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Anthony Bourdain, celebrity chef and television presenter, dies aged 61
UPDATED 21 MINUTES AGO
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In Australia, Bourdain attended his first rugby league match — between Sydney and South Sydney.
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US celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain, host of CNN's food and travel-focused Parts Unknown television series, has died at the age of 61, the network confirmed in a statement.
Lifeline on 13 11 14
CNN said: "His love of great adventure, new friends, fine food and drink and the remarkable stories of the world made him a unique storyteller.
"His talents never ceased to amaze us and we will miss him very much.
"Our thoughts and prayers are with his daughter and family at this incredibly difficult time."
Bourdain was twice divorced and has a daughter from his second marriage.
His girlfriend, actress and activist Asia Argento, said on Twitter she was "beyond devastated" and called him "my love, my rock, my protector".
Chefs, fans and US President Donald Trump were among those stunned and saddened by the news.
"I want to extend to his family my heartfelt condolences," Mr Trump said.
Retired astronaut Scott Kelly said he watched Bourdain's show in space.
"It made me feel more connected to the planet," the former ISS commander said.
'True to rock 'n' roll'
Bourdain's profile began to soar in 1999, when the New Yorker magazine published his article Don't Eat Before Reading This, which he developed into the 2000 book, Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly.
He went on to host television programs, first on the Food Network and the Travel Channel, before joining CNN in 2013.
Bourdain's Parts Unknown seemed like an odd choice for CNN when it started in 2013 — part travelogue, part history lesson, part love letter to exotic foods.
Each trip was an adventure. There had been nothing quite like it on the staid news network, and it became an immediate hit.
He mixed a coarseness and whimsical sense of adventurousness, true to the rock 'n' roll music he loved.
"We are constantly asking ourselves, first and foremost, what is the most [messed] up thing we can do next week?" he said in a 2014 interview with The Associated Press.
Besides showcasing food, a Parts Unknown trip to Japan in the series' first season included an odd show with robots and scantily clad women, a visit with a death metal band and a meal shared with a woman involved in the city's sadomachistic community.
In 2017, he sat down for some bun cha in Hanoi, Vietnam, with then president Barack Obama.
The restaurant — Bun Cha Huong Lien — felt so honoured by their visit they had the table, stools and (washed) crockery framed.
Co-owner Nguyen Thi Lien also created a "Combo Obama" which includes everything the former president ate.
On Instagram, Bourdain said he was "not sure how I feel about this".
The chef, author and television personality was born in New York City and was raised in Leonia, New Jersey.
He had written that his love of food began as a youth while on a family vacation in France, when he ate his first oyster.
Bourdain also mentioned his youth was punctuated by drug use and he dropped out of Vassar College after two years.
Working in restaurants led him to the Culinary Institute of America, where he graduated in 1978, and began working in kitchens in New York City. He became executive chef at Brasserie Les Halles in 1998.
Bourdain shocked by his fame
YOUTUBE:Anthony Bourdain in Vietnam
In the preface to the latest edition of Kitchen Confidential, Bourdain wrote of his shock at the success of his book, which he wrote by getting up at 5:00am in the morning to steal a couple of hours at the computer before appearing at the saute station for lunch.
He said he never intended to write an expose or to "rip the lid off the restaurant business". He said he liked the restaurant business the way it was.
"What I set out to do was write a book that my fellow cooks would find entertaining and true … I wanted it to sound like me talking at say … ten o'clock on a Saturday night, after a busy dinner rush, me and a few cooks hanging around in the kitchen, knocking back a few beers and talking shit."
Bourdain said he really had no idea that anyone outside the world of chefs would even pay attention to his comments.
PHOTO Cards and flowers have been left on a makeshift memorial in New York.
AP: MARY ALTAFFER
It seemed to startle him, that a book intended for professional cooks would have such mass appeal.
"The new celebrity chef culture is a remarkable and admittedly annoying phenomenon," he wrote.
"While it's been nothing but good for business — and for me personally — many of us in the life can't help snickering about it.
"Of all the professions, after all, few people are less suited to be suddenly thrown into the public eye than chefs."
PHOTO "A rare, successful day shooting a fishing scene. Cod for dinner! #Newfoundland"
INSTAGRAM: ANTHONY BOURDAIN
Bourdain's death drew new attention to celebrity suicides.
It came three days after
fashion designer Kate Spade died of apparent suicide in her Park Avenue apartment in New York.
Spade's husband and business partner
said the 55-year-old business mogul had suffered from depression and anxiety for many years.
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