Anthony Bourdain: Biography and Background

Anthony Michael Bourdain ( bor-DAYN; June 25, 1956 – June 8, 2018) was an American celebrity chef, author, and travel documentarian. He starred in programs focusing on the exploration of international culture, cuisine, and the human condition.

Bourdain graduated from the Culinary Institute of America in 1978. He worked in many professional kitchens, including several years as an executive chef at Brasserie Les Halles in Manhattan. In the late 1990s, The New Yorker published an essay by Bourdain, kickstarting Bourdain's writing career and legitimizing the point-blank tone that became his trademark. The success was followed a year later by the New York Times best-selling book Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly (2000).

Bourdain's first food and world-travel television show, A Cook's Tour, ran for 35 episodes on the Food Network in 2002 and 2003. In 2005, he began hosting the Travel Channel's culinary and cultural adventure programs Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations (2005–2012) and The Layover (2011–2013). In 2013, he began a three-season run as a judge on The Taste and consequently switched his travelogue programming to CNN to host Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown. Bourdain also wrote fiction and historical nonfiction. On June 8, 2018, Bourdain died by suicide while filming Parts Unknown in France.

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