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The 'Parts Unknown' star wrote about Kissinger in his 2001 memoir, "A Cook’s Tour: Global Adventures in Extreme Cuisines," calling him a "murderous scumbag."
In the wake of Henry Kissinger's death, much is being remembered about the former U.S. Secretary of State and his career in foreign policy.
While some have praised his time in office, his bombing of Cambodia in the late 1960s and early '70s earned him criticism from activists and celebrities over the years, including chef Anthony Bourdain, who on more than one occasion, slammed Kissinger.
While Bourdain died by suicide in 2018, the Parts Unknown star's criticisms of Kissinger have resurfaced amid the politician's death, with fans of the author sharing his quotes on the controversial political figure.
"Henry Kissinger walks into a bar. Would it displease you if I walked over and punched Henry Kissinger in the face?" Bourdain once asked guests appearing on an episode of his Parts Unknown TV program.
Bourdain, who frequented Southeast Asia during his many travels, also reflected on Kissinger's role in the Vietnam War, and the wreckage he left behind in places like Cambodia.
Henry Kissinger’s death is also an opportunity to remember Anthony Bourdain as a fearless, globe-trotting antidote to American isolationism as he spoke truth to power wherever he saw it misused around the world pic.twitter.com/HBFxoqbxwO
— Mark Lewis (@marklewismd) November 30, 2023 @marklewismd
In Bourdain’s 2001 memoir, A Cook's Tour: Global Adventures in Extreme Cuisines, he wrote, "Once you've been to Cambodia, you'll never stop wanting to beat Henry Kissinger to death with your bare hands. You will never again be able to open a newspaper and read about that treacherous, prevaricating, murderous scumbag sitting down for a nice chat with Charlie Rose or attending some black-tie affair for a new glossy magazine without choking."
The passage continues, "Witness what Henry did in Cambodia — the fruits of his genius for statesmanship — and you will never understand why he's not sitting in the dock at The Hague next to Milosevic," a reference to Slobodan Milosevic, the former Yugoslav and Serbian leader who was on trial for war crimes when he died in prison in 2006.
In 2018, he retweeted the passage, doubling down on his feelings for Kissinger.
"Frequently, I've come to regret things I've said. This, from 2001, is not one of those times," Bourdain wrote at the time.
While politics and social issues often took center stage on his travel show, in a 2017 profile in the New Yorker, Bourdain discounted the idea that his political commentary on the CNN series made him a statesmen of sorts.
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View Story"I'm not going to the White House correspondents' dinner," he quipped in response. "I don't need to be laughing it up with Henry Kissinger."
According to the outlet, Bourdain was disgusted after having traveled in Southeast Asia, to see Kissinger embraced by the "power-lunch crowd."
"Any journalist who has ever been polite to Henry Kissinger, you know, f--k that person," Bourdain said at the time. "I'm a big believer in moral gray areas, but when it comes to that guy, in my view he should not be able to eat at a restaurant in New York."
While the New Yorker noted that Bourdain has made "similarly categorical denunciations of many people, only to bury the hatchet and join them for dinner," this one was different, with Bourdain replying, "Emeril didn't bomb Cambodia!"
Kissinger died on Wednesday at his home in Connecticut, according a statement from his consulting firm, Kissinger Associates, Inc. He was 100 years old.
