By Karen
[First, my thanks to Cats Working reader Stephanie Pyrzynski for alerting me that this book exists. It’s available on Amazon in hardcover, paperback, and Kindle.]
Anthony Bourdain’s zany Russian sidekick Zamir has independently published a memoir (available online via print-on-demand, not in bookstores) called The Fixer and the Chef: My Adventures With and Without Anthony Bourdain.
Physically, it’s a respectable hardcover with professional photography and well-written cover copy. The interior layout falls a bit short, though readable, with narrow margins and clunky justification in spots. At only 183 pages, it packs a lot of story into a deceptively thin volume.
But I nitpick.
Zamir says Bourdain began urging him in 2011 to write his remarkable life story. His childhood in the Soviet Union was filled with dire deprivation and squalor, which made me feel almost ashamed that I ever laughed at how communism was mocked in the movies Ninotchka with Greta Garbo…
And its musical remake Silk Stockings (this French poster captures the Soviet angle best)…
Zamir spares no ugly details in the first 89 pages, mentioning Bourdain several times in passing as he describes how he grew into a fixer. He was an A-list wheeler-dealer long before a relative nobody from Food Network ever pinged his radar. He’d already chalked up Billy Crystal and Ted Koppel, to drop a few names. Zamir was even an associate producer on Tilda Swinton’s Oscar-nominated film, Orlando, although his name was strangely omitted from the credits.
Zamir thoroughly disabuses the reader of any notion that Anthony Bourdain ever plucked Zamir from obscurity like any rando Russian.
Their adventures together begin when “Two Odd Guys Meet” in Chapter 5 on page 90.
Disregarding any negative connotations of the word, I’d describe Zamir as an opportunist. He’s someone who, in seeking workarounds to communism’s mandatory poverty, learned how to remove the peel from a single grape and turn it into a bottle of champagne — with a side of caviar and blinis.
It all began when Tony’s production company ZPZ recruited Zamir to help film two episodes of A Cook’s Tour. That relationship lasted and spanned 10 episodes over Tony’s three travel series.
[NOTE TO ZAMIR: If you’re reading this, despite your stern warning about reproducing “no part of this book” without permission, I’m quoting you. It’s called “fair use.”]
Zamir recalls his first impression upon meeting Bourdain…
“A Bohemian figure, slim and tall, dripping with charisma. He wore a thick silver thumb ring and a hoop earring. The jewelry looked uncomfortable. In my preconception, he was too tall and too thin to be a chef.”
“Dripping with charisma?” Maybe to a Russian he was. But in the handful of encounters I had with Tony some years later, I found him diffident, almost shy.
Readers know I’m always on the lookout for the ever-elusive Nancy. Zamir gives her a cameo, accompanying Tony…
“Nancy was tall and quiet. She made me think of what an American hippie might look like. She was nice, but never said much.”
During that first Cook’s Tour shoot, Zamir says Tony asked him to co-host.
Hmm… To verify, I just rewatched that episode. Zamir spoke very little, so “co-host” is a bit of a stretch. His role definitely grew over time as his antics became well-loved comic relief.
Tony might describe Zamir as an acquired taste that’s best enjoyed with the proverbial grain of salt.
The episode I was most eager to read about was Romania but, alas, Zamir mentions it only to say that Tony was annoyed by all the toasting.
After many hours spent talking and drinking, Zamir says he and Tony became friends, then confidants. Tony featured Zamir in the No Reservations Rust Belt episode to show him how destructive unbridled capitalism can be. The upside was that Zamir found a cadre of his own fans and fell in love with Buffalo, NY, which led to him producing Zamir Vodka.
At that time, Bourdain was in the throes of the Bourdain Market deal on Pier 57 in Manhattan that ultimately fell through. He promised Zamir that if his vodka wasn’t shit, it would be sold there. Losing that endorsement and distribution outlet was a huge disappointment and setback for the product.
Zamir’s final episode with Tony was in the country of Georgia for Parts Unknown, wrapping in November 2015. They never saw each other again. In early 2016, Tony went to Rome and met the skank, and you know the rest.
Zamir has a burning desire to honor Bourdain as a globe-trotting peacemaker, because making peace within his family was his role as a child, and became his most marketable skill.
When the news of Tony’s death broke, Zamir shared the shock we all felt…
“When I first learned of Tony’s death on the train from Buffalo to New York in June 2018, it felt like all things fell apart and the center could not hold.”
He found ways to move on, but suffered another unimaginable loss when his son Anton died by suicide in 2022.
If you’re still hungry for more about Anthony Bourdain, I heartily recommend The Fixer and the Chef as an entertaining read. It doesn’t have any new answers, but Zamir does share a wealth of insight into the brutal oppression and corruption of Soviet Russia that Putin misses so much.
Zamir’s collaborator was Miriam Margala, Ph.D., a Czech writer and lecturer who specializes in linguistics, philosophy, and academic writing.
Had the book been traditionally published, it would have benefited from having a native English-speaking copy and line editor, who would have smoothed rough spots in grammar and punctuation, and caught factual discrepancies, such as Zamir’s father being 15 when he enlisted in the Russian Army on page 7, but 16 when it’s repeated on page 12.
I know Zamir must feel elated to have his story finally out in tangible form. If Tony were alive, he’d have written a killer foreword, ensured top-notch production and publication, probably under his Ecco imprint, and made it a bestseller.
BONUS: A few other Bourdain bits I’ve collected…
Tony the movie: It’s set in Provincetown during the summer of 1976 when Bourdain first entered restaurant kitchen life. Emilia Jones is the only female cast I’ve seen.
Connecting dots out of nothing, I’m guessing she plays young Nancy.
Another cast member is Antonio Banderas, who may be one of Tony’s chef mentors. I have no idea which one.
Filming is now underway in Massachusetts. Seeing some photos of Dominic Sessa as young Tony, I think if he gets the swagger down, shadowed by shyness, he’s got the character nailed.
Here are a few more shots of him. And here’s another batch of photos from the Daily Mail, which calls the film a “chilling” biopic for some reason.
Get Jiro! animated series: This is also in production. According to Variety, it “welcomes the audience into a world where people will literally kill themselves to get into good restaurants.”
“The only thing they actually enjoy anymore is eating, so chefs in the future have the most power. They’re like influencers, warlords and drug dealers — all the good things together,” said Peter Girardi, EVP at Warner Bros. Animation at an Annecy Festival presentation.
The article says the series will introduce a new catchphrase. The guess: “No soy sauce!”
No date for airing, but it will be during the Adult Swim block of mature programming at night on the Cartoon Network.
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