PROFESSIONAL globetrotter is Tony's second act. A native of New York City, he spent 28 years pinballing between restaurants on the East Coast, becoming a heroin addict and living hand to mouth before ascending to the position of executive chef at Les Halles, a French brasserie on Park Avenue South. In 2000, he published Kitchen Confidential, a joyous undressing of the restaurant business. (He had previously written two novels.) In it, Bourdain explained why you should never order fish on Mondays and why that hollandaise sauce drizzled over your eggs Benedict probably spent a frightening amount of its life at room temperature. The book dynamited more genteel notions of food writing and became a bestseller, earning Tony writing assignments from Gourmet, The New York Times, and others.

At 44, Tony was married, newly famous, and looking for a change of scenery. So he decided to accrue some frequent-flier miles and write A Cook's Tour (2001). He also let a camera crew tag along to film a companion series that aired on the Food Network. In 2003, he hopped to the Travel Channel to make No Reservations.

The running joke of the show is that Tony is trying to blend in with indigenous people, but his Gumby physique and innate surliness make this all but impossible. At the beginning, we typically see him roaming the streets and proposing some general theories about his destination. Then he embarks on a series of trials that inspire pithy punchlines. (After receiving a mud bath in Iceland: "I feel like drinking just out of spite.") There are no breakthrough moments in which our protagonist announces he is one with an alien culture. (During a jungle hike on the island of Borneo with a former counterinsurgent: "My job is to keep the leftist rhetoric to a minimum and not to fall too far behind.")

What Tony seems to spend most of his time doing is boozing with locals, throwing back shots of rice liquor, jungle moonshine, vodka, and all manner of beer. "It's important that not just me but the whole crew drinks with them a lot—prior to, during, and after the shooting period," he says. "Otherwise, they freeze up. Everybody's like 'Welcome to our longhouse, freakish American.' " While everyone gets loose, Tony is often mapping out the show's narration.

"I would never refer to him as the 'host' of the show," says Chris Collins, who produces No Reservations with his wife, Lydia Tenaglia, and Myleeta Aga. "He's a guy writing essays that we're filming."