Anthony Bourdain saw more of the world than nearly anyone. His travels took him from the hidden pockets of his hometown of New York to a tribal longhouse in Borneo, from cosmopolitan Buenos Aires, Paris, and Shanghai to Tanzania’s utter beauty and the stunning desert solitude of Oman’s Empty Quarter—and many places beyond.
In World Travel, a life of experience is collected into an entertaining, practical, fun, and frank travel guide that gives readers an introduction to some of his favorite places—in his own words. Featuring essential advice on how to get there, what to eat, where to stay, and, in some cases, what to avoid, World Travel provides essential context that will help readers further appreciate the reasons why Bourdain found a place enchanting and memorable.
Supplementing Bourdain’s words are a handful of essays by friends, colleagues, and family that tell even deeper stories about a place, including sardonic accounts of traveling with Bourdain by his brother Chris; a guide to Chicago’s best cheap eats by legendary music producer Steve Albini; and more.
MOFAD is excited to welcome co-author and Bourdain’s longtime assistant Laurie Woolever in celebration of the debut of the paperback version of World Travel. She will be joined by Helen Rosner, James Beard Award-winning food writer and staff writer for The New Yorker, for a conversation about the essential (and irreverent) advice for eating and experiencing life around the world.
Doors will open at 6:00 PM to allow ticket holders to tour our current exhibition, Flavor: The World to Your Brain. The program will start promptly at 7:00 PM.
Tickets also include the option to purchase World Travel by Laurie Woolever.
ANTHONY BOURDAIN
Anthony Bourdain was the author of the novels Bone in the Throat and Gone Bamboo, the memoir A Cook’s Tour, and the New York Times bestsellers Kitchen Confidential, Medium Raw, and Appetites. His work appeared in the New York Times and The New Yorker. He was the host of the popular television shows No Reservations and Parts Unknown. Bourdain died in June 2018.
LAURIE WOOLEVER
Laurie Woolever is a writer and editor. She spent nearly a decade assisting Anthony Bourdain, with whom she coauthored the cookbook Appetites in 2016 and World Travel in 2021. She’s written about food and travel for the New York Times, GQ, Food & Wine, Lucky Peach, Saveur, Dissent, Roads & Kingdoms, and others, and has worked as an editor at Art Culinaire and Wine Spectator. She is also the New York Times bestselling author of Bourdain: The Definitive Oral Biography and has a memoir Care and Feeding coming out in 2025.
HELEN ROSNER
Helen Rosner is a staff writer at The New Yorker. She has been covering food for more than a decade as a writer and editor, and won a James Beard Award, in 2016, for her ode to chicken tenders, in Guernica. Rosner has worked at Saveur and New York magazine, launched the seminal food site Eat Me Daily, and served as a cookbook editor. Before joining The New Yorker, she was the executive editor of Eater, where she founded the publication’s James Beard- and National Magazine Award-winning features department. She is the author of the weekly column The Food Scene.