Anthony Bourdain
Rock & roll chef and bon vivant Anthony Bourdain hosted the adventure food shows No Reservations on Travel Channel from 2005-2012 and Parts Unknown on CNN from 2013-2018. He was also a judge and executive producer on The Taste on ABC from 2013-2015.
The author of 10 books partied hard in the '80s and '90s before quitting coke and heroin.
In Kitchen Confidential (2000), Bourdain wrote about his restaurant experiences: "We were high all the time, sneaking off to the walk-in refrigerator at every opportunity to 'conceptualize.' Hardly a decision was made without drugs. Cannabis, methaqualone, cocaine, LSD, psilocybin mushrooms soaked in honey and used to sweeten tea, secobarbital, tuinal, amphetamine, codeine and, increasingly, heroin, which we'd send a Spanish-speaking busboy over to Alphabet City to get."
In 2013, he said in an interview on CNN, he confirmed that his "drug of choice for many years was heroin."
Born on June 25, 1956 in New York City, Bourdain was raised in New Jersey. He attended Vassar College and the Culinary Institute of America, then began his career as a professional chef. His books Kitchen Confidential and A Cook's Tour (2001) led to a third career in television, first on the Food Network and then the Travel Channel.
Bourdain was the "Globe Trekker" for foodies, traveling the world sampling every imaginable dish. An avowed carnivore, he has little interest in vegetarian meals. In his final season of No Reservations, he visited Haiti, Cambodia (where he ate cannabis-infused pizza), Japan, Brazil, Nicaragua, Boston and the Ozarks. He regularly makes drug references; in Seasson 2, Bourdain tripped on ayahuasca and chewed coca leaves during a tour of Peru.
During his six years on CNN, he came out of his the cannabis closet, getting "Stoned in Seattle" and "High in Uruguay." In five of those six years, Parts Unknown received Emmy Awards for Outstanding Informational Series or Special.
Bourdain committed suicide on June 8, 2018 in France. At the time, he was married to his second wife, MMA fighter Ottavia Busia. They have a daughter, Ariane.
Posthumously, a book and movie about Bourdain's life have been released.
