Former President Barack Obama on Friday fondly remembered CNN host and chef Anthony Bourdain, posting a photo of the two sharing a meal as part of a 2016 episode of Bourdain's show "Parts Unknown."
"He taught us about food — but more importantly, about its ability to bring us together. To make us a little less afraid of the unknown. We'll miss him," Obama wrote on Twitter, accompanying the photo, taken by his White House photographer Pete Souza.
The photo referenced a tweet from Bourdain, who died Friday while working on a future "Parts Unknown" episode in France.
Bourdain featured Obama in an episode about Hanoi, filmed in May 2016, coinciding with the then-president's first trip to Vietnam. The two ate bún chả, a dish of rice noodles with pork, broth and greens, and washed it down with beer while chatting about everything from Obama's childhood in Hawaii and Indonesia, to whether ketchup should go on hot dogs.
Obama's appearance with Bourdain was one of the many ways he sought to reach new audiences through pop culture and media during his presidency.
Souza also honored Bourdain on Friday, remembering the "energy being in his presence."
"What can I tell you about what it's like to sit across from the President of the United States and drink beer from the bottle?" Bourdain wrote about the episode in 2016. "I will sure as shit remember this trip to Vietnam. Not very long ago at all, I was a 44-year-old guy still dunking French fries with no hope of ever seeing Rome, much less Hanoi ― much less EVER sitting across from the President of the United States, talking about hot dogs."
