Anthony Bourdain's Daughter's Childhood Lunchbox Was Cooler Than We'll Ever Be

Anthony Bourdain's lifelong love of food — one that began when he tried oysters for the first time on a trip to France – was undoubtedly infectious for those who watched his TV shows, read his books, and knew him personally. However, more than maybe anyone else, Bourdain passed on his love of food to his daughter, Ariane, most notably through the meals he'd prepare for her school lunches growing up. He described what his daughter would bring to the lunchroom each day in a 2016 interview with Eater, and to call it extravagant would be an understatement. Rather than adding a few Trader Joe's snacks to her lunches each morning, Bourdain vowed to fill Ariane's lunchbox with something special and homemade each day. "My daughter has challenged me to not repeat," he explained. "Every day something different. So I'm pretty sure at her school she's the only student to ever go to school with spam musubi one day, and pasta carbonara the next day, and cotoletta milanese or polpette."

Contrary to many school lunches that at least follow a similar trend, Bourdain found himself making dishes for his daughter from many different kinds of cuisines — some of which you might not expect a seven-year-old to enjoy. "A lot of Italian, obviously, but also curries, she likes octopus, things like that," Bourdain added. "And that goes really well at school. She shows up with a little lunch box filled with the tentacles."

Beyond just making her luxurious school lunches, Ariane Bourdain would often dictate what the beloved chef would cook when he wasn't traveling the world on shows like "No Reservations" and "Parts Unknown" in the final years of his life. When asked about what his days at home in New York looked like by Eater, Bourdain said, "I wake up super early in the morning, and I make her breakfast. I pack a little lunch for her. I pick her up at school, if my schedule permits. And I cook dinner for her. And most of the major food choice decisions are made by my nine-year-old daughter."

With this in mind, it should be unsurprising that Anthony Bourdain considered his young daughter as one of his harshest critics, as she often tested even Bourdain's remarkable skills in the kitchen. Whether the "Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly" writer put too much salt in a dish or tried to add a new spice to one of his dishes when it wasn't needed, Ariane would let him know about it. "She's got a very acute palate..." he told us in a 2016 interview. "If there's any variance between a dish that she liked last time and how it's done today, she'll be like, 'Nah, not eating it, there's too much pepper in that.'"