Anthony Bourdain has committed suicide at 61 - take a look back at his incredible career from dishwasher to celebrity chef
Anthony Michael Bourdain was born in 1956 in New York City. His father was a classical music executive with Columbia Records and his mother was a New York Times copy editor.
He fell in love with food during childhood visits to France, where his paternal grandparents lived.
Source: Business Insider
His first restaurant job came in his teens — as a dishwasher. "Dishes had to go in the washer and come out taintless and doing this swiftly and competently meant I was acknowledged as a human being by colleagues I wanted to be like," he told The Guardian. "The day they promoted me to dunking fries I was overjoyed."
Source: The Guardian
After graduating high school in 1973, Bourdain went to Vassar for two years and dropped out.
However, he kept his college job in Provincetown, Massachusetts. His early 20s in Provincetown is where he first encountered heroin; he struggled with drug addiction throughout his young adulthood.
Source: Business Insider, CNN
"I was a complete asshole," Bourdain wrote about himself in his 20s during a Reddit AMA. "Selfish, larcenous, druggy, loud, stupid, insensitive and someone you would not want to have known. I would have robbed your medicine cabinet had I been invited to your house."
Source: Reddit
Bourdain took a chef job after graduation from the CIA, which he said later was a mistake. "Taking a low-level position at a great restaurant and putting my nose to the grindstone" would have been smarter, he told Newsweek in 2011.
Source: Newsweek
He spent his 20s, 30s, and 40s holding various restaurant jobs in Manhattan. By 1998, at age 42, he was executive chef at Brasserie Les Halles.
Source: Business Insider
He married Nancy Putkoski, his high school sweetheart, in 1985. They stayed married until 2005.
Source: The Sun
At age 44, he became a star in 2000 after his book "Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly" became a bestseller. The nonfiction was an outgrowth of an immensely popular article he wrote for the New Yorker in 1999.
Source: Business Insider
"At age 44, I had never had health insurance," Bourdain said in 2011 of his younger self. "I hadn't paid my rent on time. I was 10 years behind on my taxes. I owed AmEx for 10 years. I was still living like a college kid — worse even. I essentially partied my way out of a big-league career."
Source: Newsweek
The book was adapted to a short-lived sitcom, and a joint book deal and Food Network show, both called "A Cook's Tour."
Source: Business Insider
His television stardom continued to expand. His series include the Travel Channel's "No Reservations" (2005-2012) and "The Layover" (2011-2013), as well as "Parts Unknown" (2013-2018).
Source: Business Insider
He married Ottavia Busia, a former MMA fighter, in 2007. His daughter Ariane was born the same year.
Source: Business Insider
"It's such an understatement to say that having a kid changes your life," Bourdain told Business Insider's Rich Feloni in 2016. "You're just no longer the first person you think about or care about. You're not the most important person in the room. It's not your film. The music doesn't play for you — it's all about the girl. And that changes everything."
Source: Business Insider
Bourdain and Busia, his second wife, split in 2016. He then began dating Italian actress Asia Argento.
Source: The Sun
Since "Kitchen Confidential," Bourdain published 11 additional books, including three novels, two graphic novels, and a biography of Typhoid Mary.
Source: Business Insider
"I work really hard to not ever think about my place in the world," Bourdain told Business Insider in a 2016 interview. "I'm aware of my good fortune. I'm very aware of it, and I'm very aware that, because of it, people offer me things. Opportunities to do extraordinary things."
Source: Business Insider
"I’m still here — on my third life, or maybe fourth," Bourdain said about his rapid ascent to celebrity. "Who knows? I should've died in my 20s. I became successful in my 40s. I became a dad in my 50s. I feel like I've stolen a car — a really nice car — and I keep looking in the rearview mirror for flashing lights. But there's been nothing yet."
Source: Biography
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