Taste His Legacy

For the Prolific Travelling Chef Anthony Bourdain, No Country or Dish Was Off Limits. He Was a Champion of Fearless Exploration, and Shone a Light on Our Shared Humanity... This Is His Story.

- Daniel Geldenhuys

Anthony Bourdain’s work presents a man who, as the saying goes, has lived many lives. The hand-written introduction of the insider’s edition of his book Kitchen Confidential confirms this: ‘I feel sometimes like I’ve lived three lives.’ Most people would need three to fit in two marriages, a child, nine books, an imprint, four TV shows and travels to more than 80 countries. Not Anthony.

The idea of Anthony’s many lives can also be leveraged as consolation for the collective loss felt across the world following his suicide at the age of 61 in June this year, while he was working on an episode of Parts Unknown in France. The news came as a shock, opening a public dialogue about mental health and how it never discriminates. Fans felt they lost a friend – one they followed to countless countries, using food as a gateway to explore different cultures. Although his blunt honesty and unfiltered criticisms caused many a feud, his legacy is one of exceptional diplomacy.

The disciplined, punctual, uncompromising characteristics he became known for were born in the scullery. Anthony started washing dishes at a restaurant at the age of 13 on a holiday job. ‘Everything important I learned, I learned as a dishwasher and a cook,’ he said in an interview for Fast Company in August last year.

Anthony was born in Leonia, New Jersey. The Bourdains made regular trips to Manhattan with the goal of discovering different foods. ‘My parents were pretty adventurous,’ Anthony told Oliver Strand in a 2016 Vogue profile. ‘We would go into New York and eat at a Swedish restaurant or a Japanese restaurant or something.’