Anne Burrell, Food Network star, dies at 55 after being found ‘unconscious and unresponsive’ at NY home

BROOKLYN, NEW YORK: Food Net­work star and celebri­ty chef Anne Bur­rell has died at the age of 55. She was found “unre­spon­sive and uncon­scious” in her Brook­lyn home ear­ly Tues­day morn­ing, June 17, accord­ing to the NYPD, as per PEOPLE.

Emer­gency respon­ders con­firmed her death short­ly after arriv­ing at the scene. As author­i­ties con­tin­ue to inves­ti­gate, the cause of death remains undis­closed. The culi­nary world and heart­bro­ken fans across the inter­net are mourn­ing the unex­pect­ed loss of the renowned chef.

Anne Burrell’s family remembers her ‘boundless love’ after her death

In a heart­felt state­ment shared with Page Six, Anne Burrell’s fam­i­ly remem­bered the late chef as a “beloved wife, sis­ter, daugh­ter, step­moth­er, and friend,” not­ing that “her smile lit up every room she entered.” 

They added, “Anne’s light radi­at­ed far beyond those she knew, touch­ing mil­lions across the world. Though she is no longer with us, her warmth, spir­it, and bound­less love remain eter­nal.”

The Food Net­work also paid trib­ute to Bur­rell in a sep­a­rate state­ment, hon­or­ing her as both a remark­able per­son and culi­nary force. “We are deeply sad­dened to share the news that beloved chef, Anne Bur­rell, passed away this morn­ing.”

They con­tin­ued, “Anne was a remark­able per­son and culi­nary tal­ent – teach­ing, com­pet­ing and always shar­ing the impor­tance of food in her life and the joy that a deli­cious meal can bring. Our thoughts are with Anne’s fam­i­ly, friends and fans dur­ing this time of tremen­dous loss.”

Who was Anne Burrell?

Anne Bur­rell mar­ried Stu­art Clax­ton in Octo­ber 2021 in an inti­mate cer­e­mo­ny held at her home in Cazen­ovia, her home­town in upstate New York. In addi­tion to being a devot­ed wife, Bur­rell also embraced the role of step­moth­er to Claxton’s son, Javier. 

Bur­rell, who is known for her bold per­son­al­i­ty and culi­nary exper­tise, had pre­vi­ous­ly been in a rela­tion­ship with a woman, open­ly shar­ing her life beyond the kitchen.

Her jour­ney into the culi­nary world began after earn­ing degrees in Eng­lish and com­mu­ni­ca­tion from Can­i­sius Col­lege. She lat­er pur­sued her true pas­sion, grad­u­at­ing from the Culi­nary Insti­tute of Amer­i­ca in 1997, fol­lowed by a year of train­ing in Italy at the Ital­ian Culi­nary Insti­tute for For­eign­ers. 

For­eign­ers. 

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Chef Anne Bur­rell attends CQ3 The Harlem Renais­sance With DJ D‑Nice pre­sent­ed by The Apol­lo on March 18, 2023, in New York City (John­ny Nunez/WireImage)

Bur­rell honed her skills in sev­er­al restau­rants before step­ping into the class­room as an instruc­tor at the Insti­tute of Culi­nary Edu­ca­tion.

Burrell’s tele­vi­sion career launched in 2005 when she appeared as a sous chef on ‘Iron Chef Amer­i­ca’. She gained wide­spread recog­ni­tion in 2008 with her show, ‘Secrets of a Restau­rant Chef,’ which ran for eight suc­cess­ful sea­sons. 

She went on to host ‘Worst Cooks in Amer­i­ca’ and appeared in numer­ous Food Net­work pro­grams, includ­ing ‘Chef Want­ed and Chopped’. Her lat­est appear­ance was in the culi­nary com­pe­ti­tion ‘House of Knives,’ which aired in March.

Anne Burrell’s fans remember her culinary talent after her death

Anne Bur­rell, who gar­nered mil­lions of fol­low­ers across social media, is being wide­ly remem­bered and cel­e­brat­ed online for her extra­or­di­nary culi­nary tal­ent and unfor­get­table pres­ence in the kitchen fol­low­ing her death at the age of 55.

55.

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One user wrote, “When the cook­ing net­work actu­al­ly showed us how to cook she was great! Now it’s all dumb shows hard­ly watch.”

A Face­book com­menter added, “I’m sor­ry to hear that but sure u r open­ing a restau­rant in heav­en.” 

A heart­bro­ken fan said, “Noooooooo! I loved see­ing her cook.”

A user explained, “I am ter­ri­bly sor­ry to hear this vibrant woman is no longer with us. I remem­ber meet­ing her in Buf­fa­lo in our younger years at a friend’s par­ty and talk­ing veg­e­tar­i­an chili recipes with her. She was great to talk to with great ener­gy. My con­do­lences to her friends and fam­i­ly.” A shocked fan ques­tioned, “WHAT????” 

One more fan remem­bered, “Her voice is in my head every time I step in front of my stove. “Brown food tastes GOOOD!, salt your pas­ta water like the ocean, thank you for com­ing (to the smashed gar­lic), salt and pep­per aren’t mar­ried. They’re just dating”…and the list goes on and on. I’ll hear her voice every time I’m in the kitchen! Thank you Anne! RIP…” 

One more per­son wrote, “This is ter­ri­ble!! She was a great instruc­tor and helped me learn the basics through tv. What an incred­i­ble light she was! The world is a bit dim­mer.”