Bourdain Meets the Candlelight Generation | Anthony Bourdain Parts Unknown

Anthony Bourdain sits down at two tables on opposite sides of the world—one in Montevideo, one in Yerevan—in countries small enough to be overlooked and stubborn enough not to disappear. He starts in Uruguay, tucked between Argentina and Brazil, three million people with half of them in the capital, and a pace Bourdain calls the exact opposite of New York—nobody pushing, nobody hungry, the only real competition being soccer. His guide is Ignacio "Nacho" Mattos, the chef behind Estela, Café Altro Paradiso and Flora Bar in New York, who left at seventeen to cook for Francis Mallmann and has been a New Yorker for twelve years. At Bar Arocena in Carrasco, open around the clock since 1923, they take on the chivito, the country's unofficial national sandwich and a monument of steak, ham, bacon, cheese and egg. Mattos describes coming back every two years for a week at a time, still connected and still detached. Then the other side of the story: a country with legal weed, accessible abortion, same-sex marriage, universal healthcare and free university, where 96 percent of eligible voters turned out in the last election. Journalist Karina Novarese explains where the national pessimism comes from, and what happened between 1973 and 1985, when a right-wing dictatorship put somewhere between three and five percent of the entire population through a prison system built to break people—until strikes and mass demonstrations forced elections and swept the military out. Then Armenia, where dinner comes with history attached. Lavash baked in an underground clay oven, gapama—rice, dried fruit, almonds and honey baked inside a pumpkin, a dish with its own song you are meant to sing as you carry it to the table—made by Miriam and her grandmother, three generations of Yerevan women hosting a husband born in Toronto to a mother born in Beirut. They talk about the seventy Soviet years and what is left of them, and then about the years after 1991: empty shelves, a broken grid, two hours of electricity a day if you were lucky. One guest describes himself as the generation that learned the alphabet by candlelight, remembers a neighbor shouting from a balcony that the power was back and a whole street running to do the laundry, the ironing, the cooking in that single hour—and then says the thing that stays with you: he remembers that it was dark, but he does not remember feeling it, because his parents made sure he never did. The rest of the episode is what that generation built. At the Tumo Center, fourteen thousand kids across four locations study whatever they choose—music, robotics, 3D modeling, photography—free, ungraded and privately funded. It is run by Marie Lou Papazian and her husband Pegor, who grew up in Beirut, raised a family in Glendale, and moved here twelve years ago; Bourdain calls them not expats but repats. Over apricot vodka and trout baked in lavash, and later over beers with three software and security engineers in Yerevan, the conversation lands on why this landlocked country with most of its borders closed teaches chess in primary school and exports code. Their answer is the best line in the episode: they can take your home, your fortune, your country—they cannot take what you know. Subscribe here to discover all of Anthony Bourdain's adventures and watch full episodes: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCffagYQTThJx4N55UKdr5ew?Sub_confirmation=1 Travel the globe with the legendary chef, author, and storyteller Anthony Bourdain as he uncovers the soul of a destination through its food, culture, and politics. Far more than just a cooking show, Parts Unknown dives deep into the corners of the world rarely seen on TV—eating with locals, exploring diverse culinary rituals, and asking the hard questions. #anthonybourdain #partsunknown #traveldocumentary #culture #cuisine