When celebrity chef, author and world traveler Anthony Bourdain died by suicide in 2018, fans were shocked. But many of the 91 friends, coworkers and colleagues interviewed in the compelling Bourdain: The Definitive Oral Biography share riveting tales of how his life always gravitated toward extreme highs and lows. "He became this great cultural anthropologist whom everyone so loved," said Lydia Tenaglia, Bourdain's TV producer for more than two decades. "But fundamentally he was like a teenage boy with his emotional development."
Laurie Woolever, who was Bourdain's assistant for nearly a decade and co-authored Appetites: A Cookbook and World Travel: An Irreverent Guide with him, admirably pieces together Bourdain's private and professional life with input from his mother, two ex-wives, daughter, brother, publishers, and the producers, writers and technicians on his TV shows. The main person missing from this tapestry is Asia Argento, the Italian actress Bourdain fell in love with, and for whom he left his wife and began alienating friends. His suicide followed a tabloid frenzy suggesting she was cheating on him. She's not interviewed, but numerous friends and colleagues feel his obsession with her was his downfall.
One of the book's most fascinating chapters details the writing and publication of Kitchen Confidential, his frank and profane memoir, which changed his life, brought him fame and magnified his best and worst traits. Although those interviewed are mainly friends and family, this oral biography doesn't shy away from examining Bourdain's loneliness, addictions, abrasive nature and bouts of depression. This is an outstanding and illuminating biography of a complex man plagued with many demons. --Kevin Howell, independent reviewer and marketing consultant