Renowned chef Anthony Bourdain, host of CNN’s travel and food series Parts Unknown, says he’s not at all interested in sitting down and eating with Donald Trump.
“Absolutely fucking not,” Bourdain said when asked whether he might interview the Republican presidential candidate.
In an interview with the Wrap, the award winning chef and New York City native said he’s long believed Trump to be a “loathsome” man and would have turned down dinner with the White House hopeful “10 years ago.”
“I’ve been a New Yorker most of my life, [and] for better or worse Mr. Trump is a New Yorker,” Bourdain told the entertainment news site. “We know him well here. We’ve watched how he does business and we’ve watched him say things and then we’ve seen whether or not he did those things, we have seen how he treats the people he does business with. I would give the same answer that I would have given 10 years ago, when he was just as loathsome.”
Bourdain’s bitter remarks toward Trump came on the heels of the eighth season premiere of his five-time Emmy Award winning show, which featured none other than President Obama.
However, Bourdain rejects the idea of featuring politicos on his show and said Obama’s appearance “kind of fell in our lap.”
“We didn’t reach out to the White House,” he added. “I don’t think it’s something I’m anxious to do again. It’s something I’m really grateful I did this time around but it was an extraordinary occurrence.”
When asked — having traveled extensively and experienced various cultures as part of his television show — if he sees America’s issues differently, Bourdain said that Europe has seen “a lot of sort of white nationalism and alt-right. A lot of anti-immigrant sentiment, a lot of fear and undirected anger but I’ve never seen in my lifetime the kind of national conversation that we’re actually having in the open now.”
“It would have been unthinkable at any point in my life, eight years ago, if a candidate for a major party was endorsed by the America Nazi Party and the Aryan Nation it’s something [major figures] would feel obliged to denounce. Now, that apparently isn’t reason enough to say anything.”
Asked if he’s detected a change in how people around the world view America, the chef said “I mean, there is a sense of utter disbelief, everywhere I go, at Mr. Trump.”
“That is for sure. I mean, I’m talking among our allies, England, France Germany, Italy,” Bourdain continued. “It’s the worst thing you can find. It’s one thing to be despised or held in contempt or feared, but to be ridiculed or pitied is a terrible thing.”
The Nashville episode of Parts Unknown airs on Sunday at 9 p.m. EST on CNN.
Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter: @JeromeEHudson
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