1956-2018
Who Was Anthony Bourdain?
Anthony Bourdain was an acclaimed chef and TV personality best known for his travel shows and best-selling books. Bourdain first established his culinary career when he became the executive chef at Brasserie Les Halles and later went on to host several TV shows, including No Reservations and Parts Unknown. He also wrote several books, including Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly. Bourdain died by suicide at age 61 in June 2018.
Quick Facts
FULL NAME: Anthony Michael Bourdain
BORN: June 25, 1956
DIED: June 8, 2018
BIRTHPLACE: New York, New York
SPOUSES: Nancy Putkoski (1985-2005) and Ottavia Busia (2007-2016)
CHILD: Ariane
ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Gemini
Early Life and Career
Andrew Michael Bourdain was born on June 25, 1956, in New York, New York to Pierre and Gladys Bourdain. His mother was a copy editor and his dad was a music executive. Raised in suburban New Jersey with his brother Christopher, Bourdain developed an early passion for food at just 10 years old during a family trip France.
However, it wasn’t until he took a summer job as a dishwasher at a seafood restaurant in Provincetown, Massachusetts in 1973 that he became interested in pursuing a culinary career. After attending Vassar College for two years, Bourdain dropped out to enroll in the world-renowned Culinary Institute of America, from which he graduated in 1978.
Over the next two decades, Bourdain ran the kitchens of several esteemed New York restaurants, such as the Supper Club, One Fifth Avenue, and Sullivan's Restaurant & Broadcast Lounge. Before long, he became the executive chef at the French bistro Brasserie Les Halles in 1998.
Culinary Books
In 1997, The New Yorker published Bourdain's now famous article “Don’t Eat Before Reading This,” a scathingly honest look at the inner workings of restaurants, specifically their kitchens. With his credibility as a renowned chef, the article carried much weight and led to other writing projects. In 2000, his bestselling book Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly, a vast expansion of the New Yorker article that highlighted Bourdain's sometimes rough disposition, came out to great popularity.
In 2004, Bourdain released Anthony Bourdain’s Les Halles Cookbook: Strategies, Recipes, and Techniques of Classic Bistro Cooking, and in 2006, The Nasty Bits. Both books went on to become New York Times bestsellers.
A Cook's Tour: Global Adventures in Extreme Cuisines, an account of exotic food and his travel exploits around the world, followed in 2001. Bourdain’s next book, Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook, was released in 2010. He also published crime fiction as well as a 2001 historical account of Typhoid Mary and the 2013 graphic novel Get Jiro!
TV Successes: No Reservations and Parts Unknown
In connection with his book, Bourdain embarked on his first TV venture in 2002, hosting the Food Network’s A Cook’s Tour, which featured Bourdain traveling the world seeking culinary adventures. The series aired for two seasons until 2003.
Two years later, in 2005, Bourdain premiered the Travel Channel series, Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations, which explored similar themes as A Cook’s Tour. The show ran for nine seasons, ending in 2012, and enjoyed a wide audience while winning two Primetime Emmy Awards for its cinematography.
Also in 2005, because of the huge popularity of Kitchen Confidential, Fox aired a short-lived sitcom based on the book. The character “Jack Bourdain” was loosely based on Anthony and was portrayed by then up-and-coming actor Bradley Cooper.
Bourdain also appeared as guest judge on the Top Chef reality cooking competition show several times, and was one of the main judges on the eighth season of Top Chef All-Stars.
Always up for a new experience, Bourdain appeared in an episode of the reality show Miami Ink, on which he received a skull tattoo. He also had a brief cameo in the 2008 movie Far Cry and appeared on the children's TV show Yo Gabba Gabba! as Dr. Tony. He served as a writer and consultant for the series Treme as well.
Bourdain returned to series television in 2013 with Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown, which again examined specific dining rituals across the globe. The show won a total of eight Emmys, with three consecutive wins from 2013 to 2015 for Outstanding Informational Series or Special. In 2015, the culinary expert also announced the development of a giant food hall in Manhattan to be dubbed Bourdain Market, though it was never built.
Ex-Wives and Daughter
Bourdain married his high school sweetheart Nancy Butkoski in 1985. At the start of their marriage, the chef struggled heavily with addiction, though he soon ended his use of illicit drugs in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. As Bourdain rose to fame, however, his global celebrity and travel schedule put a strain on their relationship. After 20 years of marriage, and the pair divorced after 20 years of marriage in 2005.
He soon remarried, wedding jujitsu expert Ottavia Busia in 2007. They welcomed their daughter Ariane that same year. Nearly a decade later, Bourdain and Busia announced their plans to divorce in September 2016, citing that their decision was mutual and amicable. Bourdain subsequently developed a relationship with Italian actress and director Asia Argento, dating from 2017 until his death the following year.
Death and Legacy
Bourdain was found dead in his hotel room in Kaysersberg, France, on June 8, 2018, after committing suicide. He had been in the area working on an episode of his Parts Unknown series when he hanged himself in his room.
That August, CNN said that Parts Unknown producers had enough material to deliver one final season of the show. Although only one episode featured Bordain's narration, his voice was throughout the series thanks to on-location audio of his trips to New York City's Lower East Side, the Texas-Mexico border area, Spain and Indonesia. The penultimate episode featured cast and crew members discussing their experiences on the show, with the finale focusing on “how Tony affected the world.”
Around this time, it was announced that a biography of him was in the works. Described as “an authorized portrait of the writer, veteran chef and television traveler, built from stories shared by those who knew him best,” the book was scheduled to be edited by Bourdain's long-time assistant, Laurie Woolever. Bourdain: The Definitive Oral Biography was published in 2021.
Bourdain’s culinary origins are chronicled in the new biopic Tony, which arrived in theaters in August 2026. In the film, the chef and TV host is portrayed by actor Dominic Sessa.
Quotes
- I never did an apprenticeship in a truly great restaurant kitchen. As a result, I never got really good as a chef. I wonder what it would have been like to have apprenticed with a Michel Bras or Arzak. No serious regrets, though. Things have turned out pretty damned good.
- I got off of heroin in the 1980s. Friends of mine from the ‘70s and ‘80s, they just got off five, six, maybe 10 years ago. And we’re the lucky ones. We made it out alive. There are a lot of guys that didn’t get that far.
- Eventually, I would like to become an Italian patriarch. I would sit in my garden and make bad wine, growing peppers and tomatoes.
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