The Country Anthony Bourdain Said He Had A 'Morbid Fear' Of Visiting

Anthony Bourdain was famous for his fearless globetrotting attitude, from sharing a meal with Hezbollah to gamely eating a plethora of outrageous foods. However, the beloved chef did have some lines he wasn't willing to cross. For example, Bourdain was terrified of traveling to an Alpine country most people associate with skiing, neutrality, and melty cheese. That's right, a man who once downed a beating cobra heart on television was petrified of Switzerland. 

"I have a morbid fear of everything Swiss," Bourdain revealed in a 2016 interview with Conan O'Brien. In response to the late night host's understandable bafflement, he explained, "I must have had some terrible childhood experience while watching 'The Sound of Music' that I've blocked out." According to Bourdain, the mere sight of Alpine vistas, Lake Geneva, cuckoo clocks, or "those hats with the feathers," was enough to give him the jitters. His trepidation extended to the culinary realm: "Even the cheese, it's scary to me," he noted (this is particularly lamentable, as Switzerland leads the world in genius uses for cheese).

Anthony Bourdain's fear of Switzerland might sound like a silly bit, but it seems the famously authentic chef wasn't joking about his irrational phobia of all things Swiss. Bourdain visited some 90 countries in his television career, but he never set foot in Switzerland, at least not on camera. However, the chef did dare to get dangerously close to the country that eats the most chocolate in the world. In Season 10, Episode 2 of "Parts Unknown," Bourdain explored the French Alps and ventured within three miles of the Swiss border, a distance which he found far too close for comfort.

"The French Alps. Lovely Italians on one side, but the terrifying Swiss on the other," he dramatically narrated in the episode's voiceover, as frighteningly beautiful Alpine vistas fill the screen. "They're close. Too close for me, a man with a neurotic childhood fear of Alpine vistas, yodeling, even cheese with holes in it." Still, he bravely sampled scarily Swiss-adjacent treats such as raclette and fondue (there is a difference) with his trademark charm, humility, and good humor. By the way, Switzerland wasn't the only country the chef consciously avoided, but Bourdain's reasons for not filming in North Korea were quite different, and had nothing to do with fear.