News

Justify led all the way Saturday to win the Belmont Stakes by 1¾ lengths and become horse racing’s 13th Triple Crown champion and second in four years.

The chestnut colt was the second undefeated horse to sweep the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont, improving to 6-0 in a racing career that began on February 18. Seattle Slew was unbeaten when he won the Triple Crown in 1977.

Sent off as the 4-5 favorite, Justify went to the lead out of the starting gate and led nine rivals around the track’s sweeping turns. He was the first Triple Crown winner to face that many rivals in the 1½-mile Belmont.

Bob Baffert became the second trainer to win the Triple Crown twice. He did so with American Pharoah in 2015, ending a 37-year drought.

At 52, Mike Smith became the oldest jockey to win the Triple Crown.
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Newly crowned French Open champion Simona Halep said she was inspired to win her first Grand Slam title by her manager Virginia Ruzici’s feats 40 years ago at Roland Garros.

Ruzici’s 1978 Paris triumph over Mima Jausovec was the last time a Romanian, man or woman, had won a Grand Slam, but Halep ended that long wait Saturday in defeating American Sloane Stephens, 3-6, 6-4, 6-1.

In doing so, Halep equaled the feat of American seven-time French Open champion Chris Evert, who also suffered three Grand Slam final losses before capturing the 1974 French title.

“It’s a motivation and inspiration,” Halep, 26, who lifted the junior title 10 years ago, told reporters with Ruzici sitting alongside her.

“Forty years ago, she won here. It’s a special moment. The fact that it’s happened here, it’s pretty special. So yeah, she’s an inspiration.”

Halep climbed to the top of the rankings last October and has been there more or less ever since.

The elephant in the room remained her lack of a Grand Slam trophy, having twice lost the title match in Paris, to Maria Sharapova in 2014 and Jelena Ostapenko last year, and at this year’s Australian Open to Caroline Wozniacki.

By beating Spain’s former French Open champion Garbine Muguruza in the semifinals she guaranteed that she extended her stay as the world’s No. 1 player — a position she has held now for 32 weeks in total.

But it was the Suzanne Lenglen trophy she really desired and the tears flowed as she raised it skyward Saturday after showing huge character to battle back to victory.

“I’m really happy that I won this Grand Slam. Because being No. 1 without a Grand Slam, I always said, is not like everything, not 100 percent,” she said.

“It’s my favorite Grand Slam. I always said that if I’m going to win one, I want it to be here.”

Halep said the memory of last year’s defeat by Ostapenko when she led by a set and 3-0 actually helped her on Saturday when she trailed by a set and 2-0 to an inspired Stephens.

“When I started to win games, I said that last year it happened to me, the same thing,” she said. “I was a set and a break up and I lost the match. So I said there is a chance to come back and win it.

“I believed in that and my game was more relaxed. I could make more things on court, and that’s why I could win.”

Halep’s French title arrived in the 32nd Grand Slam of her career. Only seven players have taken more attempts to land one.

Her patience finally paid off as she used all her experience to weather the Stephens storm.

“I said that I have to calm down, just to try to open the court, try to put more balls in,” she said. “And at one point I felt that she started to feel a little bit tired and to miss more. So I was patient.” 
…

Newly crowned French Open champion Simona Halep said she was inspired to win her first Grand Slam title by her manager Virginia Ruzici’s feats 40 years ago at Roland Garros.

Ruzici’s 1978 Paris triumph over Mima Jausovec was the last time a Romanian, man or woman, had won a Grand Slam, but Halep ended that long wait Saturday in defeating American Sloane Stephens, 3-6, 6-4, 6-1.

In doing so, Halep equaled the feat of American seven-time French Open champion Chris Evert, who also suffered three Grand Slam final losses before capturing the 1974 French title.

“It’s a motivation and inspiration,” Halep, 26, who lifted the junior title 10 years ago, told reporters with Ruzici sitting alongside her.

“Forty years ago, she won here. It’s a special moment. The fact that it’s happened here, it’s pretty special. So yeah, she’s an inspiration.”

Halep climbed to the top of the rankings last October and has been there more or less ever since.

The elephant in the room remained her lack of a Grand Slam trophy, having twice lost the title match in Paris, to Maria Sharapova in 2014 and Jelena Ostapenko last year, and at this year’s Australian Open to Caroline Wozniacki.

By beating Spain’s former French Open champion Garbine Muguruza in the semifinals she guaranteed that she extended her stay as the world’s No. 1 player — a position she has held now for 32 weeks in total.

But it was the Suzanne Lenglen trophy she really desired and the tears flowed as she raised it skyward Saturday after showing huge character to battle back to victory.

“I’m really happy that I won this Grand Slam. Because being No. 1 without a Grand Slam, I always said, is not like everything, not 100 percent,” she said.

“It’s my favorite Grand Slam. I always said that if I’m going to win one, I want it to be here.”

Halep said the memory of last year’s defeat by Ostapenko when she led by a set and 3-0 actually helped her on Saturday when she trailed by a set and 2-0 to an inspired Stephens.

“When I started to win games, I said that last year it happened to me, the same thing,” she said. “I was a set and a break up and I lost the match. So I said there is a chance to come back and win it.

“I believed in that and my game was more relaxed. I could make more things on court, and that’s why I could win.”

Halep’s French title arrived in the 32nd Grand Slam of her career. Only seven players have taken more attempts to land one.

Her patience finally paid off as she used all her experience to weather the Stephens storm.

“I said that I have to calm down, just to try to open the court, try to put more balls in,” she said. “And at one point I felt that she started to feel a little bit tired and to miss more. So I was patient.” 
…

An enigmatic sculpture of a king’s head dating back nearly 3,000 years has set off a modern-day mystery caper as scholars try to figure out whose face it depicts.

The 5-centimeter (2-inch) sculpture is an exceedingly rare example of figurative art from the Holy Land during the 9th century B.C. — a period associated with biblical kings. Exquisitely preserved but for a bit of missing beard, nothing quite like it has been found before.

While scholars are certain the stern bearded figure donning a golden crown represents royalty, they are less sure which king it symbolizes, or which kingdom he may have ruled.

Archaeologists unearthed the diminutive figurine in 2017 during excavations at a site called Abel Beth Maacah, located just south of Israel’s border with Lebanon, near the modern-day town of Metula.

Nineteenth-century archaeologists identified the site, then home to a village called Abil al-Qamh, with the similarly named city mentioned in the Book of Kings.

During the 9th century B.C., the ancient town was situated in a liminal zone between three regional powers: the Aramean kingdom based in Damascus to the east, the Phoenician city of Tyre to the west, and the Israelite kingdom, with its capital in Samaria to the south.

Kings 1 15:20 mentions Abel Beth Maacah in a list of cities attacked by the Aramean King Ben Hadad in a campaign against the Israelite kingdom.

“This location is very important because it suggests that the site may have shifted hands between these polities, more likely between Aram-Damascus and Israel,” said Hebrew University archaeologist Naama Yahalom-Mack, who has headed the joint dig with California’s Azusa Pacific University since 2013.

Yahalom-Mack’s team was digging through the floor of a massive Iron Age structure in the summer of 2017 when a volunteer who arrived for the day struck pay dirt. The layer where the head was found dates to the 9th century B.C., the epoch associated with the rival biblical kingdoms of Israel and Judah. 

In a rare move, archaeologists and curators at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem rushed to put the piece on public display. A detailed report is set for publication in the June edition of the journal Near Eastern Archaeology. 

‘Exquisite quality’

Eran Arie, the Israel Museum’s curator of Iron Age and Persian archaeology, said the discovery was one of a kind. “In the Iron Age, if there’s any figurative art, and there largely isn’t, it’s of very low quality. And this is of exquisite quality.”

The royal figurine is made of faience, a glass-like material that was popular in jewelry and small human and animal figurines in ancient Egypt and the Near East.

“The color of the face is greenish because of this copper tint that we have in the silicate paste,” Yahalom-Mack said. But a crucial clue for identifying it as a Near Eastern monarch was its “very interesting hairdo,” she said. 

The bearded figure’s hair is pulled back in thick locks that cover the ears, and is held in place by a striped diadem of gold. Its hairstyle looks similar to the way ancient Egyptians depicted neighboring Near Eastern peoples in art.

“The guy kind of represents the generic way Semitic people are described,” she said.

‘Hello from the past’

Because Carbon-14 dating cannot give a more exact date for the statue’s creation other than sometime in the 9th century, the field of potential candidates is large. Yahalom-Mack posited it could be kings Ben Hadad or Hazael of Damascus, Ahab or Jehu of Israel, or Ithobaal of Tyre, all characters appearing in the biblical narrative.

“We’re only guessing here, it’s like a game,” she said. “It’s like a hello from the past, but we don’t know anything else about it.”

As scholars debate whether the head was a stand-alone piece or part of a larger statue, the Hebrew University team is set to restart digging this month at the spot where the mystery king’s head was found.
…

An enigmatic sculpture of a king’s head dating back nearly 3,000 years has set off a modern-day mystery caper as scholars try to figure out whose face it depicts.

The 5-centimeter (2-inch) sculpture is an exceedingly rare example of figurative art from the Holy Land during the 9th century B.C. — a period associated with biblical kings. Exquisitely preserved but for a bit of missing beard, nothing quite like it has been found before.

While scholars are certain the stern bearded figure donning a golden crown represents royalty, they are less sure which king it symbolizes, or which kingdom he may have ruled.

Archaeologists unearthed the diminutive figurine in 2017 during excavations at a site called Abel Beth Maacah, located just south of Israel’s border with Lebanon, near the modern-day town of Metula.

Nineteenth-century archaeologists identified the site, then home to a village called Abil al-Qamh, with the similarly named city mentioned in the Book of Kings.

During the 9th century B.C., the ancient town was situated in a liminal zone between three regional powers: the Aramean kingdom based in Damascus to the east, the Phoenician city of Tyre to the west, and the Israelite kingdom, with its capital in Samaria to the south.

Kings 1 15:20 mentions Abel Beth Maacah in a list of cities attacked by the Aramean King Ben Hadad in a campaign against the Israelite kingdom.

“This location is very important because it suggests that the site may have shifted hands between these polities, more likely between Aram-Damascus and Israel,” said Hebrew University archaeologist Naama Yahalom-Mack, who has headed the joint dig with California’s Azusa Pacific University since 2013.

Yahalom-Mack’s team was digging through the floor of a massive Iron Age structure in the summer of 2017 when a volunteer who arrived for the day struck pay dirt. The layer where the head was found dates to the 9th century B.C., the epoch associated with the rival biblical kingdoms of Israel and Judah. 

In a rare move, archaeologists and curators at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem rushed to put the piece on public display. A detailed report is set for publication in the June edition of the journal Near Eastern Archaeology. 

‘Exquisite quality’

Eran Arie, the Israel Museum’s curator of Iron Age and Persian archaeology, said the discovery was one of a kind. “In the Iron Age, if there’s any figurative art, and there largely isn’t, it’s of very low quality. And this is of exquisite quality.”

The royal figurine is made of faience, a glass-like material that was popular in jewelry and small human and animal figurines in ancient Egypt and the Near East.

“The color of the face is greenish because of this copper tint that we have in the silicate paste,” Yahalom-Mack said. But a crucial clue for identifying it as a Near Eastern monarch was its “very interesting hairdo,” she said. 

The bearded figure’s hair is pulled back in thick locks that cover the ears, and is held in place by a striped diadem of gold. Its hairstyle looks similar to the way ancient Egyptians depicted neighboring Near Eastern peoples in art.

“The guy kind of represents the generic way Semitic people are described,” she said.

‘Hello from the past’

Because Carbon-14 dating cannot give a more exact date for the statue’s creation other than sometime in the 9th century, the field of potential candidates is large. Yahalom-Mack posited it could be kings Ben Hadad or Hazael of Damascus, Ahab or Jehu of Israel, or Ithobaal of Tyre, all characters appearing in the biblical narrative.

“We’re only guessing here, it’s like a game,” she said. “It’s like a hello from the past, but we don’t know anything else about it.”

As scholars debate whether the head was a stand-alone piece or part of a larger statue, the Hebrew University team is set to restart digging this month at the spot where the mystery king’s head was found.
…

The prosecutor of Colmar in France’s Alsace region says that writer and celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain hanged himself in the bathroom of his French hotel room.

Prosecutor Christian de Rocquigny told The Associated Press on Saturday that the famed chef and host of the CNN series Parts Unknown used the belt of his hotel bath robe to commit suicide Friday.

Of the 61-year-old American’s death, Rocquigny said “there is no element that makes us suspect that someone came into the room at any moment.” He also said a medical expert had concluded there were no signs of violence on Bourdain’s body.

The prosecutor said toxicology tests were being carried out, including urine tests, to see if Bourdain took any medications, to try to help his family understand if anything led him to kill himself.
…

The prosecutor of Colmar in France’s Alsace region says that writer and celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain hanged himself in the bathroom of his French hotel room.

Prosecutor Christian de Rocquigny told The Associated Press on Saturday that the famed chef and host of the CNN series Parts Unknown used the belt of his hotel bath robe to commit suicide Friday.

Of the 61-year-old American’s death, Rocquigny said “there is no element that makes us suspect that someone came into the room at any moment.” He also said a medical expert had concluded there were no signs of violence on Bourdain’s body.

The prosecutor said toxicology tests were being carried out, including urine tests, to see if Bourdain took any medications, to try to help his family understand if anything led him to kill himself.
…

British film stars Emma Thompson, Keira Knightley and Tom Hardy and Nobel Prize-winning author Kazuo Ishiguro are among those receiving honors in the name of Britain’s monarch.

The list published late Friday by Britain’s Cabinet Office includes many receiving honors for merit, service and bravery. The awards will be given out by Queen Elizabeth II or a senior royal acting in her place during investitures at Buckingham Palace.

The list often includes prominent figures — like Thompson, the Oscar-winning actress who has been in the public eye for decades — as well as people who have labored behind the scenes or in academic or charity positions.

The 59-year-old Thompson will become Dame Emma, a high honor that is the female equivalent of becoming a knight. The citation calls her one of Britain’s “most versatile and celebrated actresses.”

Her long list of film roles includes favorites like “The Remains of the Day” — which was written by Ishiguro — “Love Actually” and “Nanny McPhee.” She received the Academy Award for Best Actress for “Howards End” and, as a writer, the Oscar for the best adapted screenplay for “Sense and Sensibility.”

The Queen’s Birthday List, Elizabeth’s official birthday is Saturday and will be marked with the Trooping the Color parade, bestows a knighthood on Mark Rowley for his service while heading the Metropolitan Police counter-terrorism squad during a series of lethal attacks last year. When he retired in March after more than three decades on the force, Prime Minister Theresa May praised Rowley’s dedication to protecting the public.

 

Ishiguro, who was born in Japan, received a knighthood for his services to literature. He said he was “deeply touched to receive this honor from the nation that welcomed me as a small foreign boy.”

Former Liverpool player and manager Kenny Dalglish, 67, was also knighted for his services to soccer, charity and the city of Liverpool.

Most Excellent Order of the British Empire

The youngest winner was 20-year-old visually impaired alpine skier Menna Fitzpatrick, who was Britain’s most successful competitor in the 2018 Winter Paralympics. The oldest winner was former World War II nurse Rosemary Powell, 103, who was honored for 97 years of charity work.

Both received MBE awards, making them members of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire.

Rapper and singer Ms. Dynamite also received the same honor under her real name, Niomi McLean-Daley.

Knightley, known for “Pirates of the Caribbean,” “Pride and Prejudice,” and other movies, received an OBE award, so she will become an “officer” of the British empire, a slightly higher ranking.

Hardy, star of “Inception” and other movies, received a CBE award, designating him a “commander” of the empire, a still higher designation.

The list also honors the queen’s eye surgeon, Jonathan Jagger, who was made a commander of the Royal Victorian Order. He is a specialist in cataract surgery, but officials have not said if he performed the cataract surgery the queen had done in May. 
…

British film stars Emma Thompson, Keira Knightley and Tom Hardy and Nobel Prize-winning author Kazuo Ishiguro are among those receiving honors in the name of Britain’s monarch.

The list published late Friday by Britain’s Cabinet Office includes many receiving honors for merit, service and bravery. The awards will be given out by Queen Elizabeth II or a senior royal acting in her place during investitures at Buckingham Palace.

The list often includes prominent figures — like Thompson, the Oscar-winning actress who has been in the public eye for decades — as well as people who have labored behind the scenes or in academic or charity positions.

The 59-year-old Thompson will become Dame Emma, a high honor that is the female equivalent of becoming a knight. The citation calls her one of Britain’s “most versatile and celebrated actresses.”

Her long list of film roles includes favorites like “The Remains of the Day” — which was written by Ishiguro — “Love Actually” and “Nanny McPhee.” She received the Academy Award for Best Actress for “Howards End” and, as a writer, the Oscar for the best adapted screenplay for “Sense and Sensibility.”

The Queen’s Birthday List, Elizabeth’s official birthday is Saturday and will be marked with the Trooping the Color parade, bestows a knighthood on Mark Rowley for his service while heading the Metropolitan Police counter-terrorism squad during a series of lethal attacks last year. When he retired in March after more than three decades on the force, Prime Minister Theresa May praised Rowley’s dedication to protecting the public.

 

Ishiguro, who was born in Japan, received a knighthood for his services to literature. He said he was “deeply touched to receive this honor from the nation that welcomed me as a small foreign boy.”

Former Liverpool player and manager Kenny Dalglish, 67, was also knighted for his services to soccer, charity and the city of Liverpool.

Most Excellent Order of the British Empire

The youngest winner was 20-year-old visually impaired alpine skier Menna Fitzpatrick, who was Britain’s most successful competitor in the 2018 Winter Paralympics. The oldest winner was former World War II nurse Rosemary Powell, 103, who was honored for 97 years of charity work.

Both received MBE awards, making them members of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire.

Rapper and singer Ms. Dynamite also received the same honor under her real name, Niomi McLean-Daley.

Knightley, known for “Pirates of the Caribbean,” “Pride and Prejudice,” and other movies, received an OBE award, so she will become an “officer” of the British empire, a slightly higher ranking.

Hardy, star of “Inception” and other movies, received a CBE award, designating him a “commander” of the empire, a still higher designation.

The list also honors the queen’s eye surgeon, Jonathan Jagger, who was made a commander of the Royal Victorian Order. He is a specialist in cataract surgery, but officials have not said if he performed the cataract surgery the queen had done in May. 
…

Attacks on three churches last month in Indonesia have shaken many who live in the country with the largest Muslim population. Some worry about peaceful relations among various faiths. So in the holy month of Ramadan, special boarding schools bring young people from different faiths together. The goal is to teach tolerance and respect for religions and eradicate extremist views. Ahadian Utama went to one such boarding school in Jakarta and filed this report, narrated by Ariono Arifin.
…

Attacks on three churches last month in Indonesia have shaken many who live in the country with the largest Muslim population. Some worry about peaceful relations among various faiths. So in the holy month of Ramadan, special boarding schools bring young people from different faiths together. The goal is to teach tolerance and respect for religions and eradicate extremist views. Ahadian Utama went to one such boarding school in Jakarta and filed this report, narrated by Ariono Arifin.
…

Anthony Bourdain, the globe-trotting celebrity chef and food critic, is dead at the age of 61.

Bourdain was found dead Friday morning by his friend, chef Eric Ripert, in Bourdain’s hotel room in France, where he was working on an upcoming episode of his CNN series, Parts Unknown. According to the network, Bourdain took his life.

“Tony was an exceptional talent. A storyteller. A gifted writer. A world traveler. An adventurer. He brought something to CNN that no one else had ever brought before,” CNN Chief Executive Jeff Zucker wrote in a letter to staff.  “This is a very, very sad day.”

Bourdain first gained recognition with a 1999 New Yorker essay, “Don’t Eat Before Reading This,” which was his frank appraisal of the New York culinary scene. In 2000, the article was adapted into a book, The New York Times’ best-seller, Kitchen Confidential.

“In America, the professional kitchen is the last refuge of the misfit,” Bourdain wrote in his article.

Bourdain was born in New York City, and brought up in the suburb of Leonia, New Jersey. He graduated from the Culinary Institute of America in 1978. From there, he worked his way up in New York kitchens from dishwasher to line cook to head chef.

In 2005, Bourdain began hosting his own show, the Travel Network’s No Reservations, traveling around the world in the hunt for local cuisine. Bourdain later moved to CNN to host Parts Unknown beginning in 2013, a show that has won five Emmys and a Peabody Award.

“Stunned and saddened by the loss of Anthony Bourdain,” celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay tweeted. “He brought the world into our homes and inspired so many people to explore cultures and cities through their food.”

In 2016, Bourdain traveled to Hanoi where he interviewed then-U.S. President Barack Obama, sitting down with him over a plate of noodles at a restaurant.

Bourdain was married and divorced twice, having one child with his second wife, Ottavia Busia. At the time of his death, Bourdain was dating actress Asia Argento. Bourdain was a strong advocate of the #MeToo movement — Argento being one of the women who accused disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault.

“Through space and time, Anthony. Your love will find you again,” actress Rose McGowan, a leader of the movement who has accused Weinstein of sexual assault, tweeted. McGowan also said anyone contemplating suicide to call a hotline.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, suicide rates have climbed in nearly every state between 1999 and 2016. In 2016, nearly 45,000 Americans took their lives, according to the CDC.

“We’re saddened to hear of the tragic loss of Anthony Bourdain,” the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline tweeted. “Please know you are never alone, no matter how dark or lonely things may seem.”

Bourdain’s death follows this past week’s suicide of fashion designer Kate Spade in New York.

On Friday, U.S. President Donald Trump expressed his condolences to both the Bourdain and Spade families.

Before leaving for Canada to attend a summit of the world’s leading industrialized economies, Trump told reporters at the White House he enjoyed Bourdain’s show. Trump described the late food critic as “quite a character.”

Obama tweeted about the time he and Bourdain sat down for the informal meal in Vietnam.

To reach the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, call 1-800-273-8255.
…

American TV celebrity and food writer Anthony Bourdain was found dead in his hotel room Friday in France while working on his CNN series on culinary traditions around the world. He was 61.

 

CNN confirmed the death, saying that Bourdain was found unresponsive Friday morning by friend and chef Eric Ripert in the French city of Strasbourg. It called his death a suicide.

 

Bourdain achieved celebrity status after the publication in 2000 of his best-selling book “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 culinary industry. It was a rare crossover – a book intended for professional cooks that had enormous mass appeal.

 

Bourdain went on to achieve widespread fame thanks to his CNN series “Parts Unknown” – and was filming an upcoming segment for the program when he was found dead, according to CNN.

 

CNN chief executive Jeff Zucker sent a note to staff saying the circumstances of the death are still unclear but that “we do know that Tony took his own life.”

 

“Tony was an exceptional talent. A storyteller. A gifted writer. A world traveler. An adventurer. He brought something to CNN that no one else had ever brought before,” Zucker said in the letter. “This is a very, very sad day.”

 

Strasbourg police, emergency services and regional authorities did not immediately have information about the death. Bourdain’s assistant Laurie Woolever would not comment when reached by The Associated Press.

 

Celebrity Chefs, fans and U.S. President Donald Trump were among those stunned and saddened by the news.

 

“I want to extend to his family my heartfelt condolences,” Trump said.

 

Jamie Oliver wrote on Instagram 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.” Chef Yotam Ottolenghi tweeted “Shocking and sad!” while Nigella Lawson tweeted she was “Heartbroken.”

 

“Bourdain’s exceptional writing made this one formerly picky, fearful eater very brave and want to try everything and I’ll always be grateful for him and the worlds he openened” tweeted Lin-Manuel Miranda.

 

U.S. television personalities Megyn Kelly and Stacy London offered condolences and urged those who needed help to contact suicide prevention hotlines.

 

Bourdain’s death came three days after fashion designer Kate Spade committed suicide 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.

 

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.

 

He mixed a coarseness and whimsical sense of adventurousness, true to the rock ‘n’ roll music he loved.

 

“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.

 

Besides showcasing food, a “Parts Unknown” trip to Japan in the series’ first season 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, Vietnam, 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 others. If you don’t make television like that, it’s pandering.”

 

The American chef, author and television personality 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.

 

Bourdain said his youth was punctuated by drug use and he dropped out of Vassar 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 Brasserie 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 culture is a remarkable and admittedly 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 people are less suited to be suddenly thrown into the public eye than chefs.”

 

Bourdain’s introduction to “Kitchen Confidential: Insider’s Edition” was scrawled in his own hand in block letters – offering the sense of making it personal right away.

 

He wrote of the difficulty of long hours, hard work and poor pay, and said that one of the side benefits of his success was the ability to pay the rent. Yet there was more than a sense of wistfulness about times gone by.

 

CNN is currently airing the 11th season of “Parts Unknown,” and Bourdain was in France shooting an episode for the 12th season. CNN said it has not made a decision yet on whether it will proceed with the current season

 

Bourdain was twice divorced and has a daughter from his second marriage. Funeral arrangements were not immediately available.

 

 
…