Close friends of late chef and Food Network star Anne Burrell are in shock and disbelief that the charismatic gourmand ended her life.
The “Worst Cooks In America” star’s death was ruled a suicide due to acute intoxication from a combination of drugs according to the New York City medical examiner’s office.
Sources close to the 55-year-old chef and cookbook author, survived by husband Stuart Claxton, say she was in great spirits just hours earlier.
“She looked like she was having the time of her life at Improv,” a source close to Burrell told The Post, trying to make sense of her sudden passing.
“Who knows what happened after that. It’s all sort of puzzling. She lived life. She was not a downer – she lived. For her, everyday was a party in Anne’s world. She lived every day. Everyone was shocked. There was no one that was like, ‘the last time I saw Anne she was in the gutter.’
And friends acknowledge the spiky haired chef partied hard, but feel she may have made a spur-of the moment decision while inebriated which she’d never make otherwise, leading to tragedy.
“For it to be the night of the performance [doesn’t make sense]. She nailed it. She was on Cloud 9. She couldn’t wait for it. It was such a moment,” the source added.
Burrell was found unresponsive in her Brooklyn home on June, 17, with diphenhydramine (commonly sold as Benadryl) ethanol (alcohol), cetirizine (allergy medicine) and amphetamine in her system.
It is not clear if Burrell had a prescription for an amphetamine-based medication, or she had taken a street drug containing the stimulant.
She was “discovered in the shower unconscious and unresponsive surrounded by approximately (100) assorted pills,” according to a police report cited by the New York Times.
Weeks before her death, Burrell appeared to be relishing the excitement of her new project, sharing a selfie with a group of her improvised comedy friends and another selfie inside an improv studio in Brooklyn, teasing her June 16 show.
“Soooooo… as I have mentioned I have been taking Improv classes @thesecondcitytc and having an ABSOLUTE blast!!!” she wrote.
“She was having so much fun with this group of new friends. Anne just loved making friends. She put herself out there. Everywhere she goes, she’d make friends. She loved the party, she loved being around people, she loved entertaining,” the first source said.
Phil Casaceli, Burrell’s former business partner at Phil and Anne’s Good Time Lounge, the restaurant the pair ran together from May, 2017 to April, 2018 in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn told The Post he was also shaken by the news.
“I was like, ‘No way. I don’t believe it.’ It doesn’t all make sense. She goes out, she has a great night. I don’t believe it,” Casaceli said.
“That [the drugs] with alcohol – to me it just seems like an accidental thing. To me, it just doesn’t add up. She was always smiling.”
Burrell’s final season of “Worst Cooks in America” premiered on the Food Network last Monday, July 28, just weeks after her tragic passing.
The Food Network paid tribute to the Cazenovia, New York, native in the final moments of the episode with an “In Memoriam” flashing on the screen along with Burrell’s photo and name.
The network also included a Public Service Announcement for a crisis line for those suffering and in need of help.
A third source close to Burrell told The Post they wondered if the chef’s tragic decision could have been made on an impulse.
“Maybe she never thought about it [suicide] before, and decided to take all the pills in the cabinet [that night].
I knew Anne, she partied. Maybe if she made it through the night, and got her stomach pumped [she would have been okay],” the third source said.
A fourth source, a friend of Burrell’s, previously told Page Six: “I know she kind of struggled — once she was on TV and was on her way to be a TV celebrity chef,” the friend told Page Six shortly after the chef’s passing.
“She was famous, she was doing the food and wine circuit stuff. She was busy — I kind of felt like she wasn’t totally happy,” the friend added to Page Six. “People with big personalities sometimes mask things.”
If you are struggling with suicidal thoughts or are experiencing a mental health crisis and live in New York City, you can call 888-NYC-WELL for free and confidential crisis counseling. If you live outside the five boroughs, you can dial 988 to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline or go to SuicidePreventionLifeline.org.
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