Erin Jensen and Jayme Deerwester
USA TODAY
Published 7:10 p.m. UTC Jun 22, 2018
Anthony Bourdain did not have narcotics in his system at the time of his death earlier this month in France
Christian de Rocquigny, the public prosecutor who is overseeing the investigation, confirmed the result of his toxicology report to USA TODAY. (The New York Times was the first outlet to report the news about his toxicology report.)
CNN reported on June 8 that Bourdain’s friend chef Eric Ripert found him unresponsive in his hotel room in Kaysersberg, located in the eastern region of Alsace, close to the German border. Bourdain, 61, was there shooting footage for his CNN show “Parts Unknown.”
De Rocquigny had previously confirmed to theTimes and People magazine that the cause of death was suicide by hanging.
In addition to the absence of narcotics, the Times reports “a nonnarcotic medicine in a therapeutic dose” was present, according to de Rocquigny .
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Bourdain was born in New York and raised in New Jersey, graduated from the Culinary Institute of America and rose to nationwide prominence as executive chef at New York’s Brasserie Les Halles.
He was also frank about his past heroin use and the prevalence of substance-abuse issues in the culinary world. He would go on to discuss these issues on “Parts Unknown,” covering the impact of the drug trade on Mexico in a Season 3 episode and the opioid epidemic during a Season 4 installment set Massachusetts.
Bourdain began transitioning into the second phase of his career, turning a 1999 New Yorker story called “Don’t Eat This” into the best-selling book “Kitchen Confidential,” offering foodies a glimpse at what goes on behind the doors of their favorite restaurants and insider tips, like why they should never order fish on a Monday (when it was least likely to be fresh) and avoid brunch buffets (a dumping ground of leftover food from weekend dinner shifts cooked by hung-over B-team chefs).
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“Kitchen Confidential” spawned two TV series: a Food Network travelogue called “A Cook’s Tour” and a short-lived Fox sitcom based on his career and personal foibles, starring a then-up-and-coming Bradley Cooper.
Bourdain became a household name with his next series, Travel Channel’s “No Reservations,” which followed him as he traveled the world in search of life-changing culinary and cultural experiences.
The show also sometimes made him a witness to history, like in 2006 when he and his fixer found themselves trapped in Beirut as the Israel-Lebanese conflict broke out. A decade later, Bourdain and President Obama supped together at a hole-in-the-wall restaurant in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi, a meal that became known as the “noodle summit.”
“Parts Unknown” debuted on CNN in 2013.
Representatives for Bourdain and de Rocquigny did not immeditaly return USA TODAY’s request for comment.
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