

In Manhattan’s East Village and Lower East Side - where.īourdain’s parents and brother blanched at the delicacy, while he reveled in appreciating something delicious, “vaguely sexual-looking” and complex that others could not understand. He drank watered-down wine and ate a raw oyster fresh from the sea. On the ground in France, he gorged on his first stinky, runny cheeses, as well as blood sausage and even horse meat. At dinner one night, a waiter ceremoniously spooned vichyssoise into the young Bourdain’s bowl - and the cold, velvety leek-and-potato soup was a revelation for a kid used to eating Campbell’s cream of mushroom. He and his family embarked on a luxe ocean voyage aboard the Queen Mary, en route to his father’s ancestral home in France. Raised in suburban New Jersey, Bourdain related in his 2000 memoir, “ Kitchen Confidential,” that his lifelong love affair with food began when he was a fourth-grader in the 1960s. “Tony,” as he was known to friends and colleagues, was born in New York City in 1956, the older of two sons of music industry executive Pierre and newspaper editor Gladys Bourdain. “But it’s even harder to imagine Eric finding him like that.” “It’s hard enough to think about Tony going out that way,” Merder told The Post. Ripert sent back emojis of praying hands and a dove. Later that day, the chefs’ mutual pal Jason Merder, formerly a tour manager for Bourdain, texted Ripert as soon as he heard the news. Ripert, 53, was with Bourdain this past week, working together on a segment for “Parts Unknown,” and it was he who discovered his longtime friend’s body Friday morning. They two were often seen adventuring on Bourdain’s shows: They zipped through Marseilles on scooters, rode donkeys to a Grand Cayman beach cookout, and goofed around with blindfolded junk-food tastings. Among his closest chef friends was Eric Ripert, co-owner and chef of the three-Michelin-starred Le Bernardin in Midtown. Anthony Bourdain in 2005 Getty Imagesīourdain was beloved in the culinary world and boosted the careers of younger chefs including Eddie Huang, Roy Choi and David Chang. Characterized as “ the Hemingway of gastronomy” by British chef Marco Pierre White, Bourdain brought Vietnam’s fetal duck eggs, Italy’s homemade pastas and Japan’s silkiest sushi into millions of homes with cable TV. The former president made a memorable appearance on “Parts Unknown,” joining Bourdain for noodles and beer in a Hanoi restaurant with plastic stools.Īdventurous, literary and real, Bourdain redefined the idea of the celebrity chef with his culinary travel shows “No Reservations” on the Travel Channel and CNN’s “Parts Unknown,” both of which emphasized the exploration of global cultures beyond just food. To make us a little less afraid of the unknown,” Barack Obama tweeted. “He taught us about food - but more importantly, about its ability to bring us together. He was 61 and reportedly had hanged himself with the belt of his bathrobe.Ī self-acknowledged reformed addict of heroin and cocaine - “I would have robbed your medicine cabinet had I been invited to your house,” he confessed in a 2013 Ask Me Anything session on Reddit - Bourdain was loved by those in the food world and beyond. At that point, wrote Bourdain, “my nightly attempts at suicide ended.”īut on Friday, the chef-turned-star was found dead of an apparent suicide in a room at the luxurious Le Chambard Hotel in Kaysersberg, France.

His state of mind improved upon meeting a woman in London. He recounted getting drunk and stoned - “the kind of drunk where you’ve got to put a hand over one eye to see straight” - and said he would “peel out” in his 4×4 on his way back from nightly trips to the brothels. Soon after his first marriage ended in 2005, as Bourdain related in his book “ Medium Raw,” he was “aimless and regularly suicidal” during a stretch in the Caribbean.
#Grace antony happy wedding tv#
On TV shows such as “No Reservations” and “Parts Unknown,” chef Anthony Bourdain presented the image of an alpha male to the world.īeneath the swagger and mischievous grin, however, loomed a history of lethally destructive behavior.
