FACT CHECK: Did Anthony Bourdain Tweet About Eating Bat Soup In Wuhan In 2018?
A post shared on Instagram claims to show late celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain tweeting about eating bat soup in Wuhan, China.
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Verdict: False
There is no record of Bourdain sending this tweet. It seems to be fabricated.
Fact Check:
Bourdain, a celebrity chef and TV personality known for hosting the series “No Reservations” and “Parts Unknown,” died by suicide in June 2018, according to ABC News. Now, a tweet he allegedly sent in the weeks before his death is being shared on social media.
A June 7 Instagram post shows an image of what appears to be a May 22, 2018 tweet sent at 5:40 p.m. from Bourdain’s verified Twitter account that reads, “This might be the best bat soup I ever had in my life. Someday everyone’s gonna be talking about Wuhan.”
COVID-19, the disease caused by SARS-CoV-2, was first reported in the Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019. Some people erroneously believed COVID-19 emanated from bat soup. (RELATED: Viral Image Claims To Show A Wuhan Lab With The Same Logo As The Fictional ‘Resident Evil’ Lab)
There is no evidence that Bourdain sent the tweet. It does not appear on Bourdain’s verified Twitter account, @Bourdain, nor can it be found on archived versions of his account from around the time he supposedly sent it. No such comment could be found on his other verified social media accounts either.
Check Your Fact didn’t find any evidence in media reports that Bourdain ever ate bat soup in Wuhan. The city is not listed on Lonely Planet’s article “An A-Z of places Anthony Bourdain visited around the world.” He did travel to Sichuan, China, in 2016 to film an episode of “Parts Unknown,” according to Eater.com, but did not appear to have eaten bat soup there.
Bourdain tweeted at 5:40 p.m. on May 22, 2018, but his tweet was about film director Spike Lee and the 2018 Cannes Film Festival. It is possible whoever created the fake tweet photoshopped that real tweet.
