U.S. celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain, and host of CNN’s food-and-travel-focused Parts Unknown  television series, has hanged himself, CNN said on Friday, in the second high-profile suicide of a U.S. celebrity this week. He was 61.

Bourdain was found dead in a hotel room in Strasbourg, France, where he had been working on an upcoming episode of his program, a CNN representative said in a statement.

His death comes three days after American designer Kate Spade, who built a fashion empire on her signature handbags, was found dead in her New York apartment by suicide on Tuesday.

Bourdain's profile began to soar in 1999, when New Yorker magazine published his article ‘Don't Eat Before Reading This,’ which he developed into the 2000 book, Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly.

He went on to host television programmes, first on the Food Network and the Travel Channel, before joining CNN  in 2013.

“His love of great adventure, new friends, fine food and drink and the remarkable stories of the world made him a unique storyteller,” the network said in a statement on Friday. “His talents never ceased to amaze us and we will miss him very much. Our thoughts and prayers are with his daughter and family at this incredibly difficult time.”