In the 1970s, a young Anthony Bourdain found himself in the small coastal town of Provincetown, Massachusetts. It’s where he spent four summers, getting his start in the culinary world as a dishwasher in a local restaurant and graduating to line cook.
Decades later, screenwriters Todd Bartels and Lou Howe trekked to Provincetown, retracing the steps of the young man who would become a cultural icon and host of the celebrated shows Parts Unknown and No Reservations.
The duo — pals from boarding school and later Harvard — wanted to write a movie about Bourdain, but didn’t want a cradle to grave story. They had a hunch a few chapters he wrote in his memoir Kitchen Confidential about his summers in Provincetown could be the key.
“The movie started kind of coming together in our minds,” says Howe hours spent in Bourdain’s favorite dive bar Old Colony Tap and other haunts.
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