Anthony Bourdain is an American chef, author, and television personality. Though best known for his culinary achievements and television presentations, along with several books on food and cooking and travel adventures, Bourdain is lesser-known for his writings which include both fiction and historical nonfiction.
Background
Anthony Bourdain was born on June 25, 1956 in New York, United States, and grew up in Leonia, New Jersey. His parents were Pierre Bourdain (d. 1987), a classical music industry executive for Columbia Records, and Gladys Bourdain (maiden name: Sacksman), a staff editor for "The New York Times". His paternal grandparents were French: his paternal grandfather emigrated from Arcachon to New York following World War I, and his father grew up speaking French and spent many summers in France.
Education
He graduated from the Dwight-Englewood School in 1973. He attended Vassar College, dropping out after two years, and at the same time working in Provincetown, Massachusetts, seafood restaurants, which sparked his decision to pursue cooking as a career. Bourdain went on to attend the Culinary Institute of America, graduating in 1978.
Career
After graduating from the Culinary Institute of America, he went on to run various restaurant kitchens in New York City, including the Supper Club, One Fifth Avenue, and Sullivan's. In 1998 he became executive chef at Brasserie Les Halles, based in Manhattan with additional locations at the time in Miami, Washington, D.C., and Tokyo, Japan. He remained executive chef there for many years. Though he is no longer formally employed at Brasserie Les Halles, he maintains a relationship with the restaurant, where he was described in January 2014 as their "chef-at-large".
Bourdain wrote his bestselling book "Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly" in 2000. He also wrote two more New York Times bestselling nonfiction books: "A Cook's Tour" (2001) and "The Nasty Bits" (2006). His articles and essays have appeared in many places, including in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Times, Los Angeles Times, The Observer, etc.
Bourdain hosted his own food and world-travel show "A Cook's Tour" which premiered in January 2002. It ran for 35 episodes, through 2003. In July 2005, he premiered a new, somewhat similar television series "Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations" on the Travel Channel. The Travel Channel announced in July 2011 that it would be adding a second one-hour ten-episode Bourdain show to be titled "The Layover", which premiered November 21, 2011. In May 2012, Bourdain announced that he would be leaving the Travel Channel. In December he explained on his blog that his departure was due to his frustration with the channel's new ownership using his voice and image to make it seem as if he was endorsing a car brand, and the channel's creating three "special episodes" consisting solely of clips from the seven official episodes of that season. He went on to host a show titled "Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown" for CNN. Bourdain has appeared five times as guest judge on "Bravo's Top Chef" reality cooking competition program. He is also one of the main judges on "Top Chef All-Stars". Between 2012 and 2016, he served as narrator and executive producer for several episodes of the award-winning PBS series "The mind of a chef". In 2013 he was an executive producer and appeared as a judge and mentor in ABC's cooking competition show "The Taste". Bourdain appears as himself in the 2015 film "The Big Short".
Achievements
He has been noted as one of the most influential chefs in the world. He is best known for his culinary achievements and television presentations, along with several books on food and cooking and travel adventures. Bourdain was also named Food Writer of the Year in 2001 by Bon Appétit magazine for Kitchen Confidential. In 2008, Bourdain was inducted into the James Beard Foundation’s Who’s Who of Food and Beverage in America. Bourdain was awarded an Honorary CLIO Award, the Emmy Award, a Peabody Award. He was also nominated for a number of various awards. He was conferred the honorary degree from The Culinary Institute of America.
Bourdain also received a blue belt in Brazilian jiu jitsu in August 2015 and won gold at the IBJJF New York Spring International Open Championship 2016, in the Middleweight Master 5 (age 56 and older) division.
Bourdain said he was raised without religion, and that his ancestors were Catholic on his father's side and Jewish on his mother's side. He is not an adherent of Catholicism. During the filming of an episode of his show "No Reservations" in Naples, Italy he said: "I’m not exactly a good Catholic. I do have the paperwork to suggest that I might be."
Politics
Bourdain doesn’t think anyone should care about his political views. He tries to keep them to himself. But despite his best efforts, Bourdain can’t help popping off about politics and politicians.
Views
Bourdain is known for his sarcastic comments about vegan and vegetarian activists, saying that their lifestyle is rude to the inhabitants of many countries he visits. He says he considers vegetarianism, except in the case of religious strictures as in India, a "First World luxury." Bourdain holds a special, contemptuous place in his heart for vegetarians and PETA, he said that "PETA doesn’t want stressed animals to die-ever-and basically think chickens should, in time, gain the right to vote". He openly expresses his position, and once said: "I don't want animals treated cruelly or inhumanely because that makes them probably less delicious". He has clarified that he believes Americans eat too much meat, and admires vegetarians who allow themselves to put aside their vegetarianism when they travel in order to be respectful of their hosts.
Bourdain is also noted for his put-downs of celebrity chefs, such as Paula Deen, Bobby Flay, Guy Fieri, Sandra Lee, and Rachael Ray, and appears to be irritated by both the overt commercialism of the celebrity cooking industry and its lack of culinary authenticity. He has voiced a "serious disdain for food demigods like Alan Richman, Alice Waters, and Alain Ducasse." Bourdain has recognized the irony of his transformation into a celebrity chef and has, to some extent, begun to qualify his insults; in the 2007 New Orleans episode of No Reservations, he reconciled with Emeril Lagasse. He has been consistently outspoken in his praise for chefs he admires, particularly Ferran Adrià, Juan Mari Arzak, Mario Batali, Fergus Henderson, José Andrés, Thomas Keller, Martin Picard, Eric Ripert, and Marco Pierre White, as well as his former protegé and colleagues at Brasserie Les Halles. He has also spoken very highly of Julia Child, saying that she "influenced the way I grew up and my entire value system."
Quotations:
"Julia Child influenced the way I grew up and my entire value system".
"I’m not exactly a good Catholic. I do have the paperwork to suggest that I might be".
"Your body is not a temple, it’s an amusement park. Enjoy the ride".
"Barbecue may not be the road to world peace, but it's a start".
"You can call me the bad boy chef all you want. I'm not going to freak out about it. I'm not that bad. I'm certainly not a boy, and it's been a while since I've been a chef".
"Anyone who doesn't have a great time in San Francisco is pretty much dead to me".
"You learn a lot about someone when you share a meal together".
"Being a vegan is a first-world phenomenon, completely self-indulgent".
Personality
Bourdain has a public persona that has been characterized as "culinary bad boy". He has used profanity and sexual references in his television shows. He has been known for being an unrepentant drinker and smoker. But Bourdain stopped cigarette smoking in the summer of 2007 because of the birth of his daughter. He is also a former user of cocaine, heroin, and LSD. He is also noted for put-downs of some celebrity chefs. At the same time he has been consistently outspoken in his praise for chefs he admires as well as his former protegé and colleagues at Brasserie Les Halles. Bourdain is also known for his sarcastic comments about vegan and vegetarian activists. He also despises the Swedish pop group ABBA.
Quotes from others about the person
Guy Fieri: "Bourdain definitely gotta have issues, ‘cos the average person doesn’t behave that way. It’s actually disappointing…I don’t like him making fun of people, and I don’t like him talking s—. And he’s never talked s— to my face”.
Interests
food
Writers
Julia Child
Sport & Clubs
jiu jitsu
Music & Bands
The Stooges
Connections
Bourdain married his high-school girlfriend, Nancy Putkoski, in 1985, and they remained together for two decades, divorcing in 2005. On April 20, 2007 Bourdain married jujitsu expert Ottavia Busia. The couple has a daughter, Ariane, born in 2007. But the couple divorced in 2016, that decision was mutual and amicable. In 2017, he began dating Italian actress Asia Argento, whom he met when she appeared on the Rome episode of "Parts Unknown".
