Anthony Bourdain  Anthony Michael Bourdain (; June 25, 1956 – June 8, 2018) was an American celebrity chef, author, journalist, and travel documentarian who starred in programs focusing on the exploration of international culture, cuisine, and the human condition. Bourdain was a 1978 graduate of The Culinary Institute of America and a veteran of a number of professional kitchens in his long career, which included many years spent as executive chef at Brasserie Les Halles in Manhattan. He first became known for his bestselling book "Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly" (2000). His first food and world-travel television show "A Cook's Tour" ran for 35 episodes on the Food Network in 2002 and 2003. In 2005, he began hosting the Travel Channel's culinary and cultural adventure programs "" (2005–2012) and "The Layover" (2011–2013). In 2013, he began a three-season run as a judge on "The Taste", and concurrently switched his travelogue programming to CNN to host "". Though best known for his culinary writings and television presentations, along with several books on food and cooking and travel adventures, Bourdain also wrote both fiction and historical nonfiction. On June 8, 2018, Bourdain died by suicide while on location in France for "Parts Unknown". Anthony Michael Bourdain was born in New York City on June 25, 1956, the oldest of two sons of Gladys (née Sacksman) and Pierre Bourdain. Although he was not raised in a specified religion, his father was Catholic, while his mother was Jewish. Bourdain stated that, though he was considered Jewish by Judaism's definition, "I've never been in a synagogue. I don't believe in a higher power. But that doesn't make me any less Jewish, I don't think." His family was not religious either. At the time of Bourdain's birth, Pierre was a salesman at a New York City camera store, as well as a floor manager at a record store. He later became an executive for Columbia Records, and Gladys was a staff editor at "The New York Times". Bourdain's paternal grandparents were French; his paternal grandfather emigrated from Arcachon to New York following World War I. Bourdain's father spent summers in France as a boy and grew up speaking French. Bourdain spent most of his childhood in Leonia, New Jersey. In a 2014 interview, Bourdain talked about how in the 1960s, after seeing films, he would go to a restaurant afterwards with friends to discuss the film.