Anthony Bourdain Bites Back: 'I Am Guilty of Many Sins. Keeping People Waiting Is Not One of Them.'

Earlier today, the Las Vegas-Review-Journal's Norm Clarke reported that Parts Unknown host Anthony Bourdain was 40 minutes late for his interview with former mayor Oscar Goodman at Oscar's Beef, Booze & Broads at the Plaza.

Not so, Bourdain fires back.

Here, a comment Bourdain left on Eater Vegas:

The Las Vegas Review Journal account of my lateness is in every way non-factual. I arrived--as always--at the appointed time. I am guilty of many sins. Keeping people waiting is not one of them. I have offered the paper an e-mail trail between my production team and Mayor Goodman's people, indicating the agreed upon time for the interview--and as their reporter was on scene, there should be no disagreement that I was, in fact, present, on time and ready to go.

I am notoriously, some say, pathologically punctual.

The paper has not yet, so far as I know, responded to my request for a retraction.

Mayor Goodman was both amiable and entertaining and I am grateful for his time and attention. The reporter, I should point out, had every opportunity to ask about any purported lateness immediately following , when we spoke. Mayor Goodman himself, had he believed me to be late, had every right to say so to me personally. He did not.

I am often asked what quality one looks for in an aspiring chef.

My advice is always to first and foremost show up on time. Always.

Of note, Clarke also has the date of the interview wrong (he says it was Sunday, it was on Monday), he has the names switched on the photo caption and the RJ corrected another portion of the column at 9:28 a.m. that initially had Si Robertson as a former quarterback instead of his brother Phil.

UPDATED at 11/11/13 AT 4:14 P.M.: AP talked to Goodman, who says that if appeared that he "lost his temper … it was only because he was three martinis in. He added that at least he wasn't smoking crack."
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