Author, chef, TV host Anthony Bourdain dies at 61

Celebrated author and chef Anthony Bourdain, host of CNN's award-winning series Parts Unknown, has died in an apparent suicide, CNN reported Friday. He was 61.

"His love of great adventure, new friends, fine food and drink, and the remarkable stories of the world made him a unique storyteller," the network said in a statement. Bourdain, whom the Smithsonian once called the "the Elvis of bad boy chefs," was in France working on an episode for his show, which explored food and culture around the world, when a friend, French chef Eric Ripert, found him unresponsive in his hotel room.

Bourdain was a chef before his 2000 best-selling book Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly catapulted him to stardom. He hosted shows on the Food Network and the Travel Channel before joining CNN.

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