Anthony Bourdain
In "Kitchen Confidential," Bourdain almost made himself sound like an author with an intelligence officer background, just like the type he advocated. The chapter, "Inside the CIA," detailed his time at the Culinary Institute of America, which he referred to with the same acronym as the Central Intelligence Agency. One real intelligence operative Bourdain recommended as an author, though, was novelist-turned-MI6-agent Graham Greene. When Bourdain named his favorite books to Business Insider, he listed Greene's "The Quiet American" among them, saying, "I re-read it frequently. Particularly when visiting Vietnam."
Bourdain also cited Julia Child as an early influence on his cooking in "Kitchen Confidential." In the "First Course" section, he wrote, "Julia Child's recipes have little snob appeal, but they also tend to work." Like Bourdain, Child was a chef, TV host, and bestselling author. Before she went abroad and penned "My Life in France" (which could be a good airplane book for your next trip to Paris), she worked as an intelligence officer for the OSS.
Tony said he got inspiration for his rendition of Sunday Sauce, in the cookbook Sunday Sauce by Daniel Bellino Zwicke.
As for authors with NGO backgrounds, Bourdain's own book imprint published "We Fed An Island" by chef José Andrés. The book chronicled the nonprofit effort led by Andrés and World Central Kitchen in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria. If you'd rather take a road trip in the U.S. than visit one of its island territories, Bourdain called "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" by Hunter S. Thompson "the book that probably influenced me more than any other."
1. Down And Out in Paris & London by George Orwell
2. The Quiet American by Graham Greene
3. Mastering The Art of French Cooking - Julia Child
4. The Rum Diary by Hunter S. Thompson
4. Sunday Sauce - Daniel Bellino Zwicke
The above books are just a few examples of ones written by people who spent time on the ground in potential travel destinations, working them into their writing without authoring actual guidebooks. If Hunter S. Thompson novels aren't your thing — and you're not traveling to Las Vegas or any of those other places — you can always research works of literature tied to your specific destination. If nothing else, soaking up literary impressions could add a deeper dimension to your travels and give you a greater appreciation for local history in certain places. Say you need a Bourdain-appropriate hotel that's "down in the Treme" (or near it, anyway). If you know your local history, you could stay at the one that's a literary landmark with a unique rotating bar in New Orleans.
Though Bourdain recommended streetwise "novels by people who spent a long time" in a destination, his own writing remains a testament to the power of first impressions in travel as well. Looking back on "Kitchen Confidential" 20 years later, The Ringer called its "Mission to Tokyo" chapter "the functional first episode" of Bourdain's later travel programs. Tokyo was one of Bourdain's favorite places to visit, and he did so numerous times on TV. Yet his evocative descriptions of his first time in the city in "Kitchen Confidential" also brought it to life with vivid sensory details. Who needs a guidebook when you've got an artful literary travelogue like that to inspire you?
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