9. Anthony Bourdain
Anthony Bourdain is famous as the foul-mouthed world traveler of the shows No Reservations and Parts Unknown, but he when he was younger, he never imagined that he would one day be famous and respected. Bourdain candidly described his early twenties in a Reddit conversation: “I was a complete asshole. Selfish, larcenous, druggy, loud, stupid, insensitive and someone you would not want to have known . . . I would have robbed your medicine cabinet had I been invited to your house.” Also See: 10 evil birds that can easily kill you – Make sure you see this! (With Pictures)
He worked in several restaurants throughout New York in his earlier years but continued to abuse drugs and alcohol heavily. His memoir, Kitchen Confidential, deals with the topic of his drug use while working in a restaurant in Soho: “We were high all the time, sneaking off to the walk-in refrigerator at every opportunity to ‘conceptualize.’ Hardly a decision was made without drugs. Cannabis, methaqualone, cocaine, LSD, psilocybin mushrooms soaked in honey and used to sweeten tea, secobarbital, tuinal, amphetamine, codeine and, increasingly, heroin, which we’d send a Spanish-speaking busboy over to Alphabet City to get.”
His drug use became out of control and he began losing work because of it. Soon, he was struggling so badly with finances that he began to sell his possessions on the street so he could make enough money for drugs. However, after writing his memoirs at the age of 44, he experienced a rebirth in his career. He kicked drugs and started to host his various television programs and write more books. While he acknowledges that abstinence is helpful to most former substance abusers, he still enjoys a few drinks on occasion.
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8. Andrew Zimmern
Andrew Zimmern is known as the genial host of Bizarre Foods, a man no one would suspect was once a homeless junkie squatting in abandoned buildings throughout New York, but that was once what he was. He said that in his past, he was so addicted to drugs that he often resorted to stealing purses for money. He lived for a year in an abandoned building in Manhattan and often sprinkled Comet cleanser so that rats and vermin wouldn’t bother him while he slept.
Despite the constant abuse he received during his time as a homeless man, he didn’t think of anything being wrong with the way he lived until he sobered up in 1992 at the Hazeldon clinic; he continues to show his appreciation there by volunteering. Afterward, he received acclaim as the executive chef at a restaurant in Minnesota. He grew an increasingly large media presence with his show Bizarre Foods in 2006.
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