How do we remember Anthony Bourdain?

I’m rarely at a loss for words, as 15 years of this blog will show.

But when chef and Parts Unknown TV travel host Anthony Bourdain took his own life a year ago, I was at a total loss for words. I simply sobbed in my bedroom over the loss of one of the few celebrities I would have really liked to have had a meal with.

On the occasion of the late chef’s birthday, two of his friends who are prominent chefs, Eric Ripert and José Andrés, declared that the world should celebrate Bourdain Day with food, drink, and remembrances of Bourdain.

Washington Post food writer Tim Carman had a moving tribute to Bourdain’s memory on Friday, including that with all the wonderful things Bourdain brought us, he still suffered from terrible depression.  Carman went on to discuss his own struggles with depression:

I’ve tried to cover my depression with arrogance and anger. I’ve tried to cover it with alcohol, food, material things and work, lots of work. But none of this could change the fact that, ever since I could remember, I had no sense of personal value. I have carried this mental detritus around for decades, like a dead animal, the result of a childhood in which I was left to my own devices, untouched and unheard. It was an emotional vacuum that whispered to me, without a single word, what I was worth to those around me: nothing.

I’m telling you this because not telling you this is a sure road to destruction. I’m telling you this because I want to help destigmatize a condition that’s literally killing off people who make our world a better place. I’m telling you this because, if you’re a fellow sufferer, I hope you will find your way to a good therapist, as I have. I’m telling you this because I have so much left to give.

So Tony, my friend, rest in peace. Your death was not in vain, not to me.

In addition to Bourdain’s great writing, television and food legacy, Bourdain’s friends are using his death to help bring suicide prevention to the forefront when people would rather discuss just about anything else.

So on what would have been Anthony Bourdain’s 63rd birthday, let me just say thanks for all the funny, profane, delicious looking and deeply moving stories he told.  And let us all try to remember that we never really know the pain others suffer.