On June 8 of this year, Anthony Bourdain tragically took his life, making the world just a little bit darker with his presence. The host of CNN's Parts Unknown, but a writer, artist and philosopher at heart, Bourdain had battled with addiction and his mental health throughout his life, and on this occasion, at the age of just 51, Bourdain lost this battle.
Since his body was discovered in a French hotel room while he was out filming for his show, names from all over the world and from several walks of life have stepped up to offer their own tribute to the celebrity chef. Josh Homme, the lead singer from Queens of the Stone Age, recounted a story involving Bourdain and his daughter.
That, of course, was just one example.
Of course, although his lost was keenly felt across the world, there are few people who feel the agony more intensely than Bourdain's wife, Ottavia Busia, and her daughter with Bourdain, Ariane. Busia and Bourdain got married in 2007 but separated in 2016, and although Bourdain may have spent his final days with the actress Asia Argento, the pair were still legally married.
"My wife and I live, have lived, very separate lives for years," Bourdain explained to People at the time of their split. "There’s no drama here. We get along really, really well and it’s not a big lifestyle change happening here."
Busia paid tribute to Bourdain shortly after his death with a photo of their Ariane performing onstage with her band in New York. "Our little girl had her concert today. She was amazing. So strong and brave. She wore the boots you bought her, I hope you are having a good trip, wherever you are." wrote Busia in a heartbreaking post, and four months on, she's paid another tribute to her late husband in an Instagram post.
The photo, taken from Bourdain's 2016 cookbook Appetites, shows Bourdain and Busia with their daughter Ariane, who is now 11 years old. Alongside them sat chef Eric Ripert, who was traveling in France with Bourdain at the time of his suicide. A few other friends, including producer Helen Cho, joined in with the festivities.
Ottavia Busia, a mixed martial artist by trade, posted the photo of Bourdain in the epicentre of a busy dinner on Instragram this week, with the simple caption: "The Manson Family Dinner." That caption certainly helps to capture the manic nature of what's going on in this picture, and many of Bourdain's closest and dearest paid tribute to the picture, not least the man sitting in the centre of it.
"This was one of the weirdest, sweatiest days of my working life," recalled Laurie Woolever, Bourdain’s coauthor on Appetites as well as his longtime assistant. Busia's post was actually a repost from Big Gay Ice Cream, whose founders Bryan Petroff and Douglas Quint were close friends of Bourdain.
In their original Instagram post, they added to the photo with more behind-the-scenes footage, and captioned the post: "Gone four months today."
