That Bourdain of all people would became a moral compass for men grappling with a new world order was unexpected. When he made his first splash in the 2000 book Kitchen Confidential, he gave us a dishy, insidery picture of the restaurant industry’s very own boys club. It was as much about food as it was about drinking, drugs, and illicit behind-the-scenes liaisons. Bourdain reveals in the book that witnessing a chef have sex with the bride of a wedding party behind a seafood restaurant is what inspired him to pursue his career. Later, he described line cooks as “a thuggish assortment of drunks, sneak thieves, sluts and psychopaths.” This was before we’d come to realize that this was bro culture run amok. Which he eventually did with his usual unfiltered flare. As he copped to Slate in 2017 , he was definitely “an asshole” during parts of his rise to fame.