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Anthony Bourdain at FNCE 2010, Boston.

Ok, fine. Here’s one where you can actually see Anthony Bourdain‘s face. I like to imagine he’s singing “O Sole Mio,” but alas and a lack, he wasn’t.

He was the closing speaker at this past year’s Food & Nutrition Conference & Expo (FNCE) in Boston, giving a talk entitled “How to stop worrying and enjoy globalization.”

I thought he was an odd choice to address a room filled with registered dietitians, given his predilection towards… shall we say… foods on the “unhealthy”* side of the spectrum.

Yet Bourdain was funny, engaging and he assuaged any fears of being contrarian to modern dietetic paradigms, by acknowledging he was a father who wanted what was best for his child. The dietitians, for their part, had no reservations about Bourdain (no bad pun intended) embracing & applauding his commonsense point of views and raucously laughing at his witty banter impugning his fellow celebrity chef/ tv personalites Rachael Ray, Paula Dean, & current first-lady of New York, Sandra Lee.

I had some prior reservations about his talk, stemming from the whole “enjoy globalization” part of his title. But instead of espousing a nihilistic homogenized western culture that dominates and eradicates indigenous cultures (as I tend to connotate globalization), he was rather suggesting that we take the opportunity to expose ourselves to other cultures & cuisines, while we still have the chance.

Part of the whole “be a traveler, not a tourist” and “eat like a local” concepts that I wholeheartedly support.

So yeah. Good stuff.

*I put “unhealthy” in quotes, as I try not to think of food as “healthy” or “unhealthy,” but rather follow a philosophy, given to me by my dietitian wife, that every food has its place and everything should be taken in moderation, including moderation.