Joshua Ozersky Drowned After a Seizure, Autopsy Shows

Credit...Darren Abate/Associated Press

Joshua Ozersky, the food writer who died suddenly on May 4, drowned in the shower in his room at the Conrad Chicago hotel, according to final autopsy results from the Cook County, Ill., medical examiner.

The drowning took place during a seizure, said Frank Shuftan, a spokesman for the medical examiner’s office. Mr. Ozersky was 47 and had been taking medication for epilepsy since childhood, said his widow, Danit Lidor.

Mr. Ozersky had spent the night of May 3 dining, drinking and singing karaoke with food-world colleagues, thousands of whom had gathered in Chicago for the James Beard Awards ceremony the following day. News of Mr. Ozersky’s death spread through the black-tie crowd during the awards.

Mr. Ozersky was born in Miami and first leaned toward an academic career, but his love of food drew him to New York City in the 1990s, where he began writing the opinionated, unapologetic, passionate columns that made him one of the best-known food writers in the country. At the time of his death, he was the restaurant editor for Esquire magazine.