Renegade chef Anthony Bourdain dead at 61
Anthony Bourdain, whose madcap memoir about the dark corners of New York’s restaurants made him into a celebrity chef and touched off a nearly two-decade career as a globe-trotting television host, was found dead in his hotel room in France on Friday. He was 61.
Bourdain spent two decades in restaurant kitchens, at first shucking oysters and cleaning dishes in a Cape Cod seafood shack and later serving high-end meals in Manhattan, before accepting a friend’s offer to fly him to Mexico if he agreed to write a novel. It was the start of a second act as an author and then a host, redefining the staid genres of food writing and food-tourism
shows with an inquisitive but rebellious image that endeared him to fellow chefs, restaurantgoers and travelers.
Christian de Rocquigny du Fayel, the prosecutor for the city of Colmar, in the Alsace region near where Bourdain was found, said the cause of death was hanging. “At this stage, we have no reason to suspect foul play,” he said.
Bourdain had traveled to Strasbourg, near France’s border with Germany, with a television production crew to record an episode of his show “Parts Unknown” on CNN, the network said. “It is with extraordinary sadness we can confirm the death of our friend and colleague,” CNN said in a statement.
Gladys Bourdain, who was a longtime editor at The New York Times, said she had no indication her son might have been thinking of suicide.
“He is absolutely the last person in the world I would have ever dreamed would do something like this,” Bourdain said.
Eric Ripert, a celebrity chef and restaurateur who appeared with Bourdain on several of his shows, found him unresponsive, according to CNN.
“Anthony was a dear friend,” Ripert told The New York Times. “He was an exceptional human being, so inspiring and generous. One of the great storytellers of our time who connected with so many. I wish him peace. My love and prayers are with his family, friends and loved ones.”
Bourdain was open in his writing about his past addictions to heroin and cocaine.
Before he joined CNN in 2012, he spent eight seasons as the host of “No Reservations” on the Travel Channel.