When you travel for work as much as Anthony Bourdain does, the line between going on vacation and work trips blurs in a hurry.
“It’s hard to tell the difference,” the chef and TV host told Travel + Leisureabout traveling for work or for pleasure. “I like what I do. It takes up the majority of my time. My friends are in the business.”
However, when he truly commits to going on vacation, he does the exact opposite of what most people do when they take time off from work. He avoids restaurants and tries to cook more.
“I don’t go out to restaurants when I’m not working,” Bourdain says. “Maybe just a few, a very tight cluster of regular places that I would never put on television—just to keep them mine.”
"When I’m on vacation, I live a very different life,” Bourdain says. “I cook because it makes me happy. I want to forget who I am and I want to go to places where no one knows who I am."
Remaining anonymous won't be getting any easier—Season 10 of Parts Unknown premieres on CNN on October 1, with Bourdain traveling to Singapore, Nigeria, Pittsburg, Sri Lanka, Puerto Rico, the French Alps, Italy, and Seattle.
This story originally appeared on Esquire.com.
* Minor edits have been made by the Esquiremag.ph editors.
