Bourdain on a train
in Sri Lanka in 2017.Bourdain “still
had so many
places to show
us, whispering
to our souls the
great possi-
bilities beyond
what we could
see with our own
eyes ... [he] only
saw beauty in all
people.”
— Chef Jose
AndrésFormer US president
Barack Obama, who shared
noodles with Bourdain in
Vietnam in 2016, tweeted,
“I will miss him.”TRIBUTE
1956-2018
In finding indigenous
food and untold
stories, the rock-star
chef brought the
world closer
A
nthony Bourdain, the celebrated
chef who broke open the secrets
of his eight years at prime New
York eatery Les Halles in his
witty 2000 memoir Kitchen
Confidential—and subsequently became
television’s go-to travel foodie with his
No Reservations and Parts Unknown series,
had spent his last days with his closest
friend, Eric Ripert, filming an episode of
Parts Unknown along the French- German
border. “He was normal, normal. Just like
himself,” says chef Jean-Yves Schillinger,
55, who entertained the men at his Michelin
two-star restaurant JY’S in Colmar, France,
on June 5. “I didn’t see anything unusual.”
Just three days later, after missing a
scheduled dinner with Ripert the night
before, and a breakfast that morning,
Ripert found Bourdain unresponsive in his
hotel room in Kaysersberg, France, CNN
reports. He was dead of an apparent
suicide at the age of 61.
“Anthony was a dear friend,” Ripert
said in a statement to WHO. “He was an
exceptional human being, so inspiring and
generous. One of the great storytellers of
our time who connected with so many. I
wish him peace. My love and prayers are