When Anthony Bourdain died in 2018, the world lost a man who shook up the food and travel
realms with his complete and utter authenticity. The reactions from the food world proved his
huge impact. Here is a look at the last year of his life.
Anthony Bourdain's beloved CNN show, Parts Unknown, began in 2013 as a chronicle of Bourdain's
adventures through culinary and cultural realms that were off the beaten track.
"Clearly, I like what I do. I like traveling, I like working, I like staying in motion."
After Bourdain's death in 2018, CNN executive Amy Entelis told the Los Angeles Times,
"People said, 'I was afraid to travel before I watched the show,' 'I followed his route,'
'I was an addict and I connected with Tony and now I'm fine.' Others were angry that
he's not in the world anymore. It's an incredible outpouring."
Upon Bourdain's death, only one episode of the show's final season had been completed
with Bourdain's narration. The episode followed Bourdain and United Shades of America host
W. Kamau Bell through Kenya. Other episodes were completed by the show's directors via
a collagic approach, featuring follow-up interviews and voiceover narration from Bourdain's guests.
The finale, which aired on November 11, 2018, went back to Bourdain's roots on the Lower
East Side of Manhattan.
Bourdain's narration injected Parts Unknown with its raw, personal, and irreverent energy,
but after his death, the show's directors had to capture the host's spirit through the
perspectives of people who were around him.
In the spring of 2017, CNN launched the website Explore Parts Unknown. The website was described
as a "mobile-first immersive guide" with original storytelling, photography, and other "engaging
interactives" inspired by Anthony Bourdain's Parts Unknown. CNN called the website:
"[A] digital universe for the Bourdain super-fan, enabling you to learn what Tony knows, go
where he went, eat what he ate, and drink what he drank."
It included recipes, field notes, fact sheets, and video exclusives pertaining to destinations
across the world, from Las Vegas and New Jersey to Senegal and Hanoi. In September 2018, Explore
Parts Unknown won Bourdain a posthumous Emmy Award for Outstanding Short Form Nonfiction
or Reality Series.
The launch of the website was most likely inspired by Bourdain's fierce following and
the commercial success he brought to CNN. According to the Standard Media Index, the
commercials that ran during new episodes of Parts Unknown during the first half of 2018
were the most expensive among any CNN program, averaging $8,601 a pop.
In the late 1990s, Anthony Bourdain worked as a chef at a French restaurant called Brasserie
Les Halles in Manhattan. The restaurant job was ultimately the launchpad for his career
in culinary journalism; it inspired his 1999 New Yorker article "Don't Eat Before Reading
This."
According to Eater, the people of Brasserie Les Halles worked to maintain a connection
to Bourdain and listed him on the restaurant's website as its "chef-at-large" as recently
as 2016. In May 2017, the brasserie's owner, Philippe Lajaunie, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy
for the restaurant. Brasserie Les Halles officially closed a few months later in August of 2017.
In Season 8, Episode 9 of Parts Unknown, Anthony Bourdain walked through the streets of Rome
with his tour guide, actor Asia Argento. As the two strolled the iconic Italian city,
Bourdain said via voiceover,
"As so many have found throughout history, it's easy to fall in love with Rome. She is
seductively beautiful. She has endured and survived many things."
The statement seemed a fitting metaphor of Bourdain's feelings for Argento. The pair
fell in love while filming the episode in 2016 and began a relationship that would last
until his death two years later. When Argento spoke out about allegations against Harvey
Weinstein at the beginning of the #MeToo movement, Bourdain supported her with an Instagram post
captioned, "Proud as hell."
Argento's outspokenness brought the pair close to other leading figures in the #MeToo movement,
including Rose McGowan, who later defended Argento when she was accused of cheating on
Bourdain and blamed for his death. McGowan wrote in an open letter,
"Anthony and Asia had a free relationship [...] they loved without borders of traditional
relationships, and they established the parameters of their relationship early on."
Vocal for #MeToo
In October 2017, The New Yorker published Ronan Farrow's investigation of the sexual
assault allegations against Harvey Weinstein. Asia Argento gave a record of her own experience
with Weinstein, and Bourdain voiced his support of her. In a note to Argento, Bourdain wrote,
"I am proud and honored to know you [...] You just did the hardest thing in the world."
Bourdain's support of the movement included criticism of individuals in Hollywood who
were complicit in or insensitive to the issue of sexual assault in the entertainment industry.
In October 2017, James Corden told a joke at a Los Angeles charity event that made light
of Weinstein's predation. Bourdain swiftly responded on Twitter, writing,
"Mr. Corden is free to tell whatever jokes he likes. As he should be. I'm free to suggest
he's a porcine, pandering tool."
Bourdain added the hashtag "low hanging fruit." During a Q&A for a Produced By NY conference,
Bourdain also discussed turning down a lucrative deal in the wake of the #MeToo movement and
even referenced Quentin Tarantino. Bourdain told the conference,
"It was a lot of money, [but the deal] would have been a slow-acting poison that would
have nibbled away at our souls until we ended up like Quentin Tarantino, looking back at
a life of complicity, shame and compromise."
When asked whether he was referring to the director's relationship with Weinstein, Bourdain
responded, quote, "One might think."
If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit
the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline
at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).
Anthony Bourdain graduated from the Culinary Institute of America in 1978. Nearly four
decades later, on December 19, 2017, he returned to the CIA campus in Hyde Park, New York,
to give the school's commencement speech. Bourdain told those in attendance,
"The CIA is an institution that I'm very grateful for having attended. It was incredibly important
to me. I had a good time here, and I'm grateful for all of the skills I learned and the experiences
I had."
Following Bourdain's speech, CIA President Tim Ryan presented him with an honorary Doctor
of Humane Letters in Culinary Arts. In his speech, Bourdain asked the school's 143 graduates
what kind of leaders they hoped to become. He concluded his speech with these uplifting
words:
"Please go out there in this new world that is being created right in front of us right
now, and change that world for the better."
Anthony Bourdain co-wrote two books that were released after his death. Anthony Bourdain's
Hungry Ghosts: Tales of Fear and Food From Around the World was released in October 2018
via Penguin Random House. The graphic novel tells the story of international chefs sitting
around a table to tell ghost stories, and it features gory illustrations by artists
from around the world, as well as original recipes by Bourdain.
Bourdain had also begun co-writing a book with his former assistant and editor, Laurie
Woolever, with whom he had co-written 2016's Appetites: A Cookbook. In a 2018 piece for
CNN Travel, Woolever wrote that her second collaboration with Bourdain was based on his
nearly two decades of world travel. In the same piece for CNN Travel, Woolever wrote,
"It's been a wrenching, lurching struggle to get back to that manuscript, as I grieve
the enormous loss of his kind, profane, surprising and brilliant existence [...] but [Anthony
Bourdain] set me up for success, and I owe it to him to try."
The finished product, World Travel: An Irreverent Guide, was released on April 20, 2021.
With her father being who he was, Anthony Bourdain's daughter, Ariane, often had the
wackiest lunches in the cafeteria. In a 2016 interview with People, Bourdain had this to
say about his daughter,
"I love sending her to school with stuff other kids don't have and never will have."
Bourdain went on to cite braised rabbit and carbonara as examples of the types of school
lunches he'd usually pack for Ariane. When describing his typical Friday night at home,
he listed cooking something that Ariane has requested and then going to bed immediately
after his daughter did. When speaking to People again in February 2018, Bourdain cited Ariane
as a reason to live:
"There have been times, honestly, in my life that I figured, 'I've had a good run — why
not just do this stupid thing, this selfish thing [...] jump off a cliff into water of
indeterminate depth.'"
He mentioned how, before his daughter was born, he would often take unnecessary risks
and go places where he was, quote, "asking for trouble." Bourdain also went on to say
in the interview:
"In retrospect, I don't know that I would do that today, now that I'm a dad [and] reasonably
happy."
People who were close to Anthony Bourdain have suggested that depression and exhaustion
contributed to his death.
"I find myself in a spiral of depression that can last for days."
In June 2018, an insider who worked with Bourdain in the last year of his life told People about
his taxing work schedule. The source told People,
"​His travel schedule was grueling and he often seemed quite beat-up from it, as anyone
would be. He'd put everything into the shoots and then go back to his room to isolate."
The unnamed source went on to say:
"He was always very, very tired. He pushed himself extremely hard [...] We never had
any sense of depression or mental illness. He was not especially cheerful or engaging,
off camera, but it was never rude or ill-intentioned. The guy was absolutely exhausted."
Rose McGowan, who was close to Bourdain through his partner Asia Argento, posted a public
letter online defending Argento and honoring Bourdain. McGowan wrote in the letter:
"Anthony's depression didn't let him [stay alive], he put down his armor, and that was
very much his choice [...] I know before Anthony died he reached out for help, and yet he did
not take the doctor's advice. And that has led us here, to this tragedy, to this loss,
to this world of hurt."
In June 2018, Anthony Bourdain flew to the Alsace region in France to film an episode
for Season 12 of Parts Unknown. He had arranged to meet friends for a "rustic French dinner"
on the night of June 7th, but he didn't show up. The following morning, he was due to join
his friend, a French chef named Eric Ripert, for breakfast at a five-star hotel. When Bourdain
was absent once more, Ripert discovered that his best friend had died by suicide. Bourdain
was 61 years old.
When the news of Bourdain's death was announced, CNN released a statement that read:
"[Anthony's] love of great adventure, new friends, fine food and drink and the remarkable
stories of the world made him a unique storyteller. His talents never ceased to amaze us and we
will miss him very much."
In his exploration of parts unknown, Anthony Bourdain connected with people all over the
world. Bourdain's friend, chef Eric Ripert, wrote on Twitter,
"Anthony was my best friend. An exceptional human being, so inspiring & generous. One
of the great storytellers who connected [with] so many. I pray he is at peace from the bottom
of my heart. My love and prayers are also w his family, friends and loved ones."
President Barack Obama, who had appeared on a 2016 episode of Parts Unknown, also paid
tribute to Bourdain on Twitter, writing,
"'Low plastic stool, cheap but delicious noodles, cold Hanoi beer.' This is how I'll remember
Tony. He taught us about food — but more importantly, about its ability to bring us
together. To make us a little less afraid of the unknown. We'll miss him."
Bourdain's partner, Asia Argento, also took to Twitter to express her grief, writing,
"He was my love, my rock, my protector. I am beyond devastated."
A prominent aspect of Bourdain's legacy is that he made the often overlooked corners
of the world and the often stuffy food scene accessible to the curious masses. CNN summarized
Bourdain fans' and Parts Unknown viewers' reactions to his death as a single, resounding
sentiment:
"I feel like I've lost a friend."
If you or anyone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide
Prevention Lifeline​ at​ 1-800-273-TALK (8255)​.