Anthony Bourdain, the gifted chef, storyteller and writer who took TV' viewers around the world to explore culture, cuisine and the human condition for nearly two decades, has died. He was 61.
CNN confirmed his death on Friday and said the cause of his death was suicide.
Bourdain had been working in France on an upcoming episode of his award winning CNN series, "Parts Unknown."
Born on June 25, 1957, in New York City, the son of a Colombia music executive and a New York staff editor, his love affair with food began during a family vacation to France, when he tried his first oyster on a fisherman's boat. Years later Bourdain dropped out of Vassan College and enrolled in the Culnirary Institure of America, graduating in 1978. In the following decades, he would run a number of popular kitchens in New York City.
In his twenties, Bourdain became addicted to drugs. " I was a complete a-hole. Selfish, larcerious, druggy, loud, stupid, insensitive and someone you would not want to have known. I would have robbed your medicine cabinet had I been invited into your house," he said during a conversation in 2013. https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/197ji0/i_am_anthony_bourdain_ask_me_anything/?sort=confidence Calling himself a very unusual case," Bourdain added, "Most people who kick heroin and cocaine have to give up on everything. Maybe cause my experience was so awful in the end, I've never been tempted to relapse," Bourdain also suffered financial hardships for most of his life. He told Wealth Simple in 2017 https://www.wealthsimple.com/en-us/magazine/money-diary-anthony-bourdain "I don't want to sound like I'm bragging about this, but the sad fact is, until 44 years of age, I never had any savings account," !I'd always been under the gun. I'd always owed money. I'd always been selfish and completely irresponsible," Weed " was a major expense," he added, costing him a few hundred dollars a week. Looking back, the fact that I'd been smoking weed since I was 14 might have had something to do with my relative lack of ambition,"
Bourdain gained notoriety in 1999 after published a New Yorker article, "Don't Eat Before Reading This." It became a best-selling book in 2000 Kitchen Confidential :Adventures in the Culnirary Underbelly, leading to shows on Food Network, Travel Channel and eventually CNN.Adventurous and outspoken this led to him gaining a legion of fans and admirers through his numerous books and essays as well as his many television appearances.
The celebrated author and chef was married twice in his lifetime, first to Nancy Putkoski. then to Ottavia Busia, who he had a daughter with in 2007. Bourdain is survived by his girlfriend, the Italian actor Asia Argento ,
Recently he had emerged as a leading male voice in support of the 'Me Too movement in the wake of rape and abuse allegations against the film producer Harvey Weinstein, notably in support of his girlfriend.
For anyone who watched his show, Parts Unknown, what was clear that as well as travelling the world sampling cuisine, most importantly he actually spoke to citizens of each country, about culture, their innovations and their lives, bringing a unique perspective on the food and political climates of Laos, Africa, the occupied Gaza Strip, and other distant cultures that are rarely depicted on major television networks. After tweeting a photo of dead children on a Gaza beach in 2014 an receiving a flood of "ugly racist shit and accusations" in response Bourdain wrote "The willingness of people not to see what is plainly apparent, right there, enormous and frankly hideous. Unfortunately, we live in a world where its nearly impossible to even describe reality much less deal with it, It's utterly heartbreaking." When he visited Palestine a few years ago he did something unprecedented for American TV viewers, he portrayed Palestinians as human beings, https://www.972mag.com/celebrity-chef-humanizes-palestinians-on-trip-to-the-holy-land/
He tried to highlight marginalised voices and called the powerful to account for their hypocrisy. He was capable of highlighting peoples struggles, their triumphs, and in places like Iran, discussed their oppression, especially the journalists who were jailed for speaking out and the minority classes who struggled to survive. He would speak to people like President Obama and unknown residents of faw away countries who are trying to just get by day by day, in an equal manner. He made the world smaller, He dived in, hungry to experience. His wasn't the Orientalist gaze. He saw humanity (and food) everywhere, and connected with it.His show was part history lesson, part cooking show, part comedy, and part political commentary. He was brash, hilarious, a fearless renegade, who did not suffer fools, reaching out to the voiceless, reasons why he is bound to be missed by millions across the globe.
I don't know what was going through Anthony Bourdain's mind when he took his own life, but I've experienced depression, beyond sadness, a numbness, a sense that all value in the world was being quashed, feelings of utter hopelessness and despair.
If you or anyone you know are struggling, please seek help. Do not ignore the warning signs. Make yourself a safe person. Do not be afraid to ask if someone you love is thinking of suicide. Everyone struggling matters. You matter. Everybody hurts. To get help call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline in your country.
Rest in peace - Anthony Bourdain
