HOUSTON — As condolences pour in from around the world, Anthony Bourdain’s suicide is hitting home in and around Houston.
In 2016, the chef, author, and TV host highlighted the Bayou City’s food and culture on an episode of his hit show, “Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown."
For 42 minutes, Houston’s international diversity took the spotlight on the world stage in an episode that dispelled stereotypes, including, Bourdain admitted, his own: a Bollywood-style dance in an Asian grocery store, a Pasadena quinceañera, barbecue in Acres Homes and slab car culture, to name a few.
The episode also showcased diverse families merging culinary traditions, capturing a crawfish boil with Jonathan Trinh, his wife, Sylvia, and their families in Trinh’s Pearland backyard.
“I was stunned, surprised, like, the man’s full of life,” said Trinh, reacting to news of Bourdain’s death after a colleague’s phone call Friday morning. “You never seen that coming. If you ask me, ‘Would that be a possibility?’, based on how he lived his life, that would be the furthest from anyone’s mind because he exuberated life itself.”
Trinh is the principal of Margaret Long Wisdom High School in Southwest Houston. The campus, where more than 40 languages are spoken and more than 60 percent of students are enrolled in English Language Learner classes, was featured on the show.
Trinh himself was born in Vietnam in 1967 during the war. Trinh says he “escaped” to the U.S. with his family on a makeshift boat in 1978, grew up in Houston’s Allen Parkway Village public housing complex, and served in the Marines. His wife was born in El Salvador.
“You know, there are people that have an air about them?” said Trinh on Bourdain. “He’s not.”
Trinh says chatting with Bourdain about food, travel and politics was like talking to a neighbor or friend.
“Very down to earth, very unassuming,” he said. “Now he does cuss like a sailor every two other words, but he’s just a genuine, down to earth about his view on people’s cultures, diversity, unity.”
Trinh says he believes bringing cultures together through food will be Bourdain’s legacy, as well as a first step toward a better world.
“Through the food, you understand the culture,” said Trinh. “Through the culture, you make friendships. Through the friendships, you become more tolerant.”
"Bourdain confesses right up front that he wasn't expecting Houston to be the fascinatingly diverse place he found. He'd bought into the Texas stereotypes. anticipating a populace intolerant, invariably right-wing, white, waddling between the fast-food outlet and the gun store," reported the Houston Chronicle at the time of the episode's airing.
Bourdain also appeared on KHOU’s Great Day Houston in 2015.
“I think those of us who live in cities where there are a lot of first and second-generation immigrants, they bring all of those food traditions with them,” said Bourdain, a New York City native. “That’s what’s great is we have that kind of variety.”
WATCH: Anthony Bourdain meets with Houston rapper Slim Thug for a tour of the city's custom car culture
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