Anthony Bourdain’s final travel guide to be finished by his co-author

Anthony Bourdain‘s first travel guide will be completed by his assistant and cookbook co-author Laurie Woolever.

Bourdain, who we lost to suicide in 2018, would often refer to Woolever as his ‘lieutenant’, and their relationship was based on a mutual passion for great food.

They began working together in 2002 and after completing the latest cookbook Appetites (2016) together, they decided a travel guide was the next project. Unfortunately they never got to complete it.

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“There really wasn’t any question that the book wouldn’t be completed,” Woolever told The Guardian in a recent interview. “After the dust settled and people in the realm of Tony got our bearings a little bit, it just made all the sense in the world to at least try and move forward with this book. I was willing to see if we could still do what we had set out to do, even though obviously Tony was no longer going to be there to participate.”

World Travel: An Irreverent Guide combines Bourdain’s wit and humour as well as practical advice for any traveller. The worldly chef reflected on some of the favourite countries he visited through his career but the list is in no way a definitive list, according to Woolever.

“There were a lot of places that he really loved that for one reason or another it didn’t make sense to include,” she says. “He had a beautiful experience in Iran, for example, but most of what he did there was meet people in their homes, or in cafes that weren’t necessarily remarkable. Unfortunately, not a lot of Americans or Europeans are travelling to Iran right now, so that’s a place he loved where it didn’t make sense to do a chapter.”

She continues: “There’s a lot to be gleaned from this book in the same way that you might consume the TV shows, but it’s a slower, more contemplative process. Tony was such a great writer, and he spoke in these brilliant complete paragraphs. Sometimes watching it on TV, it goes so quickly you want to go back: ‘What did he just say?’ This is a chance to really dig into that beautiful voice of his.”

World Travel: An Irreverent Guide is out now.