. All were travel shows presented through the prism of food, but in, Bourdain — an executive chef at New York’s Brasserie Les Halles who rose to fame for his tell-all memoir— delved into topics far outside the scope of tourism as he explored far-flung places, from Myanmar to Massachusetts, Lagos to Detroit. “With [], I’m invested in every detail. It’s my story from beginning to end, and it’s very personal,” he toldin 2014 .
For example, “It looks at my road to heroin, and parallels what’s really happening in small-town New England, which is this stunning explosion of hard-core heroin use.” Other episodes unpacked real life across the globe: “When you ask [‘What’s for dinner?’] in Lebanon, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Congo — you get very surprising, nuanced, complex answers that open people up,” Bourdain explained. The series proved a hit for CNN, earning No. 1 in the Sunday 9 p.m.