Anthony Bourdain was found dead in a hotel room in Strasbourg, France.
What happens when you hear the name Anthony Bourdain? Well, women go weak in their knees thinking about his Greek God looks, and men think that this is the same man who once ate the heart of a cobra on television.
Anthony Bourdain once said in an interview, that he is extremely proud of the fact that he's had the most eclectic dining companions over the years. From Hezbollah supporters, communist functionaries, anti-Putin activists, cowboys, stoners, Christian militia leaders, feminists, Palestinians and Israeli settlers, to Barack Obama.
A chef par excellence, TV host, author, a role model and an inspiration to many, Bourdain took his own life while shooting in France. For the past several years, he was hosting the show 'Parts Unknown' on CNN and was working on an episode in Strasbourg when he committed suicide in his hotel room.
He didn't become a phenomenon overnight. Before he became the endearing TV host, he worked 13-hour days as a line cook in restaurants in New York before becoming the executive chef in the 1990s at Brasserie Les Halles, serving steak fries and French onion soup in Lower Manhattan.
What brought him to the limelight was when he sent an article to The New Yorker about the underbelly of the restaurant world and its deceptions. And, to his surprise, that one article caught the attention of book editors which resulted in 'Kitchen Confidential', a 307-page memoir that elevated Bourdain to a celebrity chef and a brand-new career on TV.
He carefully detailed his addiction to heroin and exposed the underbelly of professional kitchens while putting a face on all those nameless chefs in second-tier restaurants, who smoked, swore and toiled long hours before heading out for a drink (or something stronger) to unwind after the rush of the dinner service.
He had an unique ability of making people his own in no time. He was a splendid conversationalist and people opened up to him easily, and in doing so, often revealed more about their lives and culinary styles than they would to a traditional reporter. He had a penchant for consuming exotic local cuisines, and in his quest, he had eaten sheep testicles in Morocco, ant eggs in Puebla, Mexico, a raw seal eyeball as part of a traditional Inuit seal hunt, and an entire cobra—beating heart, blood, bile, and meat—in Vietnam.
Every time he came on-screen, he brought a certain flair, with the way he interacted with locals at street-side kiosks to eating in fancy, upscale gourmet restaurants. When he hit television screens globally with 'Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations', people could not but help take notice of him and went on to become a breakout hit and won him two Emmy awards, and a dozen nominations.
Bourdain was a master of his crafts, first in the kitchen and then on TV. Through his TV shows and books, he helped audiences think differently about food, travel and themselves.
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Anthony Bourdain: The Chef Who Courted Controversy
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The culinary world - and others included - sunk into collective depression on Friday after news broke of Anthony Bourdain's death. The celebrity chef was in France working on an upcoming episode of his CNN series. His friend, French chef Eric Ripert, found him unresponsive in his hotel room on Friday morning.
The culinary world - and others included - sunk into collective depression on Friday after news broke of Anthony Bourdain's death. The celebrity chef was in France working on an upcoming episode of h..
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Bourdain, seen here in pic with Italian actor and director Asia Argento for the Women In The World Summit in New York earlier in April this year, had a chequered journey.
His walk of fame began in 2000 with the publication of “Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly.” Years of hard work in kitchens around Manhattan, and as executive chef at Brasserie Les Halles, finally paid off. The best-seller was hailed by critics for its witty, energetically written look behind-the-scenes of the restaurant industry. The book expanded on a 1999 New Yorker article that he had sent to The New Yorker about the underbelly of the restaurant world and its deceptions.
Bourdain, seen here in pic with Italian actor and director Asia Argento for the Women In The World Summit in New York earlier in April this year, had a chequered journey. His walk of fame began in 20..
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Bourdain followed up his literary success into a gig with Food Network hosting “A Cook’s Tour.” This happened to be his breakout moment with Bourdain’s signature programming approach — it followed the chef with the hangdog look, slightly hungover to exotic ports of call, trying out local cuisine and giving a sneak peek into foreign cultures.
He repeated the concept on the Travel Channel’s “No Reservations” and “The Layover”, both successful shows that aired from 2005 to 2013.
Bourdain followed up his literary success into a gig with Food Network hosting “A Cook’s Tour.” This happened to be his breakout moment with Bourdain’s signature programming approach — it followed th..
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Anthony Bourdain seen here with the outstanding informational series or special award for 'Anthony Bourdain Parts Unknown' backstage at the 2015 Creative Arts Emmy Awards in Los Angeles. As part of the show, Bourdain ate grilled pork and noodles with President Barack Obama in Hanoi, examined the legacy of apartheid in Johannesburg, dug into pig ear sandwiches in the Mississippi Delta, and experienced the harvest festival, Gawai Dayak, in Borneo. It was in Borneo that Bourdain was asked and complied with a request from villagers to plunge a spear into the heart of a pig!
Anthony Bourdain seen here with the outstanding informational series or special award for 'Anthony Bourdain Parts Unknown' backstage at the 2015 Creative Arts Emmy Awards in Los Angeles. As part of t..
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Bourdain was never too far from controversies. Apart from being admonished by some for cultural invasion, he was recently declared "persona non grata for his disrespect of Azerbaijan's territorial integrity and sovereignty." The Foreign Ministry spokesman of Azerbaijan told Agence France-Presse. "Filming a food show on Azerbaijan's occupied territory is an insult to one million Azerbaijani refugees who were forcefully expelled from their homes."
Bourdain was never too far from controversies. Apart from being admonished by some for cultural invasion, he was recently declared "persona non grata for his disrespect of Azerbaijan's territorial in..
