The character arc of Anthony Bourdain
A life drawn by Character Arc from the public record
Born on 25 June 1956 in Manhattan, to a record industry father and a New York Times editor. Between then and 2018 sit a raw oyster eaten off a fisherman's boat in France as a boy, school finished in 1973, two years at Vassar and a departure, summers in Provincetown seafood kitchens, culinary school finished in 1978, two decades on the line, an executive chef's job in 1998, a magazine essay, Kitchen Confidential in 2000 at forty three, and sixteen years of travel programmes. He died in France on 8 June 2018.
Tap the line to pluck it. Hover or tap any mark for its card. Drawn from the public record of his life; the sources are at the foot of the page.
Who was Anthony Bourdain?
Twenty years on the line, and famous at forty three.
His father worked in a camera shop and a record shop before becoming a classical recording executive, and his mother was a staff editor at a newspaper. He has written that his childhood was ordinary and happy: nobody beat him, nobody drank, and he did not want for love or attention. The thing the record marks as the beginning happened on a family trip to France, when his family went out on an oyster fisherman's boat and the fisherman offered him one he had just pulled from the water. He had never eaten a raw oyster before.
He finished school in 1973, enrolled at Vassar and left after two years. While he was there he worked in seafood restaurants in Provincetown, including a lobster house, and that is what decided him on cooking. He graduated from the Culinary Institute of America in 1978 and then did the ordinary thing for twenty years: he worked in professional kitchens, unglamorously and hard, and in 1998, at forty two, became executive chef at a Manhattan brasserie.
In the late 1990s a magazine published an essay of his, written in the blunt voice that became his trademark, and the following year Kitchen Confidential came out and went onto the bestseller list. He was forty three. What followed was sixteen years of travel programmes, from a first series in 2002 to a long-running one on cable and then another on a news network, along with novels and nonfiction, a judging role on a competition series, and an Emmy-winning digital series in 2018. He died in France on 8 June 2018, by suicide, while filming.
The moments
Anthony Bourdain's timeline.
The 1950s
Born in Manhattan
Everyday. A record executive and a newspaper editor, and a younger brother.
The 1960s
An oyster off a boat
Milestone, and it changed everything. One oyster, handed to a boy on a boat, and the whole line starts there.
The 1970s
Two years, then out
Setback, and it changed his direction. He left college, which at the time looked like the end of something.
Kitchens in Provincetown
Milestone, and it changed everything. A summer job in a seafood kitchen decided the rest of it.
Culinary school
Milestone, and it changed his direction. Qualified at twenty two, and then two decades of ordinary work.
The 1980s
Twenty years on the line
Everyday. The long flat stretch, which is where the book eventually came from.
The 1990s
Executive chef at last
Milestone, and it changed his direction. Forty two years old, and the first time his name was on the kitchen.
An essay in a magazine
Milestone, and it changed everything. One essay, written by a working chef, in a magazine that does not usually take them.
Send the essay
Crossroads, decided.
The paths laid out: write it down, taken, or keep the kitchen. Kitchen Confidential became a bestseller, and a first television series followed in 2002.
The 2000s
Kitchen Confidential
Milestone, and it changed everything. Forty three years old, and the first book was a bestseller.
The first travel series
Milestone, and it changed his direction. A chef, a camera, and thirty five countries.
No Reservations
Milestone, and it changed everything. The format that everybody has copied since: sit down, eat, listen.
The 2010s
Parts Unknown
Milestone, and it changed everything. A news network, and a travel programme that was mostly about people.
He dies in France
Setback, and it changed everything. Sixty one years old, on the road, working.
The programmes still play, and the argument in them has outlived the argument about him. What it set moving is a change in how travel is filmed: a camera that sits down at somebody else's table, eats what is put in front of it, and lets the person talk, which is a small idea that a great many film makers have been copying ever since.
What he wrote
Books by Anthony Bourdain
- 2000
Kitchen Confidential
The honest version of restaurant work, written by a chef who was still working in one.
Your turn
Every line draws a unique story.
His spent twenty years on a hot line before anybody outside the kitchen knew his name. Yours is already further along than you think, and drawing it takes about five minutes.
Anthony Bourdain: frequently asked questions
What people ask about his line.
What is Anthony Bourdain's character arc?
What did Anthony Bourdain do before he was famous?
How did Anthony Bourdain start writing?
What television did Anthony Bourdain make?
Why did Anthony Bourdain become a chef?
When did Anthony Bourdain die?
Where does this timeline of Anthony Bourdain's life come from?
More character arcs
Lives that rhyme with his.
Sources
- Anthony Bourdain, English Wikipedia biography.
- Britannica, biography of Anthony Bourdain.
- Publisher records for Kitchen Confidential, 2000, and broadcast records for his television series.