To call Anthony Bourdain a ‘celebrity chef’ feels like disservice to his legacy. Gordon Ramsay is a celebrity chef. Delia Smith is a celebrity chef. The Hairy Bikers are celebrity chefs. Anthony Bourdain? He was a rock star chef.
Until his passing in June 2018, he made a name for himself first in the kitchen and later as an author, journalist and documentary maker. Through his books, his TV shows and his cooking, he touched the lives of many, dedicating his later years to understanding people, places and cultures through his travel series including No Reservations, The Layover and, finally, Parts Unknown.
But the man was also a huge music nut, with a penchant for punk rock that leaked not only into his kitchen, but also the books he wrote and the shows he made. In his breakout best-seller, Kitchen Confidential: Adventures In The Culinary Underbelly, Anthony described the process of putting together a kitchen crew, as recruiting "every young, pot-smoking, head-banging hooligan we’d ever worked with, filling their heads with dreams of glory. We’re forming… like… a rock’n’roll band, man, an all-star group of culinary superstar… kinda like Blind Faith."