Food writer Joshua Ozersky suffered seizure in shower: autopsy

A James Beard Award-winning food writer who was found dead in Chicago in early May suffered a seizure in the shower and drowned, according to results of an autopsy completed on Wednesday.

Joshua Ozersky, who was 47, was found dead in a room on the seventh floor of the Conrad Chicago Hotel, 521 N. Rush, on May 4, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office. He was pronounced dead at the scene at 11:40 a.m.

He drowned in the hotel shower after suffering a seizure, and his death was ruled an accident, the medical examiner’s office announced Wednesday. Results of a May 5 autopsy had been ruled inconclusive pending further test results.

A food writer who lived in Manhattan, Ozersky was in Chicago for the James Beard Awards, the so-called “Academy Awards of the culinary world.”

Ozersky was the former editor of New York magazine’s Grub Street food blog and author of “Colonel Sanders and the American Dream” (2012), “The Hamburger: A History” (2008) and “Meet Me In Manhattan: A Carnivore’s Guide to New York City” (2003). In October, he became editor-at-large at Esquire.