Anthony Bourdain

Anthony Bourdain, whose darkly funny memoir about life in New York City restaurant kitchens made him a celebrity chef and touched off his second career as a journalist, food expert and social activist, was found dead on Friday June 7 2018 in his hotel room in France. He was 61. In his 2000 memoir, “Kitchen Confidential,” Mr. Bourdain introduced a thrillingly profane, aggressively truthful voice that translated effortlessly to the screen, where he proved that he would eat anything, go anywhere and say anything on camera. His early public persona — the macho, unrepentant, drug-loving chef — evolved into that of a clear-eyed crusader for global food justice. His mother, Gladys Bourdain was a longtime editor at The New York Times. Anthony Michael Bourdain was born on June 25, 1956, in New York, and grew up in Leonia, N.J. His father, Pierre Bourdain, was an executive in the classical-music recording industry whose parents were born in France. Mr. Bourdain graduated from high school in 1973 and followed his high school love, Nancy Putkoski, who would become his first wife, to Vassar College. He enrolled at the Culinary Institute of America in 1975, graduated in 1978, and worked his way up the kitchen hierarchy in New York City. Mr. Bourdain’s first marriage ended in divorce in 2005. In 2007, he married Ottavia Busia, and they had a daughter, Ariane, now 11. The couple separated in September 2016 but had not divorced. He had been dating Italian actress Asia Argento for about two years.