Prosecutor: No evidence of any foul play in Anthony Bourdain’s death
Investigators carrying out toxicology tests on body of celebrity chef, who used the belt of his hotel bathrobe to take his own life
PARIS — There is no evidence of foul play or violence in celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain’s death in a French hotel room, a French prosecutor said Saturday.
The famed cook, writer and host of the CNN series “Parts Unknown” killed himself Friday in a luxury hotel in the ancient village of Kaysersberg, Christian de Rocquigny, the prosecutor of Colmar in France’s eastern Alsace region, said in a phone interview.
Rocquigny said there did not appear to be much planning in the television personality’s suicide, saying that he used the belt of his hotel bath robe to commit suicide on Friday.
“There is no element that makes us suspect that someone came into the room at any moment,” he said, adding that a medical expert had concluded that there were no signs of violence on Bourdain’s body.
Rocquigny said toxicology tests were being carried on Bourdain’s body, including urine tests, to see if the 61-year-old American took any medications or other drugs, in an effort to help his family understand if anything led him to kill himself.
Olivier Nasti, the chef and owner of Le Chambard, the luxury hotel in Kaysersberg where Bourdain took his life, paid tribute to his colleague Saturday.
“It is with great respect for the leader, the author, the TV entertainer, the visionary Anthony Bourdain that I express all my condolences to his family and to the anonymous people around the world who he made dream so much,” Nasti said in a statement Saturday.
“It is the whole family of French gastronomy that joins me, to renew our deep friendship to our bereaved American brothers,” he added.
Bourdain was Jewish. His mother Gladys (née Sacksman) was an editor at The New York Times. His father was Catholic, and Bourdain said he did not have a religious upbringing.
In a 2013 episode of his show, Bourdain took viewers to Jerusalem, Gaza, and the West Bank.
Focusing on what he called “the most contentious piece of real estate in the world,” Bourdain used the episode to reveal his own Jewish heritage: “I’ve never been in a synagogue. I don’t believe in a higher power,” he told viewers. “But that doesn’t make me any less Jewish, I don’t think.”
During the show, Bourdain puts on tefillin by the Western Wall, takes a walking tour of the Old City with famed international chef Yotam Ottolenghi, eats a meal with an American-born settler, chats with members of the first all-Palestinian race car team in Ramallah, and eats fire-roasted watermelon and other Palestinian foods in Gaza.
Bourdain notes at the episode’s onset that he “doesn’t know what to think” of Israel. “It is incredibly beautiful here,” Bourdain observes at one point. “I don’t know why I didn’t expect that.”
Although Bourdain had never been to Israel prior to making that episode, he was no stranger to the Middle East, or to politically rocky terrain. When he went to Lebanon in July 2006 to film an episode of his previous show, the Travel Channel’s “No Reservations,” he found himself in the middle of a regional conflict — the Second Lebanon War — as the Jewish state retaliated against a Hezbollah attack in northern Israel.
Bourdain watched from his hotel balcony as Israel destroyed the Beirut airport — in part to prevent the delivery of arms — which left him stranded in a war zone.
The Times of Israel Community.