The career of Anthony Bourdain, who died Friday at 61, included an award-winning production for PBS.
Bourdain narrated and served as EP for Mind of a Chef, a series profiling famous chefs that aired on PBS from 2012–17. He also appeared twice on Avec Eric, a series by and about master chef Eric Ripert that was distributed by American Public Television from 2009–11. A close friend of Bourdain’s, Ripert reportedly found Bourdain’s body. At the time of his death, Bourdain was in France working on an episode of his CNN series Parts Unknown.
Bourdain was also featured in a 2007 episode of Chef’s Story, an American Public Television series that featured interviews with master chefs hosted by the late Dorothy Cann Hamilton.
“We want to express our deepest and most sincere sympathy to Tony’s family,” said Zero Point Zero Production and Inkwell Management in a joint statement. Zero Point Zero produced Parts Unknown and Mind of a Chef; Inkwell a literary management agency, represented Bourdain. “We will remember him not only for his immense talent, but, more importantly, for his friendship. We have known and worked with Tony for two decades. This loss we feel today is deep and extraordinarily profound. We miss him already.”
Bourdain appeared on a number of public radio shows, and NPR Africa correspondent Ofeibea Quist-Arcton shared a lunch with Bourdain at a market in Dakar, Senegal, for his Parts Unknown series. In a remembrance, Quist-Arcton recalled Bourdain’s love for Senegal’s harmony, tolerance, food and culture.
A majority-Muslim nation that elected a Catholic as its first president, Senegal “leads you to believe maybe there is hope in the world,” Bourdain told her.
Quist-Arcton ended with:
Monsieur Bourdain has a lot of tattoos on his arms. Yes, quite a few. You don’t see much of that in Africa. We have henna skin decorating and painting here, and I meant to suggest to him to get a lovely abstract henna decoration, but his arms were already pretty covered in tattoos. Oh yes — and his eyes lit up when he talked about his daughter. That immediately endeared him to me. He loves to cook for her.
This post has been updated with the statement from Zero Point Zero Production and Inkwell Management.