How accurate is Tony? The truth behind Anthony Bourdain's biopic after his longtime assistant declared the late celebrity chef 'would've hated this'

The life of one of the most celebrated chefs of his generation has been rewritten for the screen – but it only tells the beginning of his remarkable journey.

Before Anthony Bourdain was a famed chef with eight Emmys for his travel series Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown, he started as a dishwasher in Provincetown in the mid-1970s.

Directed by Matt Johnson, Tony is the coming-of-age biopic that promises to show Tony before he became 'Bourdain'.

'I wasn't gonna let facts get in the way of the truth,' the BlackBerry director told Entertainment Weekly of his latest film.

It stars The Holdovers' Dominic Sessa as the 19-year-old chef who follows his crush, and eventual wife, Nancy Putkoski (played by Emilia Jones), to Cape Cod for the summer in 1975.

Many fans believe the movie is a fitting tribute to the troubadour chef, whose own legend has only grown since his death by suicide in 2018.

However, his longtime assistant, Laurie Woolever, observed that Anthony would have hated the widespread public dissection of his life, writing a piece for Bon Appétit titled, I Think Tony Would Have Hated This. 

But how much of it is real and how much is fiction?

Luckily, Anthony himself chronicled his first few years employed in restaurant kitchens in his hit book, Kitchen Confidential, published in 2000.

With that, the Daily Mail takes a look at some of the aspects of what actually happened in his life and others that were dramatised.

Following Nancy to Provincetown for the summer 

Anthony did, in fact, travel to Provincetown during his summers studying at Vassar College.

In Tony, he travels in pursuit of Nancy, an old high school crush who would go on to become his first wife.

In his book, he alluded to this being true but was hesitant to say much about it. 

'In 1973, unhappily in love, I graduated high school a year early so I could chase the object of my desire to Vassar College - the less said about that part of my life, the better, believe me,' he wrote. 

His friends also joined him that summer. 'It was what my friends were doing, and that was enough for me,' he said.

Working at Flagship

In the movie, Anthony works at a seafood restaurant called the Flagship, much like the real chef did. 

However, the film adds drama by having him get really drunk at the bar after a sour encounter with Nancy and being thrown out by staff.

He then gets taken in by the Flagship's owner out of pity.

But in real life, Anthony just needed money, and his friends hooked him up with the job.

He wrote: 'Dishwashers ... were the most transient breed in the seasonal restaurant business, so when one goofball failed to show up for work for two days, I was in.'

Nancy working at a pizza shop

Nancy really did work at a pizza shop, and the scenes from the film were actually shot in the same location. 

'We shot it at the real place, and I learned as I was making the movie that Nancy actually worked at Spiritus Pizza that summer in real life,' Charlie Harrington, the locations manager, said.

'Tony apparently used to sleep on top of the walk-in cooler in the back because he became friends with the owner. He ended up marrying Nancy, the girl he's chasing the whole movie.'

During the opening weekend of Tony, Spiritus Pizza's Instagram account confirmed that Anthony's girlfriend worked there.

The bride

In Tony, Sal (played by Leo Woodall), a brash employee at the Flagship, acts as both a bully and mentor to Anthony.

Anthony sees a bride having a private conversation with his co-worker, who asked him to watch his station before disappearing with the newlywed.

Curious, the chef and his fellow kitchen workers look for Sal through the back window and see him having sex with the bride.

This happens while she's still in her wedding gown, as her groom and family are eating inside the restaurant.

Believe it or not, this actually happened.

In the chef's book, he said the deed was carried out by Bobby, 'a well-toasted, late-thirtyish ex-hippie' who worked as the head chef.

He called this the moment he knew he wanted to be a chef.

Dropping the pan

In the movie, Anthony burns his hands on a hot sauté pan and makes the mistake of asking Tyrone, the broiler, for bandages and burn cream. 

The seasoned vet proceeds to embarrass him by picking up the scorching pan with his bare hand.

According to the chef, this actually happened. 

He wrote:'I watched, transfixed, as Tyrone - his eyes never leaving mine - reached slowly under the broiler and, with one naked hand, picked up a glowing-hot sizzle-platter, moved it over to the cutting board, and set it down in front of me. He never flinched.

Anthony added: 'I had been shown up for the loudmouthed, useless little punk that I was. I was, I learned later, a, meaning 'bad meat' in Italian, referred to as 'Mel' for weeks after. I had been identified as a pretender, and an obnoxious one at that.'

But when the director spoke to the real Tyrone about this story, he remembered it slightly differently.

'Yeah, Tony picked up the pan and burned his hand, but I did not pick it up with my bare hands,' he told the film-maker. 

'I got a towel, picked it up, and put it away. I have no idea why Tony said that I picked it up with my bare hand. That's insane. I would never do that.' 

Bigfoot

Antonio Banderas's role, referred to simply as Chef throughout the film, is based on a real mentor of Anthony's  – the man he calls Bigfoot in Kitchen Confidential.

Although Anthony didn't meet Bigfoot until he went to culinary school, the director said he 'quite intentionally' included him as a character in the movie as he played a key figure in the chef's life.

'I took everything from that guy, because he so clearly creates Bourdain,' the director said of Bigfoot.

'I look at Bourdain, I read Bourdain, and I go, 'This guy is just 50 percent these pirates he met in the kitchens at Provincetown and 50 percent Bigfoot…And I don't think that that's a simplistic reduction of him, by the way. I actually think that makes for the legendary, heroic, traveling figure that we all love.' 

Tony is now in theaters.