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One day a novice writer and college dropout submits a short story to a hip literary magazine named for a pair of then notorious avenues on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Although he lives far away on the Upper West Side, the aspiring writer is intimately familiar with the neighborhood because it’s where he has been buying the heroin he is addicted to for the last five or six years. During this time he has been supporting himself and his habit by working in the kitchens of a string of popular New York City restaurants. His story marries the two poles of his existence in the tale of a young chef trying to score heroin on the Loisaida who is turned away by his dealer because his arms are free of track marks.
Publishing the story leads to a successful book about the seamier side of restaurant kitchens, which in turn leads to an even more popular TV series. No longer obliged to work as a chef, and having successfully kicked heroin, the man begins an altogether different kind of life. As he later describes his new vocation, in the profane language that does much to distinguish him from more genteel purveyors of food culture: “I travel around the world, eat a lot of shit and basically do whatever the fuck I want.”
After several seasons, a noticeable change comes over his TV show. Where once every episode was largely filled with scenes of him eating, drinking (he makes no secret of his love of alcohol) and chatting about food (more often than not purchased from street vendors), now more screen time is given over to the lives, often harsh, of the inhabitants of the far-flung places he visits, which include war zones such as Lebanon, Gaza, Libya and the Democratic Republic of Congo. What distinguishes him from conventional journalists is not only his exuberant cursing but also how he foregrounds his physical body: his voracious but discriminating palette, his long-suffering liver, his tattoo-covered forearms, and so on. The experiences he subjects himself to become his guarantee of authenticity; they make him into a kind of performance artist.
The place he loves more than anywhere else in the world is Vietnam, a country he first became intrigued by when reading Graham Greene’s novel The Quiet American. Appropriately, it’s in Hanoi that he achieves what is perhaps his greatest moment: persuading the then-president of the United States who happens to be in Vietnam on a state visit to join him for a bowl of bun cha and some cold beer in a humble noodle shop. A simple meal shared with the most powerful person in the world encapsulates his message: that our common humanity is most readily found in the everyday act of eating, and in the infinite particularities of local cuisines.
Fully aware of his long sequence of good luck, he tells a reporter: “I have the best job in the world. If I’m unhappy, it’s a failure of imagination.” His last Instagram post, made just days before he hangs himself in a hotel room in Alsace where he is filming a new episode, is a close-up of a choucroute garnie, featuring a thick slice of ham atop of mound of sauerkraut, flanked by sausages, boiled potato and two very thick chunks of salted pork. A two-word caption expresses his perpetual defiance of all moderation, and his endless gusto for the good stuff that awaits: “Light lunch.”
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"The Best Job in the World" was posted on June 15, 2018 See also the new show Raphael has curated, which includes Archie Rand's painting "Sisters" (1983):
VISIONS OF ARCADIA IN CONTEMPORARY PAINTING
Curated by Raphael Rubinstein
June 26th - September 29th, 2018
Opening Reception:
Tuesday, June 26th, 2018
6:00 PM to 8:00PM
417 Lafayette Street, 4th floor, NYC
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