Gahey, humans. Welcome to the safe space for dangerous ideas. This is an emotional one today.

The dangerous idea that we are exploring is whether or not the gigantic appetites of gigantic

men doom them, whether or not they will inevitably be brought down by an excess of romanticism

and hedonism and self-expression whether those attributes contain within them the seeds of our

own demise if we're not careful. That was certainly the situation for two of the world's

most famous cooks, Mario Battali and Anthony Bourdain, both of whom

today's guest worked with intimately for many years. Lorry Wuliver came to New York to be a writer,

but she first completed the French Columnary Institute's professional training program.

And then, 25 years ago,

she was hired as the assistant to the hottest chef in New York City at the turn of the century.

Sounds funny to say that, doesn't it, the turn of the century? Mario Batali was his name.

After that ended, she later joined Anthony Bourdain's team, really became his own personal long-time assistant.

He called her his lieutenant from the beginning of his rise to superstardom, just after he'd gotten his travel channel show, right through and riding with him along the trajectory of success until his death in 2018. They were together for about a decade. His death hit me particularly hard. It had hit many people uniquely hard,

and I always feel that there's something a little bit sort of, I don't know, self-absorbed about

being struck by the death of a celebrity as if it, I don't know, self-absorbed about being struck by the death

of a celebrity as if it hit you personally. But his really did. The fact that it was at his own

hand made it galling, the fact that he had what was clearly the best job in the world,

made it galling. And the fact that he was such a beautifully, openly vulnerable romantic, made it gawling, and the fact that he was such a beautifully openly vulnerable romantic,

made it gawling. I'm usually loathe to read things out here in these intros,

but it might be somewhat useful just to get inside my head, because I wrote something the day

after Anthony Bourdain died.

And anyway, this is what I wrote before we talk to Laurie about her life and Anthony's

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