Texas chef says he wanted to hate ‘Tony,’ the movie about Anthony Bourdain

There was more to “Kitchen Confidential” author Anthony Bourdain than his final chapter, said Dallas restaurateur John Tesar, who worked with him in kitchens in New York City from the late 1980s to the mid 1990s.

“Tony,” the movie releasing Aug. 21 in Houston, covers a summer in Bourdain’s life, not his tragic end. At 19 years old, on a break from Vassar College, Bourdain (played by Dominic Sessa) ran away from home in New Jersey and ended up in Provincetown, Massachusetts, chasing a girl. He lucked into a job washing dishes and met a chef-mentor (played by Antonio Banderas) who would change his life.

In 1975, Bourdain was a drifter and a dreamer.

“This was the real Tony,” Tesar said after watching the movie. “You got to see this early part of him — before fame took it all away.”

Bourdain, the antihero, struggles to grow up during that pivotal summer depicted in Tony. He sloppily learns about hard work, hard drugs and bad friends.

Dallas chef Tesar saw his old pal in those scenes. Tesar seems to relish the days when Bourdain wasn’t a TV star. Or even a chef.

“When I met Tony,” Tesar remembered, “he was a writer.”

Bourdain became a bestselling writer, yes. But back in the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s, he was a fairly unsuccessful author who worked as a chef and had attended the Culinary Institute of America. His writing career took off in 2000, when he published “Kitchen Confidential,” an inside look at the underbelly of the restaurant industry. Tesar’s memory of Bourdain as “a writer” matches the fib Bourdain told himself and others before it was true.

Tony touches upon some of those complicated themes. Tesar was surprised with how much he enjoyed it.

“I wanted to hate it,” he said, “and I came out thinking it was a touching love story about somebody who struggled a lot — and really made it.”

Here is an edited interview with Tesar about Tony.

Q: Did Tony get its main character’s personality right?

A: I have to tell you, this movie touched me. It is really the story of Tony, a confused, but very talented, person. I thought the film did a brilliant job of showing his tender side and also his desire to be a writer. I thought it was really pure.

Q: Did Bourdain ever tell you about the summer in Massachusetts depicted in the movie?

A: Yes, Tony would show me pictures. I was reliving moments I had heard before.

Q: Did a young Bourdain actually throw water on a grease fire, as was depicted in the movie? (The restaurant in “Tony” consequently burned, leaving Bourdain with a mound of guilt. Tesar was surprised when he saw that.)

A: I don’t believe it was Tony’s fault.

Tesar enjoyed the love story between Bourdain and Nancy Putkoski. Far from a summer fling, real-life Bourdain married her after the summer in Provincetown, and they were together for 20 years. Tesar thought Tony’s most important plotline was Bourdain’s devotion to Putkoski.

“It’s actually three love stories,” Tesar said: “Nancy, learning to cook and becoming a writer.”

“And that’s who Tony was.”

Q: Bourdain was a lot of things: a chef, a writer, a traveler, a husband, a friend. In the movie, one theme we couldn’t ignore is he’s also presented as a liar. Was he?

Tesar laughed. “He was a good liar. And he lied all the time.”

Q: Do you think Bourdain would have liked this movie?

A: Yes, Tesar said. The chef-owner of the restaurant in the movie gave Bourdain a nickname: Flacco. That wasn’t a fictional story, Tesar said: It’s the name Bourdain’s friends continued to call him a decade later.

“We always called him Flacco,” Tesar said. “It came from that chef and it stuck.”