One amazing thing about Anthony Bourdain is the fact that he is not just an ordinary cook, but a celebrity chef. Apart from the other endeavors he undertakes, his cooking is considered one of the best in the world. In addition to all his amazing talents, he also has a clear distinguishing feature, namely his greatness. He is 6 feet 4 inches tall.
Who is Anthony Bourdain?
Anthony Michael Bourdain is an American whose skills in the kitchen as a chef are quite incredible. He is also a writer, travel documentarian, and television personality. However, he exercises his cooking potential more often than in his other professions. He was popularly known as “Tony”, an acronym coined from his name “Anthony”, which he got used to during his growth.
He was born on June 25, 1956, in New York City, but grew up in Leonia, New Jersey. His father, Piere Bourdin, was a classical music industry executive at Columbia Records, who died in 1987, and Gladys Sacksman, his mother, is the human resources editor of the New York Times. He has a younger brother named Christopher, who is a currency analyst and hosts television shows.
Anthony Bourdain grew up in a house where no one was forced to follow a particular religion. Although his mother was Jewish and his father Catholic, he never adopted a religion or identified with any religion. As a member of the Boy Scouts, he attended Englewood School in Englewood, New Jersey in 1973 as an adolescent, and later Vassar College, but did not graduate. He dropped out of school because he had worked in seafood restaurants during his school years, which nourished his already burgeoning love of food and inspired him to cook and make delicacies full-time.
After dropping out of Vassar College, he enrolled in the Culinary Institute of America and graduated in 1978. After graduating, he gained a lot of knowledge about culinary duties and learned both theory and practice in various kitchens in New York City. He bragged about his culinary skills because of his craving for food and its preparation began when he was much younger and went on vacation with his family to try various delicacies.
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Anthony Bourdain Career
After gaining a wealth of experience in all the kitchens where he worked, Anthony Bourdain was hired in 1998 as head chef at Brasserie Les Halles in Manhattan, where he worked for many years and won the hearts of the local workers, who even nicknamed him “Chef across the board”.
Before his fame spread like wildfire, Bourdain only became famous when he published his first book “Kitchen Confidential”: Adventures in the culinary lower abdomen. The success of the book made him famous and he sold more than 2000 copies worldwide. When it turned out that Anthony Bourdain needed more than just kitchen duties to keep him on his toes, he started his first TV show about food and world travel in 2002, which had 35 episodes on Food Network and ended in 2003.
He went a step further with his television appearance and launched the culinary and cultural adventure programs of the travel channel called Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations, which were broadcast from 2005 to 2012. He launched The Layover in 2011 and finished it in 2013, the same year he hosted The Taste. He later embarked on a journey when he began a travel reportage entitled Anthony Bourdain for CNN: Parts Unknown.
Anthony Bourdain has not only achieved much with his cooking skills, but he has also written other books – both fiction and historical fiction – some of which are A Cook’s Tour (2001) and The Nasty Bits (2006). The former was written in connection with his first television series, the latter with the collection of his food.
Most of Tony’s books were basically about food because as his passion describes, it’s all about food. So many looked up to Tony and his publications, articles, and essays were widely read and his shows were widely seen. His blog for the third season of Top Chef was nominated for a Webby Award in 2008 but didn’t quite make it across the finish line.
His television series include A Cook’s Tour, which ran from 2002 to 2003, No Reservations (2005-2012), The Layover (2011-2013), Parts Unknown (2011-2013). It is known that in his show Parts Unknown, he once got to see the former President of the United States of America, Barack Obama, which gives his shows additional prestige.
Tony practiced the martial art Brazillian Jiu-Jitsu, and he was awarded a blue belt in August 2015 and a golden belt in 2016. He was addicted to smoking and alcohol, cocaine, heroin, and LSD. He broke the record for coffee and cigarettes as a course meal, which was served to him by his cook colleague Thomas Keller while he served him a 20-course meal. Fortunately, his love for his daughter made him quit smoking in 2007.
Wife, Girlfriend & Daughter
Anthony Bourdain went to the altar of marriage twice in his lifetime. First, he tied the knot of marriage with his high school sweetheart Nancy Putkoski in a love affair that lasted twenty years, from 1985 to 2005, before they divorced. Barely two years later, he decided to give the marriage a second try when he tied the wedding knot a second time with Ottavia Busia, who was a mixed martial artist at the time. The marriage took place on April 20, 2007, after he had been together for several weeks. Busia gave birth to a daughter to him that same year and they named her Ariane. Ottavia was introduced to Tony by his good friend Eric Ripert.
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The second trial did not take long either, as the marriage of Tony and Ottavia failed in 2016. He began an affair with the Italian actress, the Asian Argento, in 2017, after they had been in Rome for one of their shootings in Parts Unknown. Argento is a director, singer, and writer who once accused Harvey Weinstein of raping her. When Tony died, she cried until her eyes became grouchy, describing him as her protector and inspiration.
Net Worth
For his many years on the field, cooking food, serving delicacies, breaking records, winning prizes, and entertaining and teaching his fans, Anthony Bourdain has amassed a small fortune. His career as a chef was very successful and his net worth is estimated at $16 million.
Anthony Bourdain’s Death
The death of Anthony Bourdain was another painful death. The world lost one of its greatest kitchen treasures when Anthony Bourdain took his own life by suicide and was found lifeless in his hotel room at the Hotel Le Chambard in Kaysersberg, France, on June 8, 2018. He committed suicide by hanging himself and was discovered by his friend Eric Ripert. Apparently, no one has figured out why Tony would take his own life. He died at the age of 61.
Anthony’s days may have been shortened, but the influence he exerted, the souls he inspired, and the records he broke are still groundbreaking and keep him relevant in the hearts of fans and family alike.