Anthony Bourdain committed suicide. On June 8, 2018, the chef, writer, and television personality committed suicide in a room at the Kaysersberg Hotel in France. Shocking right?
Despite being born in New York City, New York, on June 25, 1956, Anthony Michael Bourdain spent the majority of his formative years in Leonia, New Jersey. For dessert, Bourdain and his companions would meet at restaurant tables to discuss the movies they had just seen.
On a family vacation to France, Bourdain had the idea of pursuing a culinary career. When Bourdain was a student at Vassar College, he began working in seafood restaurants after tasting a fish that a fisherman had freshly caught. After two years, he stopped going but never stopped working in the kitchen.
He graduated from the Culinary Institute of America in 1978. While the majority of his early positions in restaurants required activities like dishwashing, he advanced quickly through the kitchen ranks. In New York City’s Brasserie Les Halles, Bourdain rose to executive chef status by 1998. He was also documenting his experiences in the “culinary underbelly” at this time.
Anthony Bourdain Rose to Notoriety
With his best-selling book Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly, which explores the world of haute cuisine behind the scenes, Anthony Bourdain rose to fame in 2000. The world-traveling guru spends more than 250 days per year on the road, filming his program.
A Cook’s Tour on the Food Net in 2002 served as his debut television program. He joined the Travel Channel for Anthony Bourdain: No Reservation after three years and won two Emmys.
He relocated for the brand-new travel and food program Parts Unknown on CNN in 2013. He has traveled to remote and potentially dangerous locations for work, including Gaza, Lebanon, and Libya. He was open about his use of drugs, such as cocaine, heroin, and LSD, in his book.
What Happened to Anthony Bourdain?
A few years before he committed suicide, Bourdain was seen in public visiting a therapist in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in a Parts Unknown episode. He acknowledged to the therapist that even something as simple as eating a lousy burger might cause him to experience a deep depression that lasts for days. He did, however, also say that he wanted to be happy.
While filming an episode of Parts Unknown in Rome in 2017, Bourdain got to know Italian actress Asia Argento for the first time. He appeared more joyful than ever. Even though Bourdain’s first and second marriages ended in divorce and separation, he was excited to embark on a fresh journey with Argento.
He was an outstanding trip documentary filmmaker, but he was also plagued by darkness from which he could never escape. Due to this and his exhausting schedule, he was presumably exhausted every time the cameras went off.
How Did Anthony Bourdain Die?
Pictures of Asia Argento dancing with French journalist Hugo Clement were released five days before Bourdain’s passing. Even though it was later revealed that Bourdain and Argento were in an open relationship, some individuals conjectured how Bourdain might have felt due to the images. It’s impossible to know for sure what he was thinking, though.
Around 9 o’clock on June 8, 2018, Anthony Bourdain’s body was discovered at the Hôtel Le Chambard in Kaysersberg-Vignoble, France. He co-starred in the movie Parts Unknown alongside his buddy Eric Ripert, who discovered the body hanging in the hotel room. Sadly, it didn’t take long for the cause of Anthony Bourdain’s death to be revealed as an apparent suicide.
The Aftermath of a Legendary Chef’s Demise
Following Bourdain’s passing, admirers gathered at Brasserie Les Halles to pay their respects. President Obama and other CNN employees tweeted their sympathy. Family members of Bourdain also voiced their shock, with his mother stating that he was “absolutely the last person in the world I would have ever believed would do something like this.”
Since Bourdain had just said that he “had things to live for,” his heartbroken admirers questioned why he killed himself. Some people even advanced foreboding hypotheses that Bourdain’s controversial opinions were somehow to blame for his passing.
For instance, Bourdain openly defended Argento when she disclosed that she had been sexually assaulted by Harvey Weinstein, a former film producer who was later detained for additional sex offenses.
The ways that Bourdain’s family, friends, and coworkers paid tribute to him changed over time. Éric Ripert and a few other well-known chefs declared June 25th to be “Bourdain Day” about a year after his passing in honor of their friend, who would have turned 63 that day.
Final Words
According to the authorities, the scene of his death showed no indication of foul play. Additionally, there has never been any proof that Anthony Bourdain’s death was anything other than a tragic suicide.
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