According to the article, prior to Bourdain's publication of Kitchen Confidential when he was in his early 40's, his outside-the-US travel experience consisted

According to the article, prior to Bourdain's publication of Kitchen Confidential when he was in his early 40's, his outside-the-US travel experience consisted solely of a few trips to France as a child and one trip as an adult to Japan: > He just talked about what traveling the world would be like for him. He had gone to France as a kid, he had gone to Japan once, and that was it. The fact that Bourdain not only achieved massive professional success after toiling in obscurity well into his 40s, but more specifically became the most famous traveler in the world after barely having traveled in 2+ decades of adult life is pretty damn impressive. Definitely gives weight to the argument that "it's never too late"!