Bourdain + Bruni at the New York City Wine and Food Festival

Frank Bruni, who just folded his napkin as the restaurant critic for the Times, had a pretty sweet job. Indeed, it's hard to think of a better one, until you remember Anthony Bourdain and his unbelievable gig: travel around the world with a TV camera in tow, eating good things, meeting interesting people, and making witty and caustic remarks. When the two of them appeared together for a standing room–only discussion at the New York City Wine and Food Festival, there was enough envy in the ether to make the six other deadly sins seem like misdemeanors.

But Bourdain made sure gluttony and wrath weren't neglected. Bruni kicked things off by asking Bourdain what warthog anus tastes like. (He ate it, fans will remember, in Namibia.) With a setup like that, Bourdain couldn't fail to entertain, and his comments on travel, food, New York, celebrity chefdom, and even fatherhood ("To train [his daughter] what not to eat, I'm going to wrap steel wool in McDonald's packaging and leave it around the house") were quick, barbed, hilarious, ironic, sincere, maddening, inspiring, and endlessly entertaining. Even Bruni, every bit the journalist, was swept away: when Bourdain asked him if his description of Alice Waters as "Pol Pot in a muumuu" was too harsh, Bruni replied, "Not at all. I repeat it with awe and reverence."

Photos: thanks and thanks