‘RIP my friend': SoBe food fest founder shares sweet story about chef Anne Burrell
On social media, celebrities as well as fans posted tributes to the chef famous for such Food Network shows as 'Worst Cooks in America.'
'Anne was a beloved wife, sister, daughter, stepmother and friend — her smile lit up every room she entered,' her family said in a statement. '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.'
Burrell was also a fixture at the South Beach Wine & Food Festival for a number of years, hosting various events and dinners.
On Instagram, SOBEWFF's founder Lee Schrager posted a picture of the two posing together, her spiky blond hair on full display, in an undated photo.
The local businessman/foodie wrote that he was 'beyond saddened' by the news, and shared a serendipitous story about Burrell, before she hit it big on TV.
Schrager recounted introducing Burrell to Food Network's then-president Brooke Johnson at West Village hotspot Centro Vinoteca, where the rising star briefly ran the kitchen from 2007 to 2008.
'She was already on the map on 'Iron Chef,' on Mario Batali's team, but kind of in the background,' Schrager told the Miami Herald Wednesday. 'I raved about her to Brooke. Anne was bigger than life and the food was extraordinary. From there, things really took off for her and deservedly so.'
Soon after that fateful meeting, Burrell left Vinoteca due to 'numerous career commitments and a very busy schedule.' The Upstate New York native went on to host of 'Secrets of a Restaurant Chef' for nine seasons and appeared on multiple hit shows including 'The Best Thing I Ever Ate,' 'Beat Bobby Flay,' 'Chopped' and most recently, 'House of Knives.'
'She was a cooks' cook, a guys' gal, competitive like I have never seen before, a real talented broad, who is gone way way too soon,' Schrager's post continued. 'RIP my friend.'
The comments section was full of people who had the pleasure of interacting with Burrell at his annual fest that began in 1997 as the Florida Extravaganza at FIU, to raise funds for the School of Hospitality & Tourism Management.
'I'm so shook to my core. I loved chef Anne from the early days. I watched her as sous chef [on] Iron Chef and met her for the first time behind the demo stage at SOBEWFF. I'm truly saddened by this great loss.'
'She was what I looked forward to at SOBE!'
And, from the SOBEWFF account: 'Her presence on the sand and beyond will never be forgotten.'
Burrell was found 'unconscious and unresponsive' at her Brooklyn home at about 7:50 a.m., according to the New York City Police Department, and pronounced deceased on the scene. A cause of death is pending an autopsy.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
Who gets the friends in a divorce? For many, the answer stings.
In Netflix's The Four Seasons, newly divorced Nick (played by Steve Carell) goes on vacation with all his old couple friends and his new, much younger partner — only to discover that his ex stealth-booked at the resort next door so she could keep an eye on them. I mean, I didn't blame her for a second. As a divorced woman, I was miffed in the first place that the selfish ex-husband still got the friend group — for his first postdivorce vacation, no less, while the ex-wife he left was stuck flying solo. Anne should have at least 'won' the friends! Navigating the awkwardness of postdivorce friendships is something that pretty much every divorced couple has to go through. The split doesn't just involve your partner; it can also mean a reshuffling — or total loss — of a once-shared social life. So, we asked divorced people how they navigated the murky waters of post-split friendships. Who got which friends? Was there drama? Hurt feelings? And, perhaps most telling of all: What happens when one person moves on romantically? We also brought in relationship experts to help make sense of the etiquette, emotions and expectations involved when divorce changes not just your relationship status, but your entire social circle. Winning over friends postdivorce Licensed marriage and family therapist Ciara Bogdanovic says that huge friendship shifts are common post-split. 'Divorce can deeply affect a person's social circle, especially when many friendships were created as a couple,' she tells Yahoo. 'Friends may feel unsure how to navigate loyalty, awkwardness or divided alliances.' No surprise there. What does feel like a surprise to some? The pressure to choose. 'Some friends may feel like they need to 'pick a side,'' says therapist Thomas Westenholz, who specializes in emotionally focused therapy (EFT). 'Oh, I picked a side!' Kate, from Wisconsin, tells Yahoo of her friends' divorce. 'I started out as friends with one (the husband) and ended up on the other's side for life.' She had gone to college with the husband, but after he left his wife and kid and quickly remarried, Kate rallied to support her suddenly single mom friend and hasn't looked back. Erin, from Mississippi, says she's had to pick sides too. But, 'interestingly enough, over time, it's all flown back together where I'm back to being friends with both parties,' she says. 'Time really can heal. It's possible.' She says neither of the exes is hurt that she's remained friends with them both. 'I went to their daughter's wedding, and that was the first time I'd seen them in a room together in 18 years. They got along well!' Bogdanovic says the idea that friends should have to choose after a divorce is a myth. It doesn't have to be this way: As Erin's story shows, friends of a divorced couple can and do continue their friendships with both individuals. Bogdanovic advises divorced folks to 'initiate time together one-on-one' with friends post-split, to ensure they get the message that you want the friendship to continue. Licensed clinical social worker Jessica Plonchak agrees that the idea of 'who gets who' is not a healthy approach to take. 'The healthier way to handle shared friendships should include allowing both parties to acknowledge the awkwardness and give them some space to decide their comfort levels,' Plonchak says. In most cases, she notes, couple friends will gravitate more toward one person naturally, whether that's because of shared interests or overall time spent together. 'Whatever the situation is, it is important not to impose loyalty on anyone and create a sense of guilt,' Plonchak adds. 'True friendships only last when both sides show respect and maturity.' Losing friends who can't handle the change As for the person divorcing, the friendship changes 'can feel like a second layer of loss; they are grieving not only the relationship but the friendships as well,' says Bogdanovic. And if friends don't 'choose' their side, they can feel further abandoned. Renée Bauer is a divorce attorney who has seen this dynamic play out both professionally and personally. 'When I was getting divorced ... I found a lot of my friendships that were tied to my husband disappeared,' Bauer says. 'It was a lonely time.' That meant pushing herself to make new friends on her own. Ann, from Ohio, says she and her ex reverted back to their individual premarriage friend groups only, so she no longer keeps in touch with friends that originated on his side. 'His friends were mostly shit anyway,' she says. 'I should have known.' Sarah, in Canada, says that her divorce caused her to lose many friendships and even relationships with family members. She tells Yahoo that her ex 'told lots of people I cheated on him.' That was a lie, she says: 'I left him because he was verbally and mentally abusive.' After her ex accused her of cheating, their friend group approached her about it, 'and I told them my side,' Sarah says. 'Others never even asked me about it, just wrote me off as a friend. I figure those people weren't my friends in the first place.' A lot of my friendships that were tied to my husband disappearedRenée Bauer Another Sarah, in Maryland, says that when she went through a divorce, she slowly lost all of her close friendships. 'Most of my closest friends from childhood and really, really long relationships started to really wither away in the years after my divorce,' she says. 'I think it's hard for our closest people to watch us go through these huge, mega shifts.' She says she felt 'a lot of judgment from my friends who were mostly newlyweds.' Ultimately, even Sarah's closest friend 'was like, 'I don't relate to you anymore,'' she says. 'And that kind of led to my entire friend group falling apart.' She adds that her ex-husband was very outgoing and charismatic, so people tended not to look beneath the surface when it came to what ended their relationship. 'There was the outward perception that he's this nice guy, and I got the 'evil bitch ex-wife' thing, which is such a common label,' she says. When a new partner enters the chat — or the group vacation If there's one thing that can complicate postdivorce friendship dynamics, fast, it's a new partner. Of course, divorced folks are going to start dating again eventually, but sometimes it happens way faster than their friends — and certainly their ex-partner — may be comfortable with. So it's important to be sensitive, patient and err on the side of overcommunication. 'Introducing a new partner into established group dynamics can put your friends in an uncomfortable position,' says Bogdanovic. Westenholz adds that it 'can feel jarring, especially if the friend group is still adjusting to the divorce. It's not necessarily a betrayal, but it can be perceived as tone-deaf.' He advises having an open conversation with your friends ahead of time about your new partner and gauging their comfort levels about meeting this person. 'Some friends may feel forced to adjust to new dynamics they didn't sign up for,' Bogdanovic points out. 'It's helpful to give your friends a heads-up, gauge their openness and accept that not all group traditions will continue in the same way. People need time to adapt, and that's OK.' Remember: True friends will last 'Some friendships may fade' postdivorce, says Westenholz, 'but others can deepen in new, more authentic ways.' Today, Sarah in Canada is so grateful to be on the other side of her divorce and friend group transformation, despite the loss of many friendships. 'My circle is small, but oh so valuable,' she says. 'I've really had to rebuild a friend group for myself in the past few years after the fallout of all that,' Maryland Sarah says. And she's better for it. After all, the friends who find us during a period of huge transition and are able to listen, empathize and stick around, those are the ones we deserve.
Fox News
2 days ago
- Fox News
Valerie Bertinelli cries over ‘emotionally excruciating' personal struggle as she battles to stay sober
Valerie Bertinelli became emotional as she opened up about her battle to maintain her sobriety while experiencing "emotionally excruciating feelings." The 65-year-old former Food Network star, who has been sober since January 2024, recently took to Instagram to post several videos in which she candidly addressed fighting the urge to drink during a difficult time in her life. "I've been going through some really intense, uncomfortable, sad, emotionally excruciating feelings the last few days, and I want to drink. I want to numb it. I don't want to feel it," Bertinelli admitted. She continued, "But my logical mind is like, 'No, you don't want to do that. You don't want to numb it. You know what will help you feel better is to just feel the feelings. Get through to the other side. Have a good cry.' And yet, I can't cry." The "One Day at a Time" alum shared that she was also struggling with resisting indulging in unhealthy food as she dealt with her emotions. Over the past few years, Bertinelli has spoken out about her health journey and her decision to stop weighing herself. "I want to eat it away too," she said. "Like I want eat something that I know isn't necessarily going to put a lot of vitamins and minerals and fiber and protein into my body. The things that my body needs. Because I just want to numb these f---ed-up feelings." "So you know what I'm gonna do?" Bertinelli told her followers in another clip. "I'm going to come on the internet and slice a watermelon because I love watermelon." "It's watermelon season, and a watermelon will make me feel better, but it won't make me numb my feelings," she added as she teared up. The two-time Emmy Award winner proceeded to set a watermelon on a cutting board and began carving the fruit. "Slice the watermelon with me, OK?" Bertinelli told her fans. "We're going to eat watermelon, but I'm not eating too many feelings." "I'm going to feel my feelings while I slice the watermelon," she added with a laugh. In a follow-up video, Bertinelli began to cry as she sliced the watermelon. "It's gonna taste really good," she said as she displayed the watermelon which she cut in half. "This is my favorite time of year. It's watermelon season." Bertinelli emphasized the importance of facing painful emotions in a subsequent clip. "I have these feelings," she said. "I'm not going to talk about why I have them, where they came from, but I do want to talk about feelings and how when we suppress them, when we numb them, it only makes them stronger." "And it doesn't make us feel better about ourselves," she continued. "What happens is when we numb them, we feel bad about what we've done to numb the feelings. So then that adds on to whatever shame that we may have about those feelings. And it just adds an extra layer of shame, which is what we don't want. We just wanna be, like if we're sad, we just wanna to be sad. We just want to be sad." Bertinelli explained that choosing to eat healthy food like watermelons made her "happy." "Because it tastes so good and it's got vitamins and water and fiber and minerals," Bertinelli said. "And I'm not numbing my feelings," she said while continuing to cry. "I just know that I feel sad and it's just a feeling. It'll pass. Because I'm strong, and I'm good. I just happen to feel sad right now, and I'll get through it, and so can you. We don't have to drink alcohol or eat food to numb feelings that we just need to feel, so that these feelings can then feel heard." "Feelings are information," Bertinelli continued in the last video of her slideshow. "So now, every time I want to wallow in my sadness, which I don't want to do — I'm just going to have a bite of watermelon and ask my feelings what they want to tell me," she said as she lifted up a container of sliced watermelon. "Hope this was helpful," the actress concluded with a laugh. Bertinelli reiterated her message in the caption of her post, writing, "Feel your feelings. Do your best not to numb them. Feelings are information. Ask them what they need. Feel them. Get to the other side." In a follow-up post, Bertinelli shared a more cheerful update as she expressed her gratitude to her followers for their support. She noted how she felt less alone after fans posted their own stories of struggling with painful feelings in the comments. "Hey, just a quick thank you," the TV personality said with a smile. "I sometimes am incredibly surprised and reminded and and being reminded of how many amazing people there are out there So I just wanted to say thank you and thank you for sharing with each other in my comments section, supporting each other, supporting me. I support you." "It's just a really great feeling when you don't feel alone in feeling something," she continued. "And I ended up eating the whole watermelon that day and I'm not ashamed of that," Bertinelli added with a laugh. "Because I still felt all my feelings. I got to the other side and I'm in a better place and I am just grateful." "And even for those of you that wrote how offended you were, you know that you don't have to actually watch my videos and you don't have to comment that you can just keep going. It's OK. I'm not going to disturb your world if you don't want me to, but to all the rest of you, thank you. I just love that we're doing all this together."
UPI
3 days ago
- UPI
Trisha Yearwood talks 16th studio album, performs on 'Today'
July 18 (UPI) -- Trisha Yearwood is back with new music. She released her 16th studio album, The Mirror, on Friday, and took to the Today City Concert stage to perform such songs as her new track "Bringing the Angels" and her 1991 hit "She's in Love with the Boy." Yearwood, 60, shared that she co-wrote each of the 15 songs on her new album. "It took some friends of mine who are great writers to say, 'You are a writer and we're gonna write,' and they really just kept at me to write and here we are," she said. "I've made an incredible career of singing other people's songs," she added. "...It just feels like when you write them yourself, there's another layer and it's that you have to be a certain kind of vulnerable to do that... And I know I couldn't have done that earlier in my career." In March, she was memorialized with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She is also known for her Food Network show, Trisha's Southern Kitchen. Trisha Yearwood performs live on NBC's 'Today'
