[Credit: Wikimedia]

I hear his voice in the kitchen too. Anthony Bourdain was the best food writer of this century. When he disappeared from our TV screens, so did great food TV. There’s pleasant hosts, informative hosts, high-Q rating engaging hosts, but beside Bourdain, they are all – okay. He cared about the writing as much as the food, revered chefs, skewered pretension and hypocrisy (including his own) and never broke  his first rule of food writing:  Don’t Be Boring.

And he evolved. The surly prick of Kitchen Confidential turns reflective and forgiving in Medium Raw. His filmed travel essays went deeper. He seemed like less of a douche the more famous he got — the reverse of what we expect, no?

Now I pass a mural portrait of him on Wilshire Blvd. and feel like he’s protective, disapproving and encouraging in one look. Up he goes on the altar.