Although the popular writer, storyteller and host of CNN's Emmy-winning "Parts Unknown" was born in New York, according to his biography, Bourdain grew up in Leonia, New Jersey, and spent his summers at the Jersey shore.
Bourdain, 61, was found dead almost two weeks ago in his luxury hotel room in Kaysersberg, France, while working on an episode of "Parts Unknown." The medical examiner ruled his death a suicide.
Fans around the world were grief-stricken with news of his death, including those in New Jersey.
Camden Assemblyman Paul Moriarty wanted to find a way to honor the renowned globetrotter and proposed an official Anthony Bourdain Food Trail that would include the 10 restaurants he visited during a 2015 episode of "Parts Unknown," according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.
The proposed trail, which the state's Division of Travel and Tourism would need to establish, would include "Kubel's in Barnegat Light, Hiram's Roadstand in Fort Lee, Knife & Fork, Dock's Oyster House, Tony's Baltimore Grill, and James' Salt Water Taffy in Atlantic City, Tony and Ruth Steaks and Donkey's Place in Camden, Lucille's Country Cooking in Barnegat, and Frank's Deli in Asbury Park," the Inquirer reported.
Moriarty called Bourdain a New Jersey food icon and said the state should create a food trail as a way to honor him.
"There's no question that Anthony's road to fame was not an easy one," Moriarty said in a statement, according to the newspaper.
Credit: Mike Coppola
Credit: Mike Coppola
“Even after international fame, he never forgot his Jersey roots. Each episode, Bourdain brought his homegrown wit, charm, and sense of humanity to his viewers,” he said.
Bourdain rose to fame in the late 1990s with an article that became a bestselling, tell-all book called "Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly," which was as much a memoir as a gritty, unfiltered description of life in New York restaurant kitchens.
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