'Tony' Rewrites Anthony Bourdain's 'Kitchen Confidential' (with Tim Carman)

This week, Washington Post food reporter Tim Carman joins Sophie and Rudi to discuss “Tony,” A24’s loose adaptation of Anthony Bourdain’s breakout 2000 memoir “Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly.”The film, directed and co-written by Canadian filmmaker Matt Johnson (“Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie”), stars Dominic Sessa (“The Holdovers”) as a young Bourdain — before he became the beloved writer, chef and TV host. Antonio Banderas, comedian Stavros Halikias, Emilia Jones (“Coda”) and Leo Woodall (“The White Lotus”) co-star in the coming-of-age story. “Tony” is based on about 50 pages of “Kitchen Confidential” (along with an episode of Bourdain’s CNN series “Parts Unknown”) and depicts a 1975 summer Bourdain spent working in a kitchen as a dishwasher while living in Provincetown, Mass.Before getting into the film, Sophie and Rudi discuss meeting up in New York City (00:01:25) and Rudi shares some cinematic experiences from his trip, including a screening of Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s new adaptation of Honobu Yonezawa’s 2021 novel “The Samurai and the Prisoner” (00:05:21).Then Sophie and Rudi detail their history with Bourdain (00:07:41) and Provincetown before Sophie shares some context on “Kitchen Confidential” (00:14:37) and Rudi gets into the development of the film, including how Johnson’s 2023 film “Blackberry” led to “Tony” (00:17:57).They then discuss the film at length, starting with how the film serves as origin story for how Tony became Anthony Bourdain (00:22:48) before detailing the major plot points (00:30:11), the voyeuristic cinematography (00:43:48) and Jay McCarrol’s score (00:45:19).Washington Post food reporter Tim Carman, who appeared in an episode of “No Reservations” in 2009 and knew Bourdain professionally, then joins the show to discuss a recent article he wrote about the film (00:50:34). Tim shares what the film misses about Bourdain’s life and legacy (00:53:34) and what he thinks of people mythologizing Bourdain in the years since his death in 2018 (01:07:37). Finally, Tim shares a recommendation for another chef’s tale he’d like to see get adapted for the screen (01:09:55).Next week, we’re discussing Ridley Scott’s new adaptation of Peter Heller’s 2012 novel “The Dog Stars,” which stars Jacob Elordi, Josh Brolin, Margaret Qualley, and Guy Pearce.It Was A Book First is the podcast about new book-to-screen adaptations. Subscribe now to get new episodes delivered weekly on Wednesdays.Follow us on Instagram: @itwasabookfirstpodTikTok: @itwasabookfirstYouTube: @itwasabookfirstpodcastEmail: itwasabookfirst@gmail.comHosts and producers: Sophie Vershbow and Rudi GreenbergGuest: Tim CarmanEditing: Rudi GreenbergSocial media: Sophie VershbowMusic: Cliff Blum and John Connel