Anthony Michael Bourdain (1956–2018) was an American chef, author, and television presenter. One of the world’s first and most prominent celebrity chefs, he hosted CNN’s award-winning series Parts Unknown (2013–18.)
Born in New York City, Bourdain was a food-driven wanderlust from an early age. After graduating from the Culinary Institute of America in 1978, he gained recognition as executive chef at Brasserie Les Halles, an upscale French-brasserie-style restaurant in New York City.
Bourdain’s best-selling memoir Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly (2000) catapulted him to stardom—it was an expansion of an article “about the dark side of the restaurant world and its deceptions” he had penned for The New Yorker. Bourdain also wrote A Cook’s Tour (2001) and Nasty Bits (2006) and some mystery novels.
Bourdain hosted A Cook’s Tour (2002–03) on the Food Network and No Reservations (2005–12) on The Travel Channel before hosting CNN’s Parts Unknown, in which he explored food as a window to cultures around the world.
In 2018, Bourdain committed suicide while on location in France for Parts Unknown. He had battled depression all his life.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Anthony Bourdain
It seems that the more places I see and experience, the bigger I realize the world to be. The more I become aware of, the more I realize how relatively little I know of it, how many places I have still to go, how much more there is to learn.
—Anthony Bourdain
Life is complicated. It’s filled with nuance. It’s unsatisfying. If I believe in anything, it is doubt.
—Anthony Bourdain
Travel changes you. As you move through this life and this world you change things slightly, you leave marks behind, however small. And in return, life—and travel—leaves marks on you. Most of the time, those marks—on your body or on your heart—are beautiful. Often, though, they hurt.
—Anthony Bourdain
Chicken is boring. Chefs see it as a menu item for people who don’t know what they want to eat.
—Anthony Bourdain
It’s an irritating reality that many places and events defy description. Angkor Wat and Machu Picchu, for instance, seem to demand silence, like a love affair you can never talk about.
—Anthony Bourdain
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
Norman Mailer American Novelist, Journalist
Lloyd Alexander American Writer
Cynthia Ozick American Novelist, Essayist
Tobias Wolff American Author
George R. R. Martin American Writer
Langston Hughes American Poet, Writer
George Steiner American Culture Critic
Joan Rivers American Entertainer
Jerzy Kosinski American Novelist, Essayist
Lionel Trilling American Critic