The Emmys Make One of Anthony Bourdain’s Dreams Come True Three Months After His Death

In the three months since his death back in June, the conversation about Anthony Bourdain has never stopped, and, if anything, the celebration of his memory as a chef and the host of shows such as CNN’s Parts Unknown just keeps on going. Proof of that are the posthmous awards that were just given to him during the Creative Arts Emmy Awards on Sunday, Sept. 9. 

During the event, Anthony was the recipient of the award for Outstanding Writing for a Nonfiction Program for Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown, which also took home the prize in the technical categories of picture editing, sound editing, and sound mixing, while the webisodes from the show were awarded Oustanding Short Form Nonfiction or Reality Series. 

When his name was announced for the writing award, his producer, Lydia Tenaglia, accepted in his place, commenting, “Tony was nominiated for this Emmy many times, but it had always eluded him  the one he had always coveted — so it is with tremendous bittersweetness that I acept it on his behalf. He’s really off on a journey to parts unknown. We wish we were there to shoot it with him, and he really would have written the hell out of that episode.” 

Anthony, whose suicide stunned pretty much everyone who knew him or watched him on television, had once commented to Business Insider, “I’m aware of my good fortune. I’m very aware of it, and I’m very aware that, because of it, people offer me things. Opportunities to do extraordinary things. The ones that are interesting to me are collaborations. I get to work with people who 10 years ago I wouldn’t have dreamed to have been able to work with. And that’s a big change professionally, and it’s something that I think about a lot. How can I creatively have fun, do some interesting stuff, not repeat myself? Have fun. Play in a creative way. I like making things.”

While speaking to EurWeb.com, Anthony was asked about what fuels his passion to find out of the way places and differents sorts of cuisines, and whether or not he would then incorporate those discoveries into his own cooking. 

“As far as the first part of the question,” he replied, in a sense capturing the essence of who he was as a person, “that’s just how I like to eat. Those are the places that make me happy, and they’re the most representative places, if you kinda want to get the flavor of what a place is really like and of who lives there. As to the second part of the question, it may come as a surprise to some that I do not incorporate those flavors that I discover or encounter around the world into my own cooking. I’m not so arrogant as to think that I can visit India for a week and then come back and cook Indian food. Just because I like sushi, doesn’t mean I can make sushi. I’ve come to well understand how many years it takes just to get sushi rice correct. It’s a discipline that takes years and years and years. So, I leave that to the experts. When I cook, I generally stick with what I know, what I’m comfortable with, and what I feel I’ve paid my dues learning, and am good at.”