While writing Kitchen Confidential, his warts-and-all memoir of the seamy underbelly of the restaurant world, Anthony Bourdain said he was liberated by the very real prospect of failure.

“I wrote Kitchen Confidential assuming no one would read it. I didn’t have the burden of expectations,” he said. “I wasn’t imagining the reader. I just got up in the morning and wrote as fast and as furious as I could. I just wrote my heart out.”

The overwhelming success of Kitchen Confidential launched the relatively unknown chef into the superstar ranks of foodie personalities. It got him a Food Network show. And contracts for other food and travel confessionals. Then it got him his signature show, Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations on the Travel Channel.

And through it all, it got him notoriety as “bad boy of cuisine” for his blunt assessments and take-no-prisoners observations of the culinary world and its stars. It’s a reputation he may not continue to relish, but one that fits him like his best weathered leather jacket.

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The chef’s forthcoming book explores food and fame while dissing noted critics and celebrity chefs.

“I’d like to say this is the first time I’ve cooked coke, but that isn’t exactly true,” says Anthony Bourdain–decked out in a bulletproof vest, ventilation mask and dark sunglasses–as he stands in a field in Panama, with 6 tons of pure cocaine smoking in the background. The scene is from a 2010 episode of his travel show, No Reservations, that came about when Panama’s national security chief wanted to show off his progress for Bourdain’s cameras.

About 15 years ago, Bourdain might have been the cocaine’s intended end user. Instead, the reformed addict has used his hard-living past–along with a passion for food, 28 years experience as a New York City chef and a harsh wit–to build his own brand of entertainment.

Forget your cheerful travel host mugging in front of the Eiffel Tower. Bourdain–sometimes passionate, other times irritated–eats, drinks and instigates his way across the globe from the favelas of Rio, to food stalls in Vietnam, to the gourmet kitchens of Manhattan, often referencing hard drugs, punk rock and sex. Forbes estimates he pulled in $1.5 million in 2009.

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Anthony Bourdain, the chef-turned-author-turned-televised-world traveler is coming back to town. On Saturday night at the Hippodrome Theater, he and Eric Ripert, executive chef and owner of Le Bernadin, a three-star New York restaurant, will headline “What to Eat Baltimore,” an evening of storytelling and a question-and-answer session followed by a sampling of dishes from top Baltimore restaurants.

“Unlike me, Eric has a reputation to protect as one of the world’s greatest chefs,” Bourdain said. “We are friends, and I have caused him many uncomfortable moments. I hope my relationship with Baltimore doesn’t cause him any this time around.”

In a brief telephone interview from Le Bernadin, Ripert said he and Bourdain make a good team even though they have different styles. Bourdain is better at performing in public, Ripert said, but, “I am better at cooking.”

Bourdain does like to talk, and he does it well. In a wide-ranging telephone interview from his home in New York, Bourdain discussed his love of street food, trends in American restaurants, and The Food Network. But mostly, he talked about the Baltimore “No Reservations” episode and people’s reaction to it.

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We can go on with a lengthy exposition about who Anthony Bourdain is, but what he has to say is far more interesting. The host of “No Reservations” on the Travel Channel, Bourdain will appear at the Chicago Theatre Saturday to muse on food, television, and surely, Rachael Ray. Here he is.

You’re a chef by training. How do you keep 4,000 people in a theater entertained?

I’m gonna walk out on stage and just start talking. I don’t have props or an entourage or DJs. I’ll just talk for an hour about what’s exciting or pissing me off at the moment.

You do know Guy Fieri has a T- shirt cannon at his stage shows.

Right! He’s got a giant blender. A “flair” bartender, whatever that means. I don’t have T-shirts, I don’t have merchandise. I don’t even have wardrobe. He has the cool yellow chef’s coats with “Culinary Gangsta” spelled out on them. It’s like Wayne Newton.

What’s with all you food folks touring? Paula Deen, Guy Fieri, now you? Maybe you should organize a Monsters of TV Chefs Mega Tour.

At the end of the day, all of these guys have to cook. I don’t even cook on stage. I don’t really understand it, but it’s fun for me to do. It’s lucrative …I talk for about an hour and then I take questions.To the extent that they’ve been drinking, that makes a big difference. Hopefully, the questions are provocative and hopefully confrontational.

You enjoy the confrontation?

I’d rather be challenged by somebody, rather than have somebody say, “Dude, where are you going to have drinks after the show?” I love a spirited debate as much as anybody. I even like being wrong, if something can make a good case … on something. In a lot of ways, that’s what I do professionally, traveling. I’m confronted by my own ignorance or misunderstandings all the time.

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Anthony Bourdain isn’t trying to get people to like him, and that’s exactly why we adore him.

As host of Travel Channel’s ‘No Reservations,’ we’ve seen Tony eat anything and everything on his culinary adventures — and, at least once an episode, we’re also treated to his usually curse-laced rants. Consider it the sparkly candle on top of an already amazing Kwanzaa cake. (More on that in a bit …)

We caught up with the globetrotting foodie to hear more about his biggest food loves, his problems with Bradley Cooper and why a simple ‘Semi-Homemade’ cake on TV haunts his dreams.

Where would you like to go for the show that you all haven’t been yet?

Cuba. We have not been able to do it successfully. Every time we’re weeks away, closing in on actually finally making a show, some permit doesn’t come through or something goes wrong, and we are disappointed. That’s been a long frustration for me. I’d love to see it before it all changes. History is going to be happening there any minute, and I want to get there.

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• Anthony Bourdain DVD’s on Amazon