WEINSTEIN LINK TO TV CHEF’S SUICIDE

Bourdain spoke out over ‘girlfriend attack’

THE man who inspired a string of TV celebrity chefs has killed himself – after speaking out over his girlfriend’s alleged assault by Harvey Weinstein.

A friend found Anthony Bourdain, 61, known as “the original rock star” of the kitchen, hanged in his French hotel room.

His film director girlfriend Asia Argento, 42, was one of the first to make public allegations last year against the Hollywood mogul, who denies rape and other charges.

Bourdain supported the #Metoo campaign against sexual harassment and considered it a “personal failure” he had not picked up on it in his industry.

He wrote recently he could no longer stay silent after meeting “one extraordinary woman with a particularly awful story”.

The American was praised by Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsay yesterday for sharing exotic cuisines he discovered on his travels in books and on TV. Oliver said: “He really broke the mould.” Bourdain died in Strasbourg working on a CNN show.

Born in New York City in 1956, he went from pot washer to household name.

Bourdain, who had battled heroin addiction, once took President Barack Obama for a meal in Hanoi, Vietnam, in May 2016.

He was married twice and leaves daughter Ariane, 11. He met Asia in 2017.

She said: “He was my love, my rock, my protector. I am beyond devastated.”