Anthony Bourdain’s final days remembered as Tony released in cinemas
'Bad boy chef' who was a legend of New York kitchens died aged 61 in 2018
Anthony Bourdain, the renowned New York chef who became a celebrity for his brash kitchen presence, is being remembered this week with the UK release of the biopic film Tony.
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Dominic Sessa plays the chef in the Matt Johnson-directed film, which is based on the 2000 memoir Kitchen Confidential, which helped launch Bourdain's career.
Bourdain went on to present travel docuseries and cookery shows, earning wealth and fame, but also had well-documented struggles and died in 2018, aged 61, while filming a series called Parts Unknown.
“Your body is not a temple, it’s an amusement park. Enjoy the ride," Bourdain once said, although those close to the chef have debated how much of his bravado was performative.
Here is what we know about the last days of the chef and the legacy he has left behind.
Read also: Dukes of Hazzard star Ben Jones dies of heart attack aged 84
Who was Anthony Bourdain?
As shown in the film, Tony, Bourdain was born in New York but grew up travelling with his family in France, which sparked an interest in food.
He later enrolled in the Culinary Institute of America and became a top chef in Manhattan in the late 1980s, but put across that his attraction to the job was as much for the high-stress energy as it was for the cooking.
In his writings, he called kitchens: “A subculture whose centuries-old militaristic hierarchy and ethos of ‘rum, buggery and the lash’ make for a mix of unwavering order and nerve-shattering chaos."
Clearly possessing a way with words, Bourdain became a published writer in the 1990s with book deals as well as newspaper articles and columns about his experiences.
Kitchen Confidential was his third book, published in 2000, and detailed his drug abuse, which culminated in a stint in rehab in the early 1990s. He managed to leave behind drugs but was a lifelong smoker and heavy drinker.
He also appeared to not be entirely comfortable with a kitchen culture that he came to define.
Of the success of Kitchen Confidential, he said: “If there’s a harasser in the kitchen who’s a jerk, chances are he’s got a copy of my book on his station. And I’m going to have to live with that.”
Another quote attributed to Bourdain is: "God gives us meat, but the devil sends us cooks."
Anthony Bourdain's last days and death
Anthony Bourdain took his own life aged 61 in Kaysersberg, France, at a hotel he was staying in June 2018 while away filming a series called Parts Unknown.
In the years since Kitchen Confidential, he became a prolific writer and TV host as well as a family man, having been married to Ottavia Busia from 2007 to 2016, having a daughter in 2007.
The couple was said to be on good terms after they separated, with Bourdain's schedule of being away from home for up to 250 days per year putting a strain on their relationship.
Days before he died, Bourdain wrote to Busia: “I hate my fans, too. I hate being famous. I hate my job. I am lonely and living in constant uncertainty.”
The chef was known to have been in a relationship with the Italian actress Asia Argento, which ended shortly before his death.
Charles Leerhsen wrote about Bourdain's last days in his book Down and Out in Paradise. He said that the relationship was a case of: “The more he presses on her, the more she pulls back.”
In Leerhsen's account, Argento messaged him to say: "Stop busting my b****," to which Bourdain replied, "ok" and he was found dead a few hours later.
Bourdain left a legacy of a passion for food and travel, as well as a bossy and frantic kitchen style, which paved the way for Gordon Ramsay to break through in the UK.
Ramsay said in 2018: “Tony Bourdain was a great mate of mine. He brought the world into our homes and inspired so many people to explore cultures and cities through their food."
Bourdain was also friends with Nigella Lawson, who took herself off Twitter after hearing the "unbearable" news of his passing.
Jamie Oliver said in tribute: "He really broke the mould, pushed the culinary conversation and was the most brilliant writer. He leaves chefs and fans around the world with a massive foodie hole that simply can’t be replaced."
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