The TV chef Anthony Bourdain has died at the age of 61. The cable news network CNN, which hosted Bourdain’s globetrotting culinary travel guide Parts Unknown, confirmed Bourdain’s death on Friday and said it was suicide.

The CNN chief executive, Jeff Zucker, sent a note to staff saying the circumstances of the death are still unclear but that “we do know that Tony took his own life”. “Tony was an exceptional talent. A storyteller. A gifted writer. A world traveler. An adventurer. He brought something to CNN that no one else had ever brought before,” Zucker said in the letter. “This is a very, very sad day.” Bourdain was understood to have been in France working on an upcoming episode of his award-winning CNN series. His friend Eric Ripert, the French chef, found Bourdain unresponsive in his hotel room.(theguardian)…[+]