Austin Chefs React To News Of Anthony Bourdain's Death

AUSTIN, TX — As the nation awoke to news of the death of Anthony Bourdain, Austin chefs paid tribute and posted remembrances of the chef-turned-journalist who died Friday in an apparent suicide.

In his world travels as a celebrity chef, Bourdain, 61, found time to visit Austin — a city best known for its barbecue but where a dizzying array of restaurants for every conceivable palate are located. In the 2012 episode featuring Austin on Bourdain's “No Reservations” program on Travel Channel (precursor to his highly praised "Parts Unknown" series on CNN), the late chef made a stop at Franklin Barbecue — a legendary downtown Austin eatery where diners willingly wait for two hours or more in line just to get in.

Bourdain would later visit Austin again for SXSW 2016, where he engaged in a discussion at legendary venue Antone's.

Aside from helping to put the Austin culinary scene on the map, Bourdain further ingratiated himself with fans of his food knowledge, candid personality and thoughtful, culinary-underscored reflections on the myriad cities he visited.

Wu Chow and Swift Attic’s CK Chin wrote on Twitter that he “admired him as both a culinarian and as a wordsmith,” adding that Bourdain taught him to embrace what he really wanted to pursue in life. "Absolutely heartbreaking," Chow wrote. "So true that the most brilliant of us have the most persuasive demons."

Related story: Anthony Bourdain, CNN Star Chef, Dead In Apparent Suicide

Beyond his role as a culinary mentor, Bourdain made a lifelong impact on the local chef personally, Chin wrote: "@AnthonyBourdain taught me to be unapologetic about my passions and to speak freely about my beliefs," he wrote on Twitter. "His masterful use of language and eloquence quite literally turned food into poetry. His defiance against conformity remains as a benchmark in my life."

Bourdain was beloved by those in the culinary world in Austin, a city that prides itself in its abundance of world-class restaurants from barbecue to Vietnamese food. The respect and dignity he afforded myriad cultures he'd encounter also extended to marginalized workers across the culinary landscape that nonetheless represented the backbone of the industry. Such insights further buttressed the admiration many had for him, elevating Bourdain to something of a working-class hero.

“The bald fact is that the entire restaurant industry in America would close down overnight, would never recover, if current immigration laws were enforced quickly and thoroughly across the board,” Bourdain presciently told the Houston Press in 2007. “Everyone in the industry knows this. It is undeniable. I know very few chefs who’ve even heard of a U.S.-born citizen coming in the door to ask for a dishwasher, night clean-up or kitchen prep job. Until that happens, let’s at least try to be honest when discussing this issue.”

On his Tumblr account, Bourdain wrote a long essay in May 2014 that amounted to a love letter to Mexico and its people: “Despite our ridiculously hypocritical attitudes towards immigration, we demand that Mexicans cook a large percentage of the food we eat, grow the ingredients we need to make that food, clean our houses, mow our lawns, wash our dishes, look after our children. As any chef will tell you, our entire service economy—the restaurant business as we know it—in most American cities, would collapse overnight without Mexican workers," he wrote in part.

Texas Monthly Barbecue editor Daniel Vaughn described being “gutted” by the news of Bourdain's death, sharing an anecdote of how the late chef generously offered to help publish the local barbecue maven's book.

"From 2011 when we met for the first time," he said of a photo of them defiantly flashing their middle fingers to the camera. " We’ll be doing business together,' " Vaughn recalled Bourdain telling him as the two became fast friends. ” He published my book 2 years later."

"He didn’t know me from Adam, but took a chance to publish a blogger’s book on Texas BBQ and forever changed the trajectory of my life. I owe him so much," Vaughn added in a separate tweet. "I will miss him and his work."

Added La Barbecue: "We are so saddened by this news!! He was truly an inspiration!!" A tweeted message from barbecue restaurant Stiles Switch BBQ was more primal and succinct: "Heart. Soul. RIP @Bourdain."

On Instagram, Amanda Rockman of New Waterloo recalled advice Bourdain had given her that propelled her path in the culinary world. She said the advice "...altered my life forever." Expounding on the memory, she addressed Bourdain personally, even in his death: "I was visiting the CIA [Culinary Institute of America] to consider transferring from film school and I sat down next to you while you took a smoke break from filming your first episode of A Cook’s Tour," she wrote. "We started talking and you gave me some advice. That advice altered my life forever. You will be missed."

Also on Instagram, Page Pressley of Emmer & Rye thanked Bourdain for his "...work, honesty and words."

Legendary barbecue pit master John Mueller appeared with Bourdain in the "No Reservations" episode focusing on the capital city culinary scene. Mueller, currently of John Mueller Black Box Barbecue in Georgetown, in Georgetown, offered his own tribute on social media.

“Huge fan of his work," Mueller wrote. "His style of storytelling was amazing as he made you feel like you were there. When I was privileged enough to meet him he was laid back, gracious, and we had one hell of a time.”

To his fans, Bourdain was beloved not only for his palpable love of food but for his thoughtful commentary on cultures he visited for his journalistic outposts. Food was almost ancillary to his ruminations, used as metaphor to describe the cultures into which he immersed himself, always with unflagging respect and deference to his hosts. Along the way, he once described how all that world travel impacted him in life-altering ways.

"Travel isn't always pretty," he once said. "It isn't always comfortable. Sometimes it hurts, it even breaks your heart. But that's okay. The journey changes you; it should change you. It leaves marks on your memory, on your consciousness, on your heart, and on your body. You take something with you. Hopefully, you leave something good behind."

In his own penultimate tweet five days before his death, Bourdain posted a music video of a song used as part of his dispatch from Hong Kong which aired the same night. The song: "Rising Sun Blues," with a decidedly Asian flair. "THIS song from the score from tonight's Hong Kong @PartsUnknownCNN is gonna stay with me," he wrote.

Bourdain would later tell CNN's Anderson Cooper that the Hong Kong episode of his popular show was the professional highlight of his career:

News of the death of larger-than-life Bourdain took his fans, which are legion, by surprise — to many, the manner of his passing inconceivable. The telephone for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255.

>>> Photo courtesy of Craig Barritt/Getty Images for The New Yorker/Getty Images Entertainment