Chef Duff Goldman reveals complex relationship with Anne Burrell after her death at 55

Chef Duff Goldman is honoring the late Anne Burrell.The pastry chef, 50, penned a touching tribute to the cook after she was found dead at her home on Tuesday at age 55.“I’ve written and re-written this post so many times in the past 24 hours and I just don’t know what to say.

Anne and I became friends in probably 2006,” Goldman wrote via Instagram on Thursday.“She was going through some stuff and I had heard that she was feeling it so on a trip to NYC from Baltimore I had made her a cake that said ‘Don’t let the bastards win.’ She never did.”Despite their friendship having its ups and downs since meeting in the mid-2000s, the TV personality always wished his fellow kitchen connoisseur well.“We had a complex relationship and I remember the last conversation we had before our paths drifted was a pretty feisty debate about the merits of catfish.

I believe the words “trash fish,” “tastes like mud,” and “cake boy” were used, haha,” Goldman continued.“Anne and I always had a spirited and somewhat acerbic back and forth.

I really never knew why our paths drifted but I always hoped that wherever she was, Anne was doing well and was finding some happiness.”The pair ran into one another a few years back in New York City and had a chance to speak.Although Goldman didn’t disclose what he and Burrell talked about, he did write that “that conversation left my heart lifted and full of light, for it truly seemed to me that Anne really had found a measure of happiness and love.

Life is tough, and we have to be tough to get through it.”Goldman added, “Anne was as tough as they come, but when you got past the armor there was a depth of compassion and kindness that was absolutely beautiful.My heart sings when I think of the love and tranquility that it seems Anne had found recently.”Burrell tied the knot with Stuart Claxton in 2021 and stepped away from hosting “Worst Cooks in America” in 2024 after 14 seasons on air.

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