My Food Hero: Anthony Bourdain by chef Dan Kenny of The Set

I read Anthony Bourdain’s first book, Kitchen Confidential, when I was about 14, and I started working in kitchens a few weeks later. I wanted to be a chef because it just sounded like so much fun. The description of a lot of pirates and misfits that wanted to be in an environment where they could get up to no good was quite appealing at that age. I’ve been a big Bourdain fan ever since. We eat a lot of Bourdain travel show-inspired dishes for staff food, and we have a lot of his favourite music on our playlist. We’ve always had the ‘Cook-free or die’ posters in the dining room of wherever we’ve been cooking.

One of Bourdain’s favourite cuisines was Vietnamese, and I lived in Vietnam for a couple of years in the late 2000s. I was actually in the same restaurant as him one evening when he was filming Parts Unknown in Ho Chi Minh City. A friend of mine went and borrowed a lighter from him, not knowing who he was. Then we saw all the cameras, and realised it was Bourdain.

Bourdain is one of those rare characters where I think 99% of people like him. There’s a lot of Bourdain fans, a lot of people who relate to his views and approach to life. He’s always been a bit of a hero, so it seemed an obvious theme for a pop-up; all the dishes on The Set’s Bourdain Residency at Cafe Rust in April 2026 were inspired by him.

The menu started with an oyster, which was the first thing that Bourdain had when he was on holiday in France with his parents that blew his mind. The bream ceviche dish came from watching one of his travel shows about South America. The marinade changes every time we make it, but we use a really good quality vinegar and citrus fruits like yuzu and pummelo from Todoli in Spain. I always put something hot in there, like green chilli or jalapeno juice and finish it with some kind of raw allium and fresh herbs.

St John in London was Bourdain’s favourite restaurant, and I agree with him. The bone marrow, toast and parsley salad is such a famous dish that we had to include it. I like having a clean, raw start to a meal and then going into really rich, fatty big old chunks of bone marrow. Coq au vin is in Bourdain’s Les Halles Cookbook. We’ll use really good Sussex chickens from Barfields Butchers and make the mash with loads of butter and creme fresh. It’s one of those dishes you don’t really want to mess with. We finished with a crème brûlée and then some Stichelton blue cheese, both Bourdain favourites.

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