Ashok Selvam | Eater Chicago | June 8, 2018

Anthony Bourdain felt a connection with Chicago, and many of the city’s residents are reeling on Friday morning after hearing of his death. Bourdain brought the national spotlight to Burt’s Place’s pizza in the suburbs, the South Side’s mother-in-law sandwich, and Hot Doug’s gourmet sausages. Back in 2009, when No Reservations aired its Chicago episode, he called the city “a colossus right smack in the middle of the country” with “everything that I love about a city — tall towers, hard corners, and sharp elbows. And, of course, food.”

Before trying Burt Katz’s wizardry, Bourdain described Chicago deep-dish pizza as “a concoction I’ve always strongly believed to be lasagna in a crust [more] than anything that could bear the proud name of pizza.” He later admitted that deep dish was delicious — he just struggled with calling it pizza.

While Bourdain held conflicted feelings about Chicago deep dish, he admitted that the city’s hot dogs were superior to New York’s, as Chicago serves “the finest hot dog on the planet.”

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