When asked, Anthony Bourdain said his favorite thing to prepare as a chef was pasta. His favorite dish was cacio e pepe, and he cherished moments in the kitchen with his daughter, cooking linguine alle vongole. His passion for noodles of any kind was most fondly memorialized when he sat down for bún chả with President Barack Obama in Vietnam.
June marks the beginning and end of Anthony Bourdain’s life and a celebration of his legacy. From cuttlefish spearing off the coast of Sicily to drinking wine on Tuscan streets outside of a 250-year-old butcher shop, he was beloved not for his storytelling on Italian food, but on food from anywhere and the human connections he made through eating. Later in his short, well-lived life, Bourdain let on that he had a profound affinity for all things Italian.
A sign proudly announces that famous TV personality and chef Anthony Bourdain called their artichoke "terrific" at the Nonna Betta kosher restaurant in the Jewish Ghetto on December 11, 2017, in Rome, Italy (ph David Silverman/Getty Images)
In his last cookbook, “Appetites,” Bourdain compared himself to a bad-tempered Barefoot Contessa and a stereotypical Italian grandmother, “who’s always urging people, “Eat! Eat,” and sulking inconsolably when they don’t.” The cookbook overflows with recipes for seafood pasta, his love of fatherhood, and contemplations on what makes a happy family.
The chef, who never held back on self-criticism, later lamented not capturing the “subtlety and beauty” of Sicily, and for lacking “powerful women storytellers” throughout his television series. “We failed regrettably at that more than anything else,” he said in a 2017 interview with Fast Company.
Later this month, the world will celebrate “Bourdain Day” on his birthday, June 25. Chefs José Andrés and Eric Ripert started the memorial last year when they launched the Anthony Bourdain Legacy Scholarship to help young chefs go abroad as part of their studies at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York.
If you or anyone you know is considering suicide or self-harm or is anxious, depressed, upset, or needs to talk, call the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at 1-800-273-8255 or text the Crisis Text Line at 741-741. For international resources, here is a good place to begin.