I met Anthony muthaf*&#!^ Bourdain, and it was awesome

I was lucky enough to meet Anthony Bourdain, the guy with the world’s coolest job, in NYC in Union Square last night. He was at Barnes & Noble to chat about, sign, and let’s face it, mostly sell, his newest cookbook, Appetites.

I was so happy I went. After arriving a couple minutes late, I got seated in the next-to-last row that thankfully had a clear view of him on the stage. The first thing I noticed was he’s tan. More tan than he appears on television. He was at the podium talking about planning a Thanksgiving Day feast, something I’ve been obsessed with for a couple weeks now. He was funny and charming as expected, but his true awesomeness shone through when he started taking questions from the audience. He spoke on a variety of topics, but a couple were near and dear to my heart:

Mac and cheese is kind of perfect.

It’s no secret he has an unholy obsession with fast-food macaroni and cheese (he’s partial to the Popeyes version, which I loathe), but when he said this, well, be still my heart. I LOVE mac and cheese. I’d eat it every day if I could. It’s dangerous for me, so I rarely make it.

I show affection by cooking.

This also is soooooo me! That makes us BFFs right? If I feed someone well, I feel like they know I care for them.

He was funny, witty, and insightful, but these two quotes really resonated with me. After the talk, organizers asked attendees to stand on line one row at a time to get their book autographed. After what seemed like an eternity, I made it to front! I stayed cool and didn’t say anything stupid. And bonus: I took a good photo for once. This is a success in my book, though, admittedly, the bar is very low.