The Fixer and the Chef

My Adventures with and Without Anthony Bourdain

By: Zamir Gotta, Miriam Margala

Narrated by: Zamir Gotta

I met Tony Bourdain in 2001, in Saint Petersburg, Russia, filming an episode of A Cook’s Tour. From that day on, we were comrades in search of new emotions and experiences greater than ourselves. In 2011, he told me to write my story. It took me 14 years to look back, to filter my life through the lens of our 17-year friendship. Tony showed me the way out of my cage, from the weight of being Soviet-born to becoming a citizen of the world. I had the honor of being his travel companion for 10 TV episodes — across time zones, across different tables, riding trains, dilapidated cars, and horse carts, from cold to heat, sunshine to rain and back again.

It wasn’t about the screen time. It was about the ride. This is my story: the highs, the lows, the unknown uncovered. Even now, when the book is written, I feel I’m still searching for meaning, for forgiveness, maybe even redemption. But the show must go on. Tony’s light is still out there, and I carry a flicker of it.

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