Anthony Bourdain

Bourdain's paternal grandparents were French (his great-grandfather Aurélien Bourdain was born in Brazil to French parents); his paternal grandfather Pierre Michel Bourdain (1905–1932) emigrated from Arcachon to New York following World War I.

Bourdain's father spent summers in France as a boy and grew up speaking French.

Bourdain spent most of his childhood in Leonia, New Jersey.

He felt jealous of the lack of parental supervision of his classmates and the freedom they had in their homes.

In his youth, Bourdain was a member of the Boy Scouts of America.

Bourdain's love of food was kindled in his youth while on a family vacation in France when he tried his first oyster from a fisherman's boat.

His mother was Gladys (née Sacksman; 1934–2020), and his father was Pierre Bourdain (1929–1987).

His younger brother, Christopher, was born a few years later.

Anthony grew up living with both of his parents and described his childhood in one of his books: "I did not want for love or attention. My parents loved me. Neither of them drank to excess. Nobody beat me. God was never mentioned so I was annoyed by neither church nor any notion of sin or damnation."

His father was Catholic of French descent and his mother Jewish.

Bourdain stated that, although he was considered Jewish by halacha's definition, "I've never been in a synagogue. I don't believe in a higher power. But that doesn't make me any less Jewish I don't think."

His family was not religious either.

At the time of Bourdain's birth, Pierre was a salesman at a New York City camera store, as well as a floor manager at a record store.

He later became an executive for Columbia Records, and Gladys was a staff editor at The New York Times.

Anthony Michael Bourdain (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.

Anthony Michael Bourdain was born in Manhattan on June 25, 1956.

He graduated from the Dwight-Englewood School—an independent coeducational college-preparatory day school in Englewood, New Jersey—in 1973, then enrolled at Vassar College but dropped out after two years.

He worked at seafood restaurants in Provincetown, Massachusetts, including the Lobster Pot, while attending Vassar, which inspired his decision to pursue cooking as a career.

Bourdain was a 1978 graduate of The Culinary Institute of America and a veteran of many professional kitchens during his career, which included several years spent as an executive chef at Brasserie Les Halles, in Manhattan.

Bourdain attended The Culinary Institute of America, graduating in 1978.

From there he went on to run various restaurant kitchens in New York City, including the Supper Club, One Fifth Avenue and Sullivan's.

In the mid-1980s, Bourdain began submitting unsolicited work for publication to Between C & D, a literary magazine of the Lower East Side.

The magazine eventually published a piece that Bourdain had written about a chef who was trying to purchase heroin in the Lower East Side.

In 1985, Bourdain signed up for a writing workshop with Gordon Lish.

In 1990, Bourdain received a small book advance from Random House, after meeting a Random House editor.

His first book, a culinary mystery called Bone in the Throat, was published in 1995.

He paid for his own book tour, but he did not find success.

His second mystery book, Gone Bamboo, also performed poorly in sales.

In 1998, Bourdain became an executive chef at Brasserie Les Halles.

Based in Manhattan, at the time the brand had additional restaurants in Miami, Washington, D.C., and Tokyo.

He first became known for his bestselling book Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly (2000).

Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly, a 2000 New York Times bestseller, was an expansion of his 1999 New Yorker article "Don't Eat Before Reading This".

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.

Although best known for his culinary writings and television presentations, along with several books on food and cooking and travel adventures, Bourdain also wrote both fiction and historical nonfiction.

Bourdain remained an executive chef there for many years and even when no longer formally employed at Les Halles, he maintained a relationship with the restaurant, which described him in January 2014 as their "chef at large".

Les Halles closed in 2017 after filing for bankruptcy.

On June 8, 2018, Bourdain died while on location in France, filming for Parts Unknown, of an apparent suicide by hanging.