Travel map of Anthony Bourdain

The news caught me off guard. A new season of Parts Unknown is about to start this weekend, despite the uncomfortable fact that the man who carried the show had already left the stage. Anthony Bourdain may be gone, but the miles remain.

Over nearly two decades he crisscrossed the planet with a camera crew, an empty stomach and an almost pathological curiosity about other people. He wasn’t interested in postcard attractions or restaurants with starched tablecloths. He wanted the places where taxi drivers ate, where old men argued over coffee, where revolutions had left scars on the walls and where dinner usually came with a story.

By the time this final season airs, Bourdain has fronted no fewer than four different television series with a total of 25 seasons. Trying to remember where he has been is beginning to feel like reconstructing the route of a wandering pirate. So I built a map.

The interactive map covers all of Bourdain’s travels between 2000 and 2018 across his four television series. Zoom in and hover over each country to see which episodes were filmed there.

Anthony Bourdain travel map

A Cook’s Tour (2 seasons, 2002-2003)

Fresh from the success of Kitchen Confidential, Bourdain traded restaurant kitchens for airport lounges. The production values were modest, the format still finding its feet, but the essential ingredients were already there: curiosity, sarcasm and an admirable willingness to eat things that would make the average television host call the cops.

No Reservations (9 seasons, 2005-2012)

This is Bourdain in his sardonic prime. Savvy but curious, mocking but caring. The writing became sharper, the cinematography more confident and Bourdain fully embraced the role that nobody had invented before him: equal parts chef, journalist, comedian and accidental philosopher. He could mock a tourist trap one minute and deliver an unexpectedly profound observation about humanity the next.

The Layover (2 seasons, 2011-2013)

The odd one out. Instead of disappearing into a country for days, Bourdain was squeezed into a sort of hasty stopover with short facts that could fit on the back cover of a Lonely Planet. Even Bourdain himself was less than thrilled with the concept, and it occasionally shows.

Parts Unknown (12 seasons, 2013-2018)

Moving on to CNN, the show became more political and reflective. Food was still the gateway, but the destination had become history, conflict, identity and the messy business of being human. It was ambitious television that trusted its audience to keep up.