Aahana Swrup
Directed by Matt Johnson, ‘Tony’ is a biographical film that mines direct inspiration from the life experiences of Anthony Bourdain, a beloved celebrity chef and renowned travel documentarian. However, instead of charting the narrative of his road to fame and commercial success, the film transports the viewers to the 70s, when a 19-year-old Tony Bourdain is still a reckless and aimless college student. His arrival in Provincetown is preceded by a failure to secure a fellowship as an aspiring writer. When his old dreams shatter, he tries to chase after a new one by following his crush, Nancy, to the coastal town.
Along the way, he finds himself washing dishes at a local seafood restaurant, Flagship. This impromptu summertime gig ends up becoming a transformational experience in young Tony’s life. At the restaurant, the protagonist’s paths cross with Sal, a fellow worker and a Casanova who is perpetually chasing after some new thrill or another. Naturally, in this true-story inspired tale, this intriguing character is bound to become a point of the audience’s interest.
Dmitri: Anthony Bourdain’s Real-Life Colleague Who Inspired Sal’s Character
Much of the narrative in ‘Tony’ is directly based on the early life of Anthony Bourdain, notably his visits to Provincetown, Massachusetts. Yet instead of striving for biographical accuracy, the film condenses multiple years of the celebrity chef’s experience in the coastal town as he found his way into his love for the culinary world. As a result, even though most of the plotlines, characters, and themes are rooted in reality, the project also retains a fair amount of fictionalization and dramatization. As a result, instead of sustaining a direct counterpart in reality, Sal, for the most part, remains an amalgamation of multiple people from Bourdain’s life.
Most notably, his character seems to be inspired by Dmitri, a man described in the celebrity chef’s memoir, ‘Kitchen Confidential,’ as “the coolest guy I’ve (Bourdain has) ever met in my life.” In real life, Dimitri is actually a chef named Alexej Getmanov, who worked at Provincetown’s Ciro & Sal’s with Bourdain. However, while Getmanov remains a more tangible counterpart for Sal’s character, the latter also remains a composite, representing the entirety of Bourdain’s early days working with experienced chefs and restaurant workers. Director Matt Johnson, who co-wrote the script for the film alongside Todd Bartels, Lou Howe, and Matthew Miller, shared a similar sentiment in a conversation with A24.
Johnson described Sal’s character as, “He is a character that represents everything that Bourdain thought was cool about Provincetown or about working in kitchens.” In his memoir, Bourdain described his fellow restaurant workers as “roguish renegades,” who were driven to the kitchen due to a lack of options rather than any aspirations to make a name for themselves in the culinary world. Moreover, the chef described how sexual promiscuity, alcohol tolerance, and a general rock and roll lifestyle became measures of reverence in the kitchen’s social culture. In one instance, Bourdain and his colleagues reportedly witnessed a chef having sex sex with a bride, who was a customer at their establishment. The celebrity chef has claimed that this moment, recreated through Sal’s character in the film, made him want to become a chef.
Read More: Tony: Is Antonio Banderas’ José Vatel Based on a Real Chef?
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