Tony - A.K.A. Anthony Bourdain

Film by Matt Johnson

Release Date: August 14th

Run Time: 1hr 46min

2026

I may be the wrong person to review this film because I actually met Tony (Anthony Bourdain) at the beginning of his media superstar career.

My friend won tickets to see a Tony pre-screening at Yonge and Eglinton.  So, of course I said yes to going since it's Tony and on my way home from work, even.

I didn't watch the Trailer and only saw snippets of the promo, so I didn't know exactly what to expect.

Ok, so my favourite thing about this screening was the fact that there was what they called a Pre-Reception.  Basically, they handed out 2 oysters to everyone before the movie. The delicious and very fresh oysters were provided by Island Oysters.  Shoutout to them for feeding the audience something instead of popcorn.  My friend wasn't a fan, so he skipped the oysters. 

On to the film.  This film has a 93% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.  My friend didn't like it much, but I don't think he knows as much about the legend as I do, and I for sure don't know everything.

But here's what I know for sure.  They got some things right, but I felt some things were missing.

Domenic Sessa plays Bourdain in the movie.  He has similarities, but I think the posture threw me off and the glazed eyes most of the time.  This movie was a harsh look at the very beginning of his career when he seemed to lie to everyone about everything, and he did a lot of unkind things.

What the movie got right was the mentorship of a chef-owner (played masterfully by Antonio Banderas), who gave him a break when no one else probably would have.  And the bonds he made with his fellow pirate chefs.  The other great up-and-coming actor is Leo Woodall, who has played so many very different characters.  This one didn't have very many redeeming qualities.

The film is a look at the influence of the people you surround yourself with and how falling in love with someone makes you want to fake being a better person than you are and push yourself to be that better person.

The movie portrays Bourdain as a totally careless, inconsiderate jerk.  Here's where I have conflicting feelings.

I can't even remember the year I met Bourdain, but it was many years ago.  I used to volunteer at Rogers Television as a makeup artist to get some TV credits on my resume.  I worked on 3 shows,  Reel to Real, Auto Talk, and Goldhawk Live, and sometimes another show.  Very different shows with very different guests.  One day I got a call to go into the studio in the morning to do makeup for a pre-tape interview, and the subject was a New York Chef.  That's all they told me.  It was for the show Daytime, which aired at 10 a.m.  Most of the shows I did were prime time.  One thing I learned over time was to try to make the people in the chair feel comfortable.  I did the makeup for Politicians, Automotive industry guys, and film review hosts. And here I am years later, reviewing a film about a guy that I met once briefly and tried to do his makeup while making him feel at ease before his interview.

This was my impression of him long before I ever watched his show. When he first sat down, he seemed reserved — almost reluctant to be there, as though he'd have preferred to be anywhere else, washing dishes included. It was clear that fashion and makeup weren't exactly his world, but that was the job, and he showed up for it.

At the time, I had no idea who he was. But I was a passionate food lover long before I ever became the Starving Foodie — so naturally, I asked him which country had given him the greatest food experience of his travels. Without hesitation, he said Vietnam.

The moment food and travel entered the conversation, something shifted. The reserve melted away. His entire expression changed — a light came into his eyes that hadn't been there before, and the passion just poured out of him. It was impossible to miss and impossible to fake.

Having witnessed that transformation firsthand, I couldn't help but feel its absence in the film. Though I understand why — that kind of raw, unguarded aliveness is nearly impossible to capture on cue.

What gave the film credibility, though, was the cameo appearance by his good friend Eric Ripert from Le Bernadin in New York.  Giving it his stamp of approval.  He knew Tony and was there at the end.  We will never know what really happened at the end of his life and all the secrets and dark thoughts he took with him.  Tony was admired for his wit and his originality and for breaking some of the rules.

As I mentioned when I started this post, this isn't an unbiased review because meeting Tony made it personal to the brief encounter I had with him many years before the pressure of fame and ratings.

I still recommend seeing it, as it starts his journey at 19, when a lot of men are young and dumb, so there's that.  They fail, and then they learn, and eventually they become the people they were supposed to be.

I really miss his shows;  they were different and interesting and timeless.

Baking a Mandarin orange Love Cake with AI help

 Mandarin Orange "Love" cake

I had a whole bunch of mandarin and regular oranges. The oranges weren't very sweet, and the Mandarin oranges were looking worse for wear.  I didn't want to make juice, so I used Co-Pilot to try and get some ideas of what to do with them.

I settled on a Mandarin Orange Love Cake.  But me being me, I had to tweak it.  

I just used all the oranges I had.  I reserved one mandarin orange segment to put on top of the batter before it went into the oven.   I would probably just dip them in chocolate and use them for decoration afterward, now to get max beauty and give it a chocolate orange flavour.  It also didn't use any extracts, so I added a combo of vanilla and almond.  It turned out so light and fluffy.

It only required one bowl and a whisk to mix it up, and no creaming or melting butter because it uses Olive oil.  So other than the measuring utensils, it doesn't need a lot of tools, except a round pan.  I was trying to see if Dollarama had a heart-shaped pan, but they didn't, so I just made it in a spring form pan and added parchment to the bottom after I greased it.

I don't normally write recipes, but this is a new tool to use to find recipes and to maybe tweak recipes, and also, I just copied the recipe into Word and added my tweaks.   So I wouldn't say this is my original recipe, but it's a fast way to build your own digital cookbook for recipes you want to keep and use multiple times.  This one is a keeper for when you need to bring something to a Potluck or other kind of party because it can look simple or you can make it fancy, and it's basically done in about an hour.

Although AI scares me, it's also a great tool for some things, like cooking ideas, and I use it for my blog posts to correct my horrible grammar.  I still write, but it points out things I need to correct, which is super helpful.  I know there will come a time when cooking and writing recipes will all be replaced because with machine learning, the wealth of recipes available from around the Globe will continue to increase.

I would recommend it for the culinary-challenged people who don't know how to cook but like to eat good food and don't know what to do with the food they have.  As an example, if you get a farm share box and get ingredients you never tried before.  Where you used Google before, you can now be specific about what you want and get pretty close to solving your food challenges.

Here is the final recipe and the results:

🍊❤️ Valentine’s Day Mandarin Love Cake

What you need and why it's so good

• Uses 3–5 mandarins
• One bowl
• No mixer
• Naturally moist and fragrant
• Dress it up with a heart‑shaped powdered sugar stencil or a drizzle

⭐ Ingredients

• 1 cup sugar
• 2 large eggs
• ½ cup olive oil (or neutral oil)
• Zest of 2 mandarins
• Juice of 3–4 mandarins (about ½ cup)
• 1 tsp vanilla or almond extract
• 1 ½ cups all‑purpose flour
• 1 ½ tsp baking powder
• Pinch of salt 

⭐ Instructions

1. Prep Heat oven to 350°F (175°C). Grease a loaf pan or an 8‑inch round pan.
2. Mix the wet ingredients. Whisk sugar + eggs until smooth. Add oil, mandarin zest, and mandarin juice.
3. Add the dry ingredients. Stir in flour, baking powder, and salt until just combined.
4. Bake Pour into the pan and bake 30–40 minutes, until golden and a toothpick comes out clean.
5. Valentine’s finish. Let cool. Place a paper heart on top, dust with powdered sugar, then lift the heart away for a cute design or top with chocolate-covered mandarin segments, candied orange peel, or a mandarin orange glaze.

 

    

*Note: This post was made with the assistance of AI, but all text was written by me.

The Hanukkah Party!

This year's party started a year in advance when I decided to host a Hallmark Hannukah Movie Bingo watching party.  

HALLMARK HANNUKAH MOVIE WATCHING BINGO!

 I had planned to write this post about my Annual Hallmark Movie watching party, where I vary the theme slightly every year with decor, gifts, and food.  I invite about 6 people once a year in November, before everyone gets really busy.

I started gathering decor items before my last party last year partly because I had to buy stuff for my work, and then I decided, since I got a lot of things and the anti semitism started to rise in the city and around the world so I thought it was a good idea to put out positivity about a Jewish Holiday and educated while having fun.

This is what I do for my work.  When I plan monthly social events, I try to add purpose and make it about something more than a fun event so that it has more meaning.

Little did I know that a year later, after I hosted my party and on the 1st night of Hanukkah that there would be a mass tragedy at Bondi Beach in Australia while people were on the beach celebrating the 1st Night of Hanukkah.   It's unbelievable that people would destroy so many families over a religion or a race-based hatred.  It really saddens me to see how hate has spread throughout the world, and its only getting worse.

I am sending love and light to the families affected by the horrible anti-semitic behaviours of a couple of people who want to eliminate the Jewish people.  If it were reversed, there would be outrage.  But nothing changes.  I pray that one day these terrorists understand that their behaviours have destroyed generations of people who could possibly save the life of someone in their own family or invent something that changes the world.

So while I am horrified, I want to put some good out about the successful party that I was able to have a couple of weeks ago.

A couple of my friends who usually come to my annual party were unable to come, one because of surgery, and the other one, I'm not quite sure why, and hope that it's not because I changed the theme to a Hanukkah theme.  It wasn't meant to preach or be religious, but to share some customs like the food and the games.

This year, I invited my best friend, who was the only other Jewish person, so he was a bit of a teacher, which he is in real life, so he was able to answer questions and demonstrate a few things.

I could not have hosted this party without him this year.  It literally started last year when he took me to his dollar store, where we were able to get all kinds of Hanukkah things.  It's in a predominantly Jewish area, where my area is now changed to mostly Asian.  I have been picking up things along the way over the year, and we got more stuff from the same dollar store this year.

He also offered to pick up the best bagels from Bagel House on Avenue Road.  These bagels are one of the best in Toronto and for sure in the area.  He also offered to bring and make fresh Latkes so that he could show my friend Julie, who was really interested in learning, because her son loves Latkes.  She isn't much of a cook and isn't Jewish, but she was eager to learn everything and experience everything we did.

My friend Adam brought everything to make the latkes, even eggs.   

When everyone arrived, we first set up the Bagel Bar in the kitchen with all the schmears, bagels, and other toppings.   My friend Joanne picked up a huge amount of Smoked Salmon from Diana's seafood in Scarborough.  It was so good.  Once we finished with the bagels, which everyone devoured, and left me with one lonely bagel for my breakfast the next day.  We had a dozen and 6 people.  My friend Joanne had a bit of a stomach virus, so she had to take it easy; otherwise, she would have loaded up on the bagels for sure.

    

After the bagels, we had the Matzo Ball soup I made.  Joanne was very happy about that for her stomach.

That was simmering on the stove so they could go for refills if they wanted.  I had a huge amount left, so I think they were saving their appetites for the bagels and latkes.

Once the kitchen counter was cleared, Adam set up the latke factory.   Julie was his student and assistant, and I left them to it to make many batches of latkes.  We didn't have applesauce, but I made sure I got sour cream.   Adam likes to have them with sugar.

While they were in the kitchen frying up the latkes, we started decorating some stars and dreidel shortbread cookies that I had made.  I had blue and white icing and blue and white sprinkles, and sugar.

While we were decorating, Adam was frying up the last batch, so we decorated some latkes for him with some Blue sanding sugar.  We all laughed, and he loved it.

We then did our Gift Exchange, and it seemed like everyone got the perfect gift for the person that received it.  It was chosen by questions they pulled from a bag.  I asked everyone to either get something funny or food-related.  Some were both.  

We hardly watched the Hallmark movie because we were so busy.  Unfortunately, there weren't any Hanukkah movies on that day.  We tried to set up the Night before Christmas when we started, but that never got finished.

The last thing we did was Hanukkah Bingo.  A game Adam found at his dollar store.  Usually we do it based on the movies, but it takes longer that way.  This was a quick game, so we played twice.  It was educational at the same time.

My friend Lisa brought her brother, who lives in Elmira, and was visiting for the weekend.  He was so excited to come.  So instead of a girls' day, it was more mixed this year.  Everyone got on like a house on fire, and even Lisa's brother Grant only met me once and didn't know the rest of them, but he got along great with everyone.

This is how I want to see the world.  Like a Hallmark Movie Party with different themes every year, that is inclusive and full of light and fun.

The real world is a scary place these days, so I was glad that I could literally light it up for a few hours on a Sunday afternoon.

Some of the extra things I added for this year's party were Hanukkah fuzzy socks with menorahs on them for everyone.  Everyone also got a clear dreidel with Hanukkah gelt in it.  And they got to pick a spinning mini dreidel to keep.  I also had the option to get a cashmere scarf because I couldn't get t-shirts this year.  Only a couple of them chose the scarves for our photo.  And they got to take home the cookies that they decorated in a blue snowflake tin that I gave everyone at the start of the party. A couple of other little things and a Hanukkah card were added to the sparkly blue gift bag.

My friend Norma was still rehabilitating in a hospital, so Julie brought her a gift bag and some of the cookies everyone had decorated. 

It wasn't a cheap party and turned out to be a lot more than I originally planned because when I thought of it, I thought we could go to What a Bagel and have lunch, then come over for the movie afterward, but sadly, they closed down.  And a year later, a new Denny's opened in its place this weekend.  So that possibility was off the table, and that's where the Bagel buffet came into play.

All in all, because we skipped the cookie exchange and added the fun gifts, and had to clean up as we went to make space so the clean up afterward was easier than usual.  I still had things to clean the next day.  The pot from the soup, and I also had apple cider simmering on the stove.  I had made my fruit waters.  One was blueberry and lemon, and the other was blood orange.  I put a big silver bowl outside with all the soft drinks to keep cool, and keep the space in the fridge for the bagel stuff.

I had loads of snacks, but they were so full they didn't really touch any.

Adam also brought 2 kinds of Sufganyot, which are Hanukkah donuts stuffed with jelly or chocolate.  He also made some rugelach, which were like cinnamon buns.  So he pretty much brought most of the food everyone ate.  He likes to go overboard, but everyone appreciated it.

Julie and Lisa forgot stuff at my house, so I brought Lisa to work the day after, and Julie came back to pick hers up, and I gave her the leftover donuts for her ride back downtown.

Other than Adam, my friends are not Jewish, and they had so much fun this year.  I think even more than we usually have because there was no time to get bored.

So I hope this story inspires you to host something different and incorporate things like I did for my party.

I decided the theme last year, but the more the year went on, the more important it was to cancel all the hatred that had increased toward Jewish people in this city.  There are only about 1% of Jewish people, but here they receive the most amount of anti-semitic violence.  It makes me really sad to see how much it has increased since COVID, and I hope something changes because it's not acceptable in a Country like Canada.

This is a long post, but it turned into more than a story about my annual Hallmark party, and I hope that it means something to you while you read it.

I don't know what the theme will be next year.  My first thought was Gingerbread, but I'm going to wait and see what's happening in the world next year and decide then.  

It's about fun and not trying to cancel out hatred in the world.

OY TO THE WORLD!