Anthony Bourdain

Anthony Michael Bourdain ( bor-DAYN; 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. Bourdain graduated from the Culinary Institute of America in 1978. He worked in many professional kitchens, including several years as an executive chef at Brasserie Les Halles in Manhattan.

In the late 1990s, The New Yorker published an essay by Bourdain, kickstarting Bourdain's career and legitimizing the point-blank tone that became his trademark. The success was followed a year later by the New York Times best-selling book Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly (2000).