HBO's "Treme"

[TAPrice]

On the first season of Treme, one of the main characters was chef with a small Uptown restaurant. The real chef Susan Spicer (Bayona, Mondo) served as the consultant.

Season two won't start until April, but it leaked out a few weeks ago that Alan Richman, who infamously wrote a post-Katrina takedown of the New Orleans dining scene, will play himself in an upcoming episode.

Today, the TV writer for the New Orleans Times Picayune reported that none other than Tony Bourdain wrote Richman's scenes:

Today in 'Treme': Anthony Bourdain is writing restaurant scenes for season two

Bourdain is working as a script consultant this season.

[MikeHartnett]

I'm really having trouble with the decision to bring Richman on. Couldn't they have found some other portly, funny-looking guy to take his place, so as not to further inflate his ego?

[TAPrice]

More details on Bourdain's role in "Treme":

Times-Picayune: Bourdain moonlights for "Treme"

His role is bigger than initially reported. He'll be writing the season-long storyline for the Janette Desautel character, the chef who lost her restaurant in season one and left for New York.

[ThatGrrl]

I'm really having trouble with the decision to bring Richman on. Couldn't they have found some other portly, funny-looking guy to take his place, so as not to further inflate his ego?

I don't know. I quite enjoyed his getting a properly made Sazerac thrown in his face! Nice that he obviously was a good enough sport about it to approve the script, but I still laughed my ass off thinking about how many takes they went through to get the perfect shot.

[mkayahara]

I don't know. I quite enjoyed his getting a properly made Sazerac thrown in his face! Nice that he obviously was a good enough sport about it to approve the script, but I still laughed my ass off thinking about how many takes they went through to get the perfect shot.

Richman offers some insight into the filming process.

[weinoo]

It's nice that they've made up and they're such good friends...anything for a buck, I guess...

At first, I wasn't going to do it. I didn't mind the revenge part. I minded the Bourdain part. But then I saw the script he wrote, and I was impressed. It was fair, and it was fun, so I went down to New Orleans to tape it.

and...

Bourdain was interviewed about me being on "Treme" and said nice things. Well, that was after saying, "I hate the bastard." He said I had "no small amount of balls" to have done it, and pointed out that I had once been a marine. Not quite true. I was an army captain in Vietnam, which is as good as being a marine, unless you're a marine.

Kumbaya.

[PopsicleToze]

Loved/loved/loved it!

[Mallet]

A little late to the party here, but I loved the culinary aspect of the second season, especially Jeannette's stint at "Lucky Peach" and seeing alternate-reality versions of dishes I encountered in the Momofuku cookbook being "invented" onscreen.