Laurie Woolever

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 was a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America in 1978, and a veteran of many professional kitchens during his career, which included several years spent as an executive chef at Brasserie Les Halles in Manhattan. In the late 1990s, Bourdain wrote an essay about the ugly secrets of a Manhattan restaurant, but was having difficulty getting it published. According to The New York Times, his mother Gladys—then an editor and writer at the paper—handed her son's essay to friend and fellow editor Esther B. Fein, the wife of David Remnick, editor of the magazine The New Yorker.