Travel Channel 

Meet Anthony Bourdain

Watch Mondays at 10 p.m. ET

Anthony Bourdain is a 28-year veteran of professional kitchens, having worked as a dishwasher, line cook and chef in places good, bad and horrible -- most of them in New York City. In 2000, he published a memoir of his experiences in the culinary underbelly "Kitchen Confidential," which became an unlikely, but enduring, international bestseller.

He has since milked that lucky break for everything it's worth, following up with the gonzo-travel diary,  "A Cook's Tour"; a historical account of the notorious turn-of-the-century cook and disease carrier, "Typhoid Mary"; the crime novels "A Bone in the Throat," "Gone Bamboo" and "The Bobby Gold Stories"; "The Les Halles Cookbook"; a collection of essays entitled "The Nasty Bits"; and the companion book to the Travel Channel series, "No Reservations."

Since embarking on a round-the-world trip for "A Cook¿s Tour," he has continued traveling for "No Reservations" (now entering its fifth season), for various publications, for public-speaking engagements and because he likes it. He lives in New York City with his wife, Ottavia, and his new daughter, Ariane.