Anthony Bourdain Teased Anderson Cooper About His Lack Of Foodie Instincts

Anthony Bourdain had made food his life, from his time as a top chef in New York City to being the host of a food travel show for CNN, Parts Unknown. So it was always a point of amusement when he dined with his friend and co-worker Anderson Cooper, who says he doesn’t really care about food and tends to find eating to be an inconvenience.

Vulture says that Anderson Cooper has started talking about his friendship with Anthony Bourdain two months after the chef’s tragic suicide in France, while he was on location filming his food travel series. Other friends and co-workers say that Bourdain and Cooper had a good-natured relationship that included a lot of joking around and teasing, and Cooper says that his diet was Bourdain’s go-to when it came to giving the CNN host a good ribbing.

Cooper explains that Bourdain found out that Cooper was trying to switch to a meal replacement shakes for all or most of his meals.

“I don’t care about food. So I’m trying to replace all food with this because it would be, like, three fewer decisions in a day.”

Bourdain couldn’t imagine a situation in which he would ever make such a decision.

“We had lunches together and he would just look at me like I was a creature from another planet.” https://t.co/KWcdCsxUjS

— Esquire (@esquire) September 16, 2018

Cooper says that Bourdain thought this was crazy.

“[He] and I used to have lunch together, and he’d look at me like I was a creature from a different planet. Everything I thought about food was completely antithetical to his beliefs.”

Anderson Cooper teared up on-air when he spoke of Anthony Bourdain’s passing from suicide. Cooper’s own brother Carter killed himself years ago so it’s possible that this event opened up old wounds for the journalist.

“Many of you, like many of us, are feeling a whole range of emotions: shock, sadness, confusion that a man who was seemingly having the ride of his life in the middle of his life has now suddenly reached the end of his life.”

Cooper said that even though he and Anthony didn’t share a passion for food and drink, he feels like he learned a lot from the chef who traveled the world and introduced us all to a variety of different cultures.

“Anthony loved drinking and eating, tasting the delights of the world immersing himself in other cultures and countries — bringing the rest of us along on his journey.”

Cooper said on air that he can’t believe his friend is gone, and that they will never have another meeting or another talk.