Anthony Bourdain

Anthony Michael Bourdain (June 25, 1956 – June 8, 2018) was an American celebrity chef, author, and travel documentarian. He was best known for hosting television programs that explored international culture, cuisine, and the human condition, as well as for his writing on culinary life and world travel.

Bourdain was born in Manhattan, New York City, and raised primarily in Leonia, New Jersey. His father was an executive at Columbia Records, and his mother was a staff editor at The New York Times. Bourdain attended Vassar College for two years before dropping out, later graduating from the Culinary Institute of America in 1978.

Following his culinary training, Bourdain ran several restaurant kitchens in New York City, including the Supper Club, One Fifth Avenue, and Sullivan's. In 1998, he became the executive chef at Brasserie Les Halles in Manhattan, maintaining a long-term relationship with the restaurant as its chef at large even after leaving formal employment there.

Bourdain's writing career launched after The New Yorker published an essay he wrote in the late 1990s. This success led to his 2000 New York Times best-selling book, Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly. He authored numerous other works, including A Cook's Tour, The Nasty Bits, Medium Raw, Typhoid Mary: An Urban Historical, and the co-written graphic novel Get Jiro!. In 2011, he established his own publishing line, Anthony Bourdain Books, under Ecco Press.

His television career began with A Cook's Tour on the Food Network in 2002. He later hosted Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations and The Layover on the Travel Channel, as well as Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown on CNN starting in 2013. Bourdain also served as a judge and executive producer on ABC's The Taste, narrated and executive produced The Mind of a Chef, and hosted the YouTube web series Raw Craft.

In 2015, Bourdain joined the food and travel publication Roads & Kingdoms as an investor and editor-at-large, later winning a Primetime Emmy Award for the digital series Explore Parts Unknown. On June 8, 2018, Bourdain died by suicide while filming an episode of Parts Unknown in France.