Whether revealing the debaucherous underbelly of 1980s restaurant kitchens in print or exposing TV audiences to the far reaches of global cuisine through empty shot glasses and impromptu tattoos, Anthony Bourdain’s approach was always raw and unadulterated. His fans, of which he had amassed legions by the time of his death in 2018, responded to a sensibility that rejected the synthetic, high-gloss portrayal of food and life so common in media. Laurie Woolever’s new book Bourdain: The Definitive Oral Biography exemplifies its subject’s unapologetic and unbridled world view, with a narrative that favors honesty over hagiography.

The biography is told entirely through thoughtfully deployed quotes from the TV host and author’s inner circle. Recollections and ruminations from a varied cast of characters shine light on triumphs and joys alongside troubled periods of addiction and depression. Everyone is given equal billing in the book, whether it’s Bourdain’s family, high school friends, fellow kitchen staff, (many of whom were immortalized in Kitchen Confidential and Medium Raw), members of his TV production team, celebrities like Nigella Lawson, Eric Ripert, and Anderson Cooper, or the publishing contacts he cultivated over 20-plus years of writing. Because of the way the information is presented, Bourdain offers the reader an opportunity to draw singular conclusions about who the man himself was or, at least, how he related to those around him.

I spoke to Woolever, who worked with Bourdain for almost a decade, about the experience of chronicling the life of such a beloved and complicated public figure.

Why did you decide to approach the book as an oral history rather than a traditional biography?

First of all, I’m not a biographer. That’s not my skill set and it’s a very specific literary art form. The oral history route actually came from Dan Halpern, who had been Tony’s editor, and it allowed us to bring in unfettered, direct access to people’s stories without me flattening it down into a single narrative. I was the right person to do this book because of the relationship I had with Tony for many years and the relationships I had with a lot of the people who I interviewed.

When did you start doing interviews and how did you decide who to interview?