In the upcoming A24 biopic Tony<\/i>, actor Dominic Sessa portrays a teenage Anthony Bourdain during his volatile yet formative years as a line cook in Provincetown. While the film’s young Bourdain appears out of his depth\u2014failing out of Vassar and struggling at a seafood restaurant\u2014Sessa himself already knew his way around a professional kitchen. \u201cI worked summers at Cathy’s 14th Street Bakery in Ocean City [New Jersey],\u201d Sessa explains. \u201cI started out at 13, washing dishes, and then [owner] Cathy [Greene] taught me how to mix the donut dough, how to cut the donuts, fry them and ice them, and eventually how to make croissants.\u201d Greene recalls, \u201cHe was a very quick learner and hard worker,\u201d even trusting him to open the bakery alone at 4:30 AM.<\/p>\n
Sessa shares a humorous mishap: \u201cOne time I put the wrong dough mix in the bowl. There was too much yeast in it. I turned around and it had become this massive dough monster, spilling out of the machine. I had 20 minutes until Cathy got there, so I put it all into the outdoor trash cans. I thought I\u2019d gotten away with it, but when she went outside to throw something out, the dough had expanded five times more, exploding out of the cans, and I had to admit what I\u2019d done. She said, \u2018I would have been much less disappointed if you\u2019d just told me, and we could have fixed the problem. Now my trash cans are destroyed.\u2019 Cathy taught me that it was okay to make mistakes, as long as I didn’t lie about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The film Tony<\/i>, written by Todd Bartels and Lou Howe and directed by Matt Johnson (Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie<\/i> 2025, BlackBerry<\/i> 2023), explores young Bourdain’s complicated relationship with honesty. As Bourdain described himself in Kitchen Confidential<\/i>, he was \u201ca spoiled, miserable, narcissistic, self-destructive, and thoughtless young lout, badly in need of a good ass-kicking.\u201d His lies lead to cinematic disasters before he learns that only truth helps him become who he is meant to be.<\/p>\n
Like Bourdain, Sessa’s own path took a surprising turn. A scholarship student at Deerfield Academy and a hockey player, Sessa snapped his femur in a pre-season skateboarding accident. He switched to theater, playing Creon in Antigone<\/i>. \u201cI almost didn’t do it, because I didn’t want a big role,\u201d said Sessa. \u201cWhen I did Antigone, people came up to me after, telling me I was doing something that they wanted to do but didn\u2019t have the courage. That was power. It changed my life.\u201d A casting agent later took him to director Alexander Payne, who cast him opposite Paul Giamatti in the Oscar-nominated 2023 film The Holdovers<\/i>.<\/p>\nDirector Matt Johnson on Casting Dominic Sessa<\/h3>\n
Johnson capitalized on the parallels between Sessa and Bourdain. \u201cDom being from New Jersey, his relationship to education, his relationship to a kind of newfound fame that had just discovered him\u2013it ambushed him,\u201d says Johnson. \u201cThe persona that I’m interested in showing is a young man trying desperately to seem like an adult. Dom is the reason I made the movie.\u201d<\/p>\n
Before filming began in summer 2025 on Cape Cod, Sessa prepared at the bistro Gertrude’s in Prospect Park, alongside chef-partner Eli Sussman, learning to shuck oysters and move efficiently through a busy kitchen. \u201cAt a bakery, you make everything and then you put them out. The pace is a lot different in a restaurant,\u201d says Sessa. \u201cEli introduced me to restaurant owners in New York. I hung out with them so I could understand that world. You really have to love it and have a passion for it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sessa developed a fondness for Provincetown, saying, \u201cWhen I’m in my 80s, I want to have an old beach house there. It’s really magical and so well-preserved, it’s kind of insane the place still exists. You can imagine that it’s still 1975 when you’re there.\u201d Though he rarely cooks for himself now due to a busy schedule, he frequents downtown Manhattan spots: 7th Street Burger, Cafe Mogador (Moroccan), Miss Lily’s 7A (Jamaican), and Ayat (Palestinian).<\/p>\n
Regarding Bourdain’s legacy, Sessa notes, \u201cI think what a lot of people forget, or lose sight of, is the fact that Tony was a calculated professional. You want to see him as this rebellious, drinking, smoking, globetrotting kind of guy, but at the end of the day, he ran restaurant kitchens very effectively, which is a really difficult thing to do. There are two sides: he\u2019s this cool guy, but he’s also a very professional, capable person. That’s the dichotomy of his life. It\u2019s both chaos and control.\u201d<\/p>\n
The film ends just as Bourdain is on the cusp of starting his culinary education at the Culinary Institute of America. Tony<\/i> is set for release by A24 on July 22, 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dominic Sessa, who plays young Anthony Bourdain in the upcoming A24 film ‘Tony’, shares his own baking experience and how he prepared for the role. 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