Quote of the Day

Sam Sifton Sorta Helped a Pre-Fame Bourdain Get Famous

Paula Deen can blame David Remnick for this guy.
Paula Deen can blame David Remnick for this guy. Photo: Getty Images

“I’d written a piece [about working in a restaurant kitchen] for the New York Press — I figured I’d get 100 bucks and a shot at getting printed. But my editor there, Sam Sifton, couldn’t get it in. Week after week, we kept getting bumped. Out of frustration and drunken rage, I sent it to the New Yorker. […] A few weeks later, I get a call from [New Yorker editor] David Remnick saying, “We’re going to print your article,” and then it was overnight — suddenly I had a book deal.” —Newly minted book-industry player Anthony Bourdain, explaining how fate (and Sam Sifton) kept him out of the newspaper and helped turn him into the man he is today. [LAT]

Sam Sifton Sorta Helped a Pre-Fame Bourdain Get Famous