Tony, directed by Matt Johnson, dramatises the youthful kitchen escapades recounted in the opening chapters of Anthony Bourdain's bestselling memoir Kitchen Confidential. Dominic Sessa plays the young Tony, a conceited but vulnerable college dropout who runs away to Provincetown, Massachusetts, in the mid-1970s, eventually landing a dishwashing job that draws him into restaurant life under Antonio Banderas's stern-but-kindly chef. The film matters as an origin story for a chef who became a cultural icon, though the Guardian's review argues its feelgood tone sits uneasily against the knowledge of how Bourdain's life actually ended.

The plot follows Tony's pursuit of a summer crush, Nancy (Emilia Jones), and his tutelage under Sal (Leo Woodall), a hard-living, cocaine-fuelled mentor figure who embodies both inspiration and warning. The review praises the film as watchable and entertaining, with strong support from Rich Sommer and Dagmara Dominczyk as Tony's parents and warmth from Banderas, but notes that scenes referencing self-destruction and perfectionism land awkwardly given that Bourdain died by suicide in 2018. Overall it is described as "a bittersweet dish" – enjoyable but shadowed by hindsight.