Anthony Bourdain is the host of the popular travel and food series, Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations. On the show, which has been seen for 3 seasons on the Travel Channel, Bourdain travels the world seeking the authentic experiences and foods that flavor the world's cultures. He is also the executive chef at Brasserie Les Halles.

In 2002, the Food Network broadcast a 22-part series in which Bourdain traveled the world in search of "extreme cuisine." The resulting book, A Cook's Tour: In Search of the Perfect Meal, became a bestseller in the US and the UK, and won the 2002 Guild of Food Writers Award for Food Book of the Year.

When Bourdain's exposé of New York restaurants, "Don't Eat Before Reading This," was published in The New Yorker, the article attracted huge attention in America and the UK; it formed the basis of his memoir, Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly.

In 2004, Bourdain published Les Halles Cookbook, a guide to the strategies and techniques of classic bistro cooking, all delivered in the ribald style of his earlier Kitchen Confidential and A Cook's Tour. His most recent book The Nasty Bits: Collected Varietal Cuts, Useable Trim, Scraps, and Bones (May 2006), serves up stories from his worldwide misadventures.

In addition to his food and cook books, Bourdain has also written three crime novels, Bone in the Throat (1995), Gone Bamboo (1997) and The Bobby Gold Stories (2003). He has also written an urban historical novel, Typhoid Mary (2001).

Born in New York City in 1956, Bourdain studied at Vassar College and graduated from the Culinary Institute of America. He then ran kitchens at New York City's Supper Club, One Fifth Avenue and Sullivan's. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Times of London, Gourmet, Black Book and The Independent, and he is a contributing authority for Food Arts magazine.

NOTE: Bio is as it appeared in the Forum program from May 14, 2009.