Before his death, Anthony Bourdain discussed the meaning of life and performed an ancient “death ritual” with director Darren Aronofsky while filming the finale of “Parts Unknown.”
The episode, which aired on CNN Sunday, tracked Bourdain and the “Black Swan” director during a journey through Bhutan in South Asia. The renowned chef, also a Buddhist, touched on the country’s relationship with death in one scene, where a man tells Bourdain Buddhism implores its followers “not to take things too seriously. This is, in fact, an illusion.”
“It is considered enlightening and therapeutic to think about death for a few minutes a day,” he added, while narrating a shot overlooking a Bhutanese mountain range.
Aronofsky, writing about his friend for CNN, said a “death ritual” scene filmed for the episode was “ironic,” even considering it was shot six months before Bourdain’s suicide.
“It seems ironic now that on our last day of shooting we performed a Bhutanese death ritual,” said Aronofsky. “We debated the fate of the country, the fate of the world. He was perplexed as to how mankind’s endless hunger to consume could be curtailed. ‘Don’t we all want flat screen TV’s?’ he asked.”
The finale followed Bourdain and the “Black Swan” director as they mingled with goat herders and ate in Thimphu, the country’s capital. Aronofsky — who told CNN he first met Bourdain by direct messaging on Twitter in 2014 — said the journey helped solidify their friendship.
“Bhutan was where I really got to know Tony,” said Aronofsky. “There, I became aware of his utter lack of vanity. He never adjusted his hair or gave a damn about makeup or a lighting setup.”
The prominent host and chef’s death at the age of 61 rocked millions of fans earlier this month. Bourdain’s body was found in in a hotel room in a Strasbourg, France, where he was shooting an episode for “Parts Unknown,” now in its 11th season.
“His death is incomprehensible. I don’t know how to process him being gone,” Aronofsky wrote of the late author and TV host.
CNN anchor Don Lemon paid homage to Bourdain before the season finale on Sunday: “Anthony Bourdain was our window to the far-flung places of our planet, but he had a way of making what was so foreign seem so familiar by the time he was done weaving his words around the story.”
Anthony Bourdain's Best TV Moments, From a Meal With Obama to a Trip to Waffle House (Videos)
"Low plastic stool, cheap but delicious noodles, cold Hanoi beer." Bourdain famously tweeted this line along with a photo of himself and President Obama hunching over a small table in Vietnam as he demonstrated the best way to slurp noodles. It's an incredible sight to see both Obama and Bourdain so at home with their worldly curiosity and feels like an image of Americans at their best.
You may know it from the documentary "Jiro Dreams Of Sushi," but Bourdain got to the best sushi in the world first. In this clip he makes a great case for what it is to be a master of something and the importance of respecting someone else's values by eating something the way it was served. That means no soy sauce and no wasabi, just total faith that what you're about to eat will already taste like perfection.
Bourdain was known as a "rock star" chef for how he approached life with reckless abandon. So it makes sense that he'd be close with a bona fide rock star in Iggy Pop. While he had a lot of great musical moments lunching with musicians such as Serj Tankian in Armenia or The Black Keys in Kansas City, his finest moment came in Miami, where he sat down for a hilariously healthy and refined meal with one of punk's legends. "What does it say about us that we're now sitting in a healthy restaurant, I just came from the gym, and we're sitting in Florida?"
Bourdain's brash personality shines through in this brief clip in which he shows a little disdain at being so well known for making a relatively simple dish like scrambled eggs. But they might be the best scrambled eggs you'll make, and it's a must try. "Isn't it nice to do something vaguely normal like cooking for yourself," he says in the video. "I feel like a human being again."
Part of Bourdain's charm was that he was unapologetic about things he didn't like and had a way with words to embody his disgust. In this amusing clip of him talking with Conan O'Brien, he recalls a depressing meal he had at an airport Johnny Rocket's that he called temporarily "soul-destroying." "We all sort of stood there silently for a second, kind of sharing this moment of perfect misery. None of us were where we wanted to be."
One of Bourdain's more amusing discoveries in plain sight was him finally venturing to a Waffle House, this one in Charleston, South Carolina. The way he describes Waffle House as an inclusive, welcoming place with a warming, inviting yellow glow feels like a beautiful, microcosm of America.
"Neither East nor West but always somewhere in the middle," Bourdain says in this 2014 episode of "Parts Unknown" where he found some unexpected bonds with an Iranian family, sitting down to a glorious Persian, home cooked meal. He went in fully knowing that American audiences might react negatively to it and hoped to break down barriers.
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Late chef, traveler and host was a man of the world — these moments define his love affair with food and culture
"Low plastic stool, cheap but delicious noodles, cold Hanoi beer." Bourdain famously tweeted this line along with a photo of himself and President Obama hunching over a small table in Vietnam as he demonstrated the best way to slurp noodles. It's an incredible sight to see both Obama and Bourdain so at home with their worldly curiosity and feels like an image of Americans at their best.
