For as much love as Anthony Bourdain received for his TV shows like “Parts Unknown” and the eternally-underrated “A Cook’s Tour” (Bourdain’s very first travel show) his earliest claim to fame came when he wrote the book “Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly,” a follow-up to his op-ed entitled “Don’t Eat Before Reading This.” In both writings, Bourdain gave the long-heralded advice to never order fish on Mondays — a suggestion that the chef would eventually retract years later. According to Bourdain, this change in opinion was the result of the food industry improving its standards and his own expanded worldview over the years.
The beloved chef made his revised take clear in a video for Insider Tech back in 2016, where he did a complete 180 on ordering fish and admitted to his narrow worldview at the time of his early writings. “Do me one favor — eat the fish on Monday,” Bourdain pleaded, “That was 16 years ago; it was a very different world […] I was writing about the only world I knew, which was New York City markets at the time.”
Read more: 12 Things You Should Never Say When Ordering Steak
Ordering Fish Has Changed Since Bourdain First Wrote About It
Piles of fish on sale at a market. – Paul Biris/Getty Images
Beyond just experiencing how different restaurants handle fish over the years, Anthony Bourdain also noted that his old fish rule is no longer applicable in the modern world, where fresh fish is an absolute must for countless restaurants across the country. Bourdain’s original take on fish — which has regularly been called a myth in the years since — was accompanied by the logic that, since fish markets are closed on the weekends, the fish you get on Monday is likely days old by the time you’re eating it. However, Bourdain admits that this sort of practice simply wouldn’t fly in the modern day. “It’s a better world. We have higher standards, we know more about food, we expect more of our food,” Bourdain explained, “Everybody eats sushi now […] We know now what good fish is, and the market has had to respond to that. It can’t get away with serving us the crap they used to. We know what fish should look like and smell like.”
So, while Mondays still stand out as likely the worst day to visit a restaurant in general, it is certainly not because of the fish. Although, Anthony Bourdain did note that it’s still important to be vigilant about what fish we eat and when. “Monday at the local fake Irish pub, they’re running a mussels special — maybe that’s still not such a great idea,” Bourdain joked.
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