Andrew Zimmern Shares Beautiful Tribute to Anne Burrell

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00:00It's a privilege to be able to say a few words about this.

00:06Tuesday morning, we all woke up to the shocking news that Ann had passed away sometime in the early hours of that day.

00:14Years ago, right before our gathering here in Aspen, we lost Tony Bourdain several years later, Michael Chiarello.

00:26Last year, Jamal James Kent, and this week we lost Ann.

00:31And I know our entire community is beyond saddened, and I know a lot of people are very hurt and very confused,

00:38and I don't know how to reconcile sudden deaths myself. It's an impossibility.

00:46Ann was such a beautiful, gifted soul, a woman whose immense talent was only surpassed by the full throttle of her incredible laugh,

00:54one that I never tired of hearing.

00:58Everyone knew her from her nearly 20-year career in food television, her charitable endeavors, her community activism,

01:04her intense, passionate relationship with her beloved New York Rangers.

01:09All of it summed up by one of my favorite creations of hers, her social media hashtag, love what I do.

01:16She was a trailblazer on the Food Network, a brash, bold, loud New Yorker, and a woman who had a tremendous capacity for love.

01:25Who else could you ever imagine creating a show about worse cooks and having it celebrate such delicious food?

01:33Truly.

01:34Ann loved food.

01:37She loved food people.

01:39She loved sharing the gift of something she cooked with the folks that she loved,

01:42whether it was a meal in her home or a demo in front of thousands in a packed auditorium.

01:48A human being in the prime of life, taken from us too soon, always leaves me bewildered, a little frightened, and looking for answers.

01:56A friend passing is so difficult that I can't help but insist on trying to make some sense of it.

02:05But how can we understand something that is truly incomprehensible?

02:12And now a Jew from New York is going to quote a famous saint.

02:20Only here.

02:21But it's my favorite passage from my favorite prayer.

02:27St. Francis of Assisi, in his famous prayer, said,

02:31Grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console,

02:36to be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love,

02:40for it is in giving that we receive.

02:44And that really spoke to me today.

02:46That section of this prayer, I see it as a clarion call to action.

02:53It tells me that my job is not to look for comfort.

02:57It's not to understand.

02:59It's not to seek love.

03:02But rather to comfort, to empathize with, and to love others.

03:07We can do that collectively.

03:09When I do those things, the need for answers, the need for understanding the plague of our human grief is lessened.

03:18And I would love it if we could all carry that in our hearts this weekend,

03:21to care for our community like we never have before.

03:26This community puts a lot of weight on how much we want to care for each other.

03:34And we've done such an incredible job of it over the last 10 years.

03:37I can't think of another community that has done such an incredible job looking out for each other.

03:42But I honestly don't think we're doing enough.

03:46I just don't, when we lose someone like Ann, I don't think we're doing enough.

03:51Ann would want us to be laughing, to hunt down some late night karaoke,

03:55to dance and belly up, to eat and drink and celebrate life this weekend.

03:59And while taken from us long before we would ever want to let her go, she is gone.

04:04May her memory be a blessing to her friends, her family, her fans, and to all of those who loved her.

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