Anthony Bourdain, host of CNNs Parts Unknown, laughs during the South By Southwest (SXSW) Interactive Festival at the Austin Convention Center in Austin, 2016. (Photo: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg)
The world was stunned. Another bright star in the universe – who scoured the Earth just to bring us to places we might never go – has joined a constellation of icons who were gone too soon. Anthony Bourdain’s passing, just days apart from fashion darling Kate Spade's, left friends and fans utterly grief-stricken.
The merry and never weary Bourdain was more than a culinary gem: He was an advocate for marginalised communities; a vocal supporter of feminism and the #MeToo movement; and a firm defender of some of the food industry’s most exploited classes. He was also a father. “My face sunburned and blissed out with the joys of fatherhood,’ he once described his relationship with his daughter, Ariane.
Bourdain’s razor-sharp wit as well as his insatiable curiosity about the world rewrote the staid genres of food writing, though with him, it was never really just about the food – it was the cultural background and people that shaped it.
His indefatigable spirit for adventure, as well as his words – honest, compassionate and unvarnished – will stick with us always, “The value of a dish is the pleasure it brings you; where you are sitting when you eat it – and who you are eating it with – are what really matter. Don’t be a snob… and eat all it [the world] has to offer without fear or prejudice,” he wrote in a Father’s Day essay for Bon Appétit about his childhood and memories of his father. To borrow the words of Palestinian human rights attorney and activist Noura Erakat, “Rest in power”, Anthony Bourdain.
Former US president, Barack Obama
Chef Gordon Ramsay
Chef and TV personality Eric Ripert
Chef and owner of Noma restaurant, René Redzepi
American culinary expert and food critic Andrew Zimmern
Actor Bryan Cranston
Chef Jamie Oliver
Chef and founder of Momofuku restaurant group David Chang
Pastry chef Dominique Ansel
Chief International Correspondent for CNN Christiane Amanpour
Owner and chef of Arzak Restaurant, Juan Mari Arzak
Owner and executive chef of Gaggan, Gaggan Anand
Stand-up comedian Margaret Cho
Writer and author Rachel Khong
Make-A-Wish Malaysia royal patron Tengku Zatashah
Model and actress Carmen Soo
TV personality Daphne Iking
Actor Henry Golding
Miss Universe Malaysia 2011 and co-founder of Fugee School Deborah Henry
