This Was the Most Disgusting Thing Anthony Bourdain Ever Ate
Anthony Bourdain spent years exploring the far corners of the world in search of good food. He was fearless when it came to food, and often ate things most people would struggle to look at, let alone chew. He once said, “You’ll never get the truly great meals of your life if you don’t leave yourself open to the bad ones.” That philosophy led him to unforgettable feasts and a few dishes so foul they seemed designed to test his endurance. Out of everything he ate, one meal stood out as truly awful, a dish that haunted him long after.
A Meal to Forget in Iceland
Image via iStockphoto/Windzepher
In 2004, during the first season of “No Reservations,” Bourdain visited Iceland for what he thought would be a celebration of Viking heritage and cold-weather cooking. Instead, he was handed a piece of fermented shark, locally called hákarl. The dish is made by burying Greenland shark meat underground for months until it ferments, then drying it before serving.
Locals see it as a point of pride, but to outsiders, it’s a sensory nightmare. The smell hits first, strong and filled with ammonia, like industrial cleaner, and the flavor is worse.
Bourdain took one bite, grimaced, and declared it “the single worst, most disgusting, and terrible-tasting thing I’ve ever eaten.” He later joked that cooks handled it with tongs and gloves, holding it as far from their faces as possible.
The experience stuck with him for years, often resurfacing in interviews where he reaffirmed that nothing ever topped that moment for sheer disgust. Even Gordon Ramsay couldn’t get it down.
The Other Dishes That Nearly Took the Title
Fermented shark wasn’t his only nightmare on a plate. During his early series, No Reservations, he traveled through Namibia and found himself eating warthog anus, unwashed and barely cooked.
Surrounded by the Bushmen who had hunted it, Bourdain knew turning it down wasn’t an option. He forced himself to chew, later calling it “the worst meal of my life.” Still, he understood the meaning behind it. Food shared out of hospitality, no matter how strange, deserved respect.
Then came the iguana tamales in Oaxaca, Mexico. The dish sounded promising, but the iguana was undercooked and impossibly rubbery.
On “Late Night with Conan O’Brien,” he joked it was like “chewing on an action figure marinated in your childhood turtle tank.”
A Willing Victim of His Own Curiosity
Image via Wikimedia Commons/Charles J. Sharp
Part of what made Bourdain special was his humility in approaching food. He didn’t treat bizarre meals as stunts but as invitations to understand people. That’s why he ate a cobra heart in Vietnam while it was still beating, bird’s nest soup with pigeon parts floating inside, and giant African snails in Liberia that made him violently sick hours later. Each episode showed his curiosity and willingness to connect through food, even when his stomach objected.
Still, for all the oddities he faced, only one dish earned his ultimate label of disgust. Fermented shark was the one thing Bourdain said no one should ever have to taste, which says a lot for a man who ate almost everything.