Yet more lazy, click-hungry [insert word for ‘manure’] with misleading header completely unsupported by text of article. Truly discouraging.”
The larger, more important point is that he’s discouraged by his experience dealing with Canada and its media, and Newfoundland in particular. As well he might. Talk about a cockamamie controversy.
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First, Bourdain and the show took incoming fire because the show’s Twitter feed – not Bourdain’s – used the word Newfie in a promotional tweet for the show. One can imagine somebody on staff trying their best to quickly summarize context and offer some colour. Once upon a time one could imagine the people, media and politicians of Newfoundland and Labrador taking this with humour and grace. Not any more.
There followed thundering denunciations of Bourdain for this heinous misdemeanour. Not that the word had actually passed his lips, mind you. It was just an occasion for umbrage. High dudgeon was expressed by some on social media and local media jumped on that. No less a personage than the usually sensible Seamus O’Regan, a St. John’s MP and the federal Minister of Veterans Affairs, endorsed the umbrage with this tweet: “We don’t like it.”
Next, after the show aired, umbrage was taken at the presence on it of two Montreal chefs. There was small-minded spite expressed on social media. Bourdain, clearly losing patience at this point, defended what he sarcastically called the “Frenchie” chefs, saying they were the ones principally responsible for his journey into Newfoundland culture and cuisine. This, too, drew the vexatious wrath of the easily offended and the media, and Bourdain wrote his “truly discouraging” comment.
Listen: Fact is, in the matter of Newfoundland’s culture and food, Bourdain did the heavy lifting with encouragement and support from chefs Dave McMillan and Fred Morin of the Montreal restaurant Joe Beef, both of them major enthusiasts for Newfoundland food. Bourdain was then subject to abuse from people whose heavy lifting amounts to wielding the TV remote or lifting a finger to type sarcasm on Twitter.
Newfoundland occupies an outsized place in the Canadian culture. This is largely thanks to television, which has long since adopted the province’s distinctive dark humour and verbal agility as the default Canadian comedy style.
Now it seems that the collective sense of humour, and indeed any sense of proportion, has been lost. Possibly it can be located in downtown Toronto, near where Rick Mercer did his final show for CBC. Wouldn’t be surprised if that is exactly where it is.
But is Newfoundland interested in getting it back? There’s the rub. The spirit and humour of Newfoundland having become so ubiquitous in the culture, a person is genuinely and seriously disappointed in the abuse heaped on Bourdain by some of its inhabitants.
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And it’s not merely a matter of a few cranks involved, the sort of people one imagines go about Newfoundland with a face that would stop a clock. Something’s gone awry. Earlier this year, after yours truly wrote that the Canadian Screen Awards gala on TV was boring, the usually sensible Mary Walsh took to social media to take umbrage. Walsh noted that I get paid to write this column. In the annals of attacks on yours truly it was pipsqueak stuff, but complaining that I get paid was more like offended-in-hicksville than Mary Walsh. Talk about “truly discouraging.”
These are strange times we live in. Trial by social media is all the rage. We have a federal government that needs a Minister for Apologies. The government of Newfoundland and Labrador might as well rename itself the province of Newfoundland and Umbrage and appoint a Minister for Outrage. Ask Bourdain and he’d probably agree.
Bourdain’s hour-long program was an exuberant and idiosyncratic exploration of the cultural and culinary heritage of Newfoundland and Labrador. A delight to watch, and Bourdain’s the good guy in all of this. Now he’s fed up, and he’s entitled to be.
Some episodes of Anthony Bourdain’s CNN travel show Parts Unknown are chock full of food porn and hilarious one-liners, while others offer a solemn look at life in places that have gone through a lot of turmoil. The Armenia episode definitely falls into the latter category. While there are moments of levity and quite a few memorable meals, a lot of screen time is devoted to unpacking the complicated history of this former Soviet Republic, which boarders Turkey to the west and Azerbaijan to the east.
Tony’s tour guide for much of this journey is Serj Tankian, the Armenian-American lead singer of the metal band System of a Down. Like many Armenians around the world, his family members left their home country because of the Armenian genocide a century ago, when the Ottoman government killed 1.5 million citizens. Tankian grew up in Southern California and eventually fell in love with his ancestral homeland as an adult.
This theme of Armenians born in other countries returning back to the motherland actually pops up several times throughout this episode. “The connection, the collective yearning, and the flow of money, resources, and people from the Armenian diaspora back into the homeland are powerful and important — as you will see,” Bourdain writes in his field notes. “They are also vital to the nation’s survival.”
Here’s a roundup of some of the best moments from Parts Unknown: Armenia.
Most stunning dish: That’s definitely the rice pilaf-stuffed pumpkin entree called ghapama, which Bourdain eats in the home of Tankian’s friends Mariam Movsisyan and Nazareth Seferian. The episode also features some gorgeous footage of lavash being prepared and used in myriad dishes across the country.
Best all-around meal: That’s a tie between the leg of lamb feast at Dolmana in Yerevan (“This is what my soul needed,” Bourdain says), and the bone broth and lavash supper at a “home restaurant” in Dilijan that ends the episode.
The best non-food scene: Midway through his journey, Bourdain visits the Tumo Center for Creative Technologies, where some extremely hip teens are playing righteous rock and roll. As Bourdain learns, the non-profit activity center is a prime example of how Armenians encourage children to embrace science, technology, and the arts.
Coolest ride: Bourdain and Tankian head up to Dilijan in a vintage M24 Executive Class Volga Sedan, which Tony describes as “the ultimate in Soviet driving luxury.”
Most questionable ride: For his trip to the Republic of Artsakh, Bourdain boards an old M18 twin helicopter that is sputtering and spouting black smoke before he hops inside.
Most profound moments: Bourdain learns about the devastating impact of the Armenian genocide from Richard Giragosian, the director of the Regional Studies Center, while gazing out at the capitol city of Yerevan. The TV host also meets with a group of Armenians living in the Republic of Artsakh, and discusses the many bloody conflicts that have erupted over the land between the governments of Armenia and Azerbaijan. And during his stay in Yerevan, Tony also hears about life in Armenia when it was part of the USSR from Mariam Movsisyan’s grandmother. When Bourdain asks her if life is better now versus then, she remarks, “It’s hard to say whether it’s good or bad, since it’s both.”
Most surprising reveal: After Bourdain visited the Republic of Artsakh, a newspaper reported that he was no longer welcome in the neighboring country. “Simply by coming here, I’ve become, as I read in the papers a few days later, officially persona non grata in Azerbaijan,” he explains.
For more on Anthony Bourdain’s trip to Armenia, plus dining guides and essays about Armenian culture, head over to Explore Parts Unknown.
• All Parts Unknown Coverage [E]
