Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown

I feel completely distraught.

I didn't think we'd go through with it.

Now it's a lot of uncertainty.

It's a shock.

We're all in deep shit.

Better the devil you know, than you don't.

It goes on.

I feel it's like the end of the world.

It feels pretty bad.

It's the ramifications of it all.

There doesn't seem to be a plan for

what we're going to do now.

You don't know what to do, because they're all arguing.

It little woken them, but... I think human beings

are still stupid and ego gets in the way.

I believe some things to be true about England, other than

that I know I can always find friends there.

It's where you can find some of the best

restaurants in Europe.

It's beautiful.

It's... I don't know... Sophisticated.

They're old.

They've been around.

But on this last trip, unexpectedly, the mood in London

became darker, more uncertain about the future.

The British people spoke last night.

Brutal wake-up call.

It turns out that it was about immigration,

that more than half of Britain's immigration

comes from outside the EU.

It's a disaster, a calamity.

The young are very, very angry about what's happened

and the gamble that's being taken with their future.

Few in London, anyway, went to sleep thinking that England

would leave the European Union.

That was for the rubes, the people from the sticks,

the country people, old, white people,

people who felt pushed out, neglected, disenfranchised

by the new, the young, the foreign, the decidedly

less-white England of today.

The votes were tallied, and the majority

had decided to Brexit.

The ramifications were unclear, but the financial markets

plummeted, the nation's credit rating was downgraded,

the prime minister resigned, and both political parties'

leadership basically disintegrated overnight.

In uncertain times, I always look for the comforting

and the familiar, the things that always, for me,

made England great, like one of my favorite

restaurants on Earth, and one of the chefs

I like and respect most.

This restaurant helped make a persuasive argument

that there is some kind of merit -to British cooking.

Yes.

It's absolutely true.

Fergus Henderson, the most influential chef

of the last two decades, even though you have likely

never heard of him.

He changed everything.

It seems an instinctive thing to cook old-school,

simple, proud, English country cooking.

But it started a quiet revolution.

St. John, I love you and I need you now more than ever.

It's about the single ingredient on the plate,

speaking for itself in that classic Italian sort of way.

And so you can get lost.

Roast bone marrow with parsley and caper salad,

sourdough bread made here.

A dish that would become absolutely iconic.

If you've ever eaten bone marrow anywhere,

it's very likely because they did it here first.

My dinner companion is food critic and author Jay Rayner,

a man never with a shortage of opinions.

Bones.

Thank you, yes.

Salt.

And there you go It's a simple, good thing,

but it's one of the most influential dishes,

like, in the last 20 years.

It's a good thing.

You see his imprint everywhere.

It's true.

And what's interesting is that the aesthetic

gets passed down in other ways that you don't expect.

Yeah.

As I've become older, I've noticed

the food that I yearn for is food that I react to

in an entirely emotional way.

The problem is that it's so very, very rare.

I'm looking for a suspension... No-

...of logic and reason.

This is something that I got here from the beginning.

Pickled calves tripe with radish, shaved carrot,

and watercress.

Lovely.

Wow.

Wow.

Thank you.

There are some tripe dishes that are just

uniquely wonderful.

And it's a tricky ingredient.

Once you're cooking it, it smells like wet dog.

The way we smell things and taste them is very different.

All the best foods stink.

Yeah.

And it's an extraordinary thing.

These foods, there's a faint whiff of death about them,

are the ones that remind you that you're the most alive.

The scent of your own mortality.

Of your own mortality.

Skate poached in court bouillon, with fennel in green sauce

of fresh parsley, herbs, and anchovies.

Hmm.

It's nice.

Savory treats -in the form of kidney.

Oh, the little kidneys.

They're so pretty.

And how were these kidneys done, sir?

Well, seasoned fair... Nice.

And then put sauce... P'shh, p'shh!

Sizzling.

Chicken stock... Butter, p'shh, p'shh.

P'shh, shh, and toast.

Done.

Yes, thank you.

Good, wow.

Eat well.

Thank you.

Pig's head and potato pie.

The head brined, slowly simmered until tender,

stripped away from the bone, and seasoned then baked

in pastry with potatoes.

Yes, please.

A traditional dish that exemplifies

everything I believe in.

Wow.

Nice.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you.

All right.

Oh, look at that.

Great joy.

That's working.

Is this a hot water pastry?

So, it's a puff pastry, but somehow transfers of fats

through the pig's head out and the in

makes it so the crust... It's gorgeous.

Indeed.

Oh, God, that's good.

Extraordinary.

You look at this pie, and it's almost like something out

of a children's book.

Right.

The pie tradition is something very, very special.

If you go back in history to the Hogarth painting,

"The Roast Beef of Old England"... Yup.

...you'll realize that actually we were far ahead

of the French in the preparation of beef

and the roasting of meats.

A lot of it was over our side of the channel.

Yeah.

Which is no reason for leaving the European Union.

So they call it Great Britain.

What's great about Britain?

I can refer to a certain literacy and a wry sense of humor,

and a political tradition of democracy, which, ironically,

the referendum that's caused so many of us so much pain

is a perfect example of.

Also, a weirdly cosmopolitan, welcoming environment

in which the history of immigration into the country

has defined a far more open culture.

Until this point I was very, very proud, but that...

I wouldn't be here.

You know, my great-great grandparents

arrived as shtetl Jews off the boat into the East End

of London, and here I am still to this day,

and that's a very, very important thing.

A very tolerant country.

This is a very traumatic moment.

Will it all work out in the end?

I have no idea.

- Wow. - It's the honest truth.

Nothing is certain.

You know what I like? A good pub.

Like the Princess Victoria in West London,

and stuff like this.

Did you like pork scratchings?

I do.

Hmm. Cheers.

Oh, that's insanely good.

Maybe you wouldn't think that the legendary cookbook author

Nigella Lawson and I could be friends, but we are.

We are, admittedly, very different.

She is the very definition of kindness, elegance, grace,

the woman who taught England to cook.

Nice.

What do you get here ordinarily?

Scotch egg.

All right.

Scotch eggs, please, and some whitebait.