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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, JUNE 8, 2018
Celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain found dead in France at 61
By ANGELA CHARLTON
Associated Press
PARIS — Anthony Bour-
dain, the celebrity chef and cit-
izen of the world who inspired
millions to share his delight in
food and the bonds it created,
was found dead in his hotel
room today in France while
working on his CNN series on
culinary traditions. He was 61.
CNN confirmed the death,
saying that Bourdain was found
unresponsive Friday morning
by friend and chef Eric Rip-
ert in the French city of Haut-
Rhin. It called his death a sui-
cide. Bourdain’s assistant
Laurie Woolever would not
comment when reached by The
Associated Press.
Widely loved and rarely
afraid to speak his mind, he
mixed a coarseness and whim-
sical sense of adventurousness,
true to the rock ‘n’ roll music
he loved. Bourdain’s “Parts
Unknown” seemed like an odd
choice for CNN when it started
in 2013 — part travelogue, part
history lesson, part love letter
to exotic foods. Each trip was
an adventure. There had been
nothing quite like it on the staid
news network, and it became
an immediate hit.
Within hours of his death,
“Kitchen Confidential” was in
the top 20 on Amazon.com.
“We are constantly asking
ourselves, first and foremost,
what is the most (messed) up
thing we can do next week?”
he said in a 2014 interview with
the AP.
Bourdain’s breakthrough as
an author came with the 2000
publication of his “Kitchen
Confidential: Adventures in
the Culinary Underbelly.” The
book created a sensation by
combining frank details of his
life and career with behind-the-
scenes observations on the culi-
nary industry.
Colleagues, friends and
admirers shared their grief Fri-
day. CNN chief executive Jeff
Zucker sent a company letter
calling Bourdain “an excep-
tional talent. A storyteller. A
gifted writer. A world traveler.
An adventurer.”
At the G-7 summit in Can-
ada, President Donald Trump,
whom Bourdain had sharply
criticized, offered his “heart-
felt condolences” to Bour-
dain’s family, which includes
his 11-year-old daughter, Ari-
ane. Jamie Oliver wrote on Ins-
tagram that Bourdain “really
broke the mould ... he leaves
chefs and fans around the world
with a massive foodie hole that
simply can’t be replaced.”
Others noted Bourdain’s
strong defense of the #MeToo
movement. His girlfriend was
actress Asia Argento, who has
accused Harvey Weinstein of
rape. After Mario Batali was
accused of sexual assault,
Brent N. Clarke/Invision
Anthony Bourdain attends the premiere of ‘Wasted! The
Story of Food Waste’ at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema in
New York in 2017.
Bourdain published an essay in
Medium in which he wrote that
“one must pick a side.”
“I stand unhesitatingly
and unwaveringly with the
women,” he wrote.
Another Weinstein accuser,
actress Rose McGowan,
tweeted a video of herself, sob-
bing. “Anthony I am so mad at
you,” she said. “You were so
loved, the world is not better
without you. I have a message
for those considering suicide as
a solution to a temporary prob-
lem. Please call a hotline.”
Bourdain’s death came three
days after fashion designer
Kate Spade killed herself in
her Park Avenue apartment in
New York. Spade’s husband
and business partner said the
55-year-old business mogul
had suffered from depression
and anxiety for many years.
In a 2008 interview with the
AP, Bourdain had said that his
daughter’s birth had changed
his outlook on life. “I feel
obliged to at least do the best I
can and not do anything really
stupidly self-destructive if I can
avoid it,” he said.
Bourdain’s
“Parts
Unknown” seemed like an odd
choice for CNN when it started
in 2013 — part travelogue, part
history lesson, part love letter
to exotic foods. Each trip was
an adventure. There had been
nothing quite like it on the staid
news network, and it became
an immediate hit.
Besides showcasing food,
a “Parts Unknown” trip to
Japan in the series’ first sea-
son included an odd show
with robots and scantily clad
women, a visit with a death
metal band and a meal shared
with a woman involved in
the city’s sadomasochistic
community.
In 2016, he sat down for
some bun cha in Hanoi, Viet-
nam, with President Barack
Obama.
Bourdain was reluctant
to analyze why his series
succeeded.
“If you think about who
the audience is and what their
expectations might be, I think
that’s the road to badness and
mediocrity,” he told the AP.
“You go out there and show the
best story you can as best you
can. If it’s interesting to you,
hopefully it’s interesting to oth-
ers. If you don’t make televi-
sion like that, it’s pandering.”
Bourdain was born in New
York City and was raised in
Leonia, New Jersey. He had
written that his love of food
began as a youth while on a
family vacation in France,
when he ate his first oyster. He
was candid about his personal
struggles, saying that drug use
led to his dropping out of Vas-
sar College after two years.
Working in restaurants led
him to the Culinary Institute of
America, where he graduated
in 1978, and began working in
kitchens in New York City. He
became executive chef at Bras-
serie Les Halles in 1998.
In the preface to the latest
edition “Kitchen Confidential,”
Bourdain wrote of his shock at
the success of his book, which
he wrote by getting up at 5 a.m.
to steal a couple of hours at the
computer before appearing at
the saute station for lunch.
He said he never intended
to write an expose or to “rip the
lid off the restaurant business.”
He said he liked the restaurant
business the way it was.
“What I set out to do was
write a book that my fellow
cooks would find entertaining
and true,” he said. “I wanted it
to sound like me talking at say
... ten o’clock on a Saturday
night, after a busy dinner rush,
me and a few cooks hanging
around in the kitchen, knocking
back a few beers and talking.”
Bourdain said he really had
no idea that anyone outside the
world of chefs would even pay
attention to his comments.
“The new celebrity chef cul-
ture is a remarkable and admit-
tedly annoying phenomenon.
While it’s been nothing but
good for business — and for
me personally — many of us
in the life can’t help snickering
about it,” he wrote. “Of all the
professions, after all, few peo-
ple are less suited to be sud-
denly thrown into the public
eye than chefs.”
WORLD IN BRIEF
Associated Press
Detention centers fill up;
border detainees sent to prisons
Joel Kowsky/NASA
The Soyuz-FG rocket booster with Soyuz MS-09 space
ship carrying a new crew to the International Space
Station blasts off Wednesday from the Baikonur cos-
modrome in Kazakhstan.
Soyuz capsule with
3 astronauts docks
with space station
MOSCOW — A Russian space capsule carrying three
astronauts has docked with the International Space Station
two days after it was launched from Kazakhstan.
The Soyuz capsule docked with the station at 13:01 GMT
today some 255 miles above the Earth. It is carrying Serena
Aunon-Chancellor of the United States, Sergey Prokopyev
of Russia and German Alexander Gerst, flying for the Euro-
pean Space Agency.
They will join Americans Drew Feustel and Ricky Arnold
and Russia’s Oleg Artemyev at the station.
The program for their six-month mission includes about
250 experiments in biology, earth sciences, physical sci-
ences and other disciplines.
The Soyuz blasted off on Wednesday from Russia’s
manned space launch complex in Baikonur, Kazakhstan.
SEATTLE — More than 1,600 people arrested at the U.S.-Mex-
ico border, including parents who have been separated from their
children, are being transferred to federal prisons, U.S. immigration
authorities confirmed Thursday. They said they’re running out of
room at their own facilities amid President Donald Trump’s crack-
down on illegal immigration.
The move drew condemnation from activists who said the
detainees may have legitimate claims to asylum and don’t deserve
to be held in federal prisons.
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee and Attorney General Bob Fer-
guson issued a letter Thursday night seeking more information
from the Justice Department and U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement after learning that ICE had transferred dozens of
mothers who had been separated from their children to the Federal
Detention Center at SeaTac.
Historically, immigrants without serious criminal records were
released from custody while they pursued asylum or refugee status.
The Trump administration has ended that policy.
In an emailed statement, ICE spokeswoman Carissa Cutrell
said that due to a surge in illegal border crossings and the Justice
Department’s “zero-tolerance” policy — designed to discourage
illegal border crossings — the agency needed to acquire access to
more than 1,600 beds in Bureau of Prisons facilities. The agency
said those include 1,000 beds in Victorville, California; 209 beds in
SeaTac; 230 beds in La Tuna, Texas; 230 beds in Sheridan, Oregon;
and 102 beds in Phoenix.
The letter from Inslee and Ferguson followed a report from the
Northwest Immigrant Rights Project earlier Thursday that as many
as 120 asylum seekers had been transferred to the Federal Deten-
tion Center at SeaTac.
Dem lawmakers seek criminal
corruption probe of EPA’s Pruitt
WASHINGTON — House Democrats formally requested today
that the Justice Department investigate Environmental Protection
Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt for potential criminal conduct.
In a letter to FBI Director Chris Wray and Justice criminal divi-
sion chief John Cronan, six Democratic lawmakers with oversight
of Pruitt’s agency allege he repeatedly violated federal anti-corrup-
tion laws by seeking to leverage his government position for per-
sonal gain.
As evidence, the Democrats cite Pruitt’s $50-a-night lease of
a Capitol Hill condo tied to a lobbyist seeking to influence his
agency, directing an EPA aide to contact a senior Chick-fil-A exec-
utive as part of an effort to land his family a franchise, and a $2,000
payment to his wife from organizers of a conference the adminis-
trator then attended at taxpayer expense.
A spokesman for Pruitt did not immediately respond to mes-
sages seeking comment.
The letter was signed by Democratic Reps. Gerald Connolly
and Donald Beyer of Virginia, Jamie Raskin of Maryland, Ruben
Gallego of Arizona, Pramila Jayapal of Washington and Ted Lieu
of California. Connolly is a senior member of the House Commit-
tee on Oversight and Government Reform and serves as the rank-
ing Democrat on the Subcommittee on Government Operations.
President Donald Trump signaled today he is still standing by
his embattled EPA chief, even as Pruitt’s support among other
Republicans has started to erode.
Hundreds hurt in Gaza protest,
including 80 by Israeli fire
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Israeli troops fired live rounds and
tear gas as thousands of Palestinians protested near the Gaza bor-
der fence today, with some demonstrators burning tires, throw-
ing stones and flying blazing kites. At least 413 Palestinians were
wounded, including 80 by live fire, Gaza health officials said.
Seven of the wounded were in serious condition, the Health
Ministry said, in the latest in a series of mass protests to call atten-
tion to a decade-old blockade of Gaza by Israel and Egypt.
The march also marked the annual “Jerusalem Day,” instituted
by Iran to protest Israeli rule of the holy city. Israel and Iran have
been archenemies since Tehran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.
In the capitals of Iran and Iraq, thousands of Shiite Muslims
marked Jerusalem Day with protests, with some chanting “Death
to Israel” or burning Israeli flags and effigies of President Donald
Trump.
In Gaza, at least 115 Palestinians had been killed and nearly
3,800 wounded by Israeli army fire in previous protests near the
border fence. The overwhelming majority of the dead and wounded
had been unarmed, according to Gaza health officials.
Israeli troops fired volleys of tear gas, including from drones,
that sent protesters running for cover.
US says it will intensify fight
against IS in Afghanistan
BRUSSELS — The U.S. will intensify combat against the
Islamic State affiliate in Afghanistan during the Kabul govern-
ment’s temporary halt to attacks on the Taliban, senior U.S. offi-
cials said today.
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said this could, for example, allow
the U.S. to partially shift the focus of aerial surveillance from the
Taliban to IS fighters as well as al-Qaida extremists, who remain a
threat 17 years after the U.S. invaded.
Mattis spoke to reporters during a break in a NATO defense min-
isters meeting, which included a discussion of progress and prob-
lems in Afghanistan. The ministers also discussed more broadly the
international campaign against IS, which has focused since 2014
on eliminating the group’s so-called caliphate in Iraq and Syria.
Mattis argued for continuing military pressure on IS even after
the fighting in Syria is over. He did not mention that President Don-
ald Trump has said he wants the U.S. to exit Syria as soon as it can,
perhaps within a matter of months.
“As operations ultimately draw to a close, we want to avoid
leaving a vacuum in Syria that can be exploited” by IS and other
extremists, he said. “Our fight is not over,” he added. “We must
deal ISIS an enduring, not just a territorial, defeat.”
Later he said leaving Syria before a U.N.-led peace process was
underway “would be a strategic blunder.”
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