Blogger David Lay points out that Cleveland's legendary Sausage Shoppe will celebrate its 70th year 71st year tomorrow and highlights a video segment from the Cleveland episode of No Reservations. It's nice to see that the current owners—Norm Heinle, his wife, Carol, and their kids—are continuing a tradition that began with founder Hans Kirchberger. Happy anniversary, Sausage Shoppe!
Mario Batali and Tony Bourdain are a couple of champion fat chewers who know and like and respect each other a great deal, so we thought why not bring them together for the next set of Chewing the Fat episodes.
Mario Batali and Anthony Bourdain discuss what they like to order then they eat out at restaurants and the tastiest cuts of meat. What does this have to do with Paris Hilton? Watch the video to find out.
The new season of Tony's show No Reservations airs Mondays at 10 p.m. ET on the Travel Channel. Mario's show, Spain...On the Road Again, co-starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Mark Bittman, continues on PBS.
Mario Batali and Tony Bourdain are a couple of champion fat chewers who know and like and respect each other a great deal, so we thought why not bring them together for the next set of Chewing the Fat episodes.
Mario Batali and Anthony Bourdain might not agree on much, but they do agree on their ideal final bites.
The new season of Tony's show No Reservations airs Mondays at 10 p.m. ET on the Travel Channel. Mario's show, Spain...On the Road Again, co-starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Mark Bittman, continues on PBS.
Photograph courtesy of Kathryn Yu's Flickr photostream
Well, it's not like Serious Eats' Robyn Lee was a talking head on No Reservations, but you do see the back of her head on the show. FoSE Kathryn Yu captured the moment. There's Robyn in the background having lunch at Momofuku Ssam Bar.
Update: Highmtn pointed out this photo in Robyn's Flickr stream. Thanks!
Strangely appropriate, as the episode had to do with food porn, which Robyn excels at.
Bourdain talks about food porn in this blog post and in this video with David Chang, where Bourdain says:
It's anti-food in a sense. This is the thing with the food nerds—they're your most loyal followers. They spread the gospel, for sure, but ironically, in their fervor, they become ... like butterfly collectors. Instead of just appreciating the thing, it's all about acquiring it and putting it in the book.
Chang banned photography in one of his restaurants, Momofuku Ko, in June of last year.
If only the producers knew they were in the presence of food porn greatness, they could have gotten the perspective of a so-called food nerd.
This week's episode of No Reservations took place in Chicago, and except for Anthony Bourdain's jab against Chicagoans—where he said something like, “These are not small people”—it was one of the better chronicles of the Windy City’s tasty offerings. Local super-journalist and cook Louisa Chu served as Bourdain’s fixer and she definitely knows her stuff.
Reportedly, while they were here, Anthony and his crew ate at the Ramova Grill in Bridgeport, but no mention of Chicago’s supreme diner made the air. It should have. If you loved the segment on the die-hard irascible Burt Katz and his pizza at Burt’s Place, you would have loved a segment on the Ramova.
Founded in 1929, it’s the diner ideal—a place Edward Hopper, painter of Nighthawks, would have loved to be buried underneath had he known about it. Ramova is also a greasy spoon that once housed, and probably occasionally still does, greased palms, as it stands a few blocks north of the 11th Ward Democratic headquarters (the political birthplace of the Daley clan) in Bridgeport. It’s not hard to imagine old committeemen hunkered down in the high-backed wooden booths, filching swigs of coffee and plotting patronage moves under the cover of cigar smoke.
Mario Batali and Tony Bourdain are a couple of champion fat chewers who know and like and respect each other a great deal, so we thought why not bring them together for the next set of Chewing the Fat episodes.
Mario Batali and Anthony Bourdain discuss music in restaurants (a topic we've discussed with Batali before), and their own music abilities (or lack of). Batali's air guitar is not to be missed.
The new season of Tony's show No Reservations airs Mondays at 10 p.m. ET on the Travel Channel. Mario's show, Spain...On the Road Again, co-starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Mark Bittman, continues on PBS.
Mario Batali and Tony Bourdain are a couple of champion fat chewers who know and like and respect each other a great deal, so we thought why not bring them together for the next set of Chewing the Fat episodes.
Mario Batali and Anthony Bourdain discuss their four essential ingredients. What are yours?
The new season of Tony's show No Reservations airs Mondays at 10 p.m. ET on the Travel Channel. Mario's show, Spain...On the Road Again, co-starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Mark Bittman, continues on PBS.
Mario Batali and Tony Bourdain are a couple of champion fat chewers who know and like and respect each other a great deal, so we thought why not bring them together for the next set of Chewing the Fat episodes.
Bourdain talks about some of the job hazards of shooting No Reservations, like eating "the last foot of poop chute of a wart hog," served medium-rare and "seven-foot long guinea worms."
The new season of Tony's show No Reservations airs Mondays at 10 p.m. ET on the Travel Channel. Mario's show, Spain...On the Road Again, co-starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Mark Bittman, continues on PBS.
Mario Batali and Tony Bourdain are a couple of champion fat chewers who know and like and respect each other a great deal, so we thought why not bring them together for the next set of Chewing the Fat episodes.
Food and Sex: Church and State? Batali and Bourdain discuss. What say you, serious eaters? [Possibly NSFW conversation after the jump].
The new season of Tony's show No Reservations airs Mondays at 10 p.m. ET on the Travel Channel. Mario's show, Spain...On the Road Again, co-starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Mark Bittman, continues on PBS.
Mario Batali and Tony Bourdain are a couple of champion fat chewers who know and like and respect each other a great deal, so we thought why not bring them together for the next set of Chewing the Fat episodes.
So what kind of delicious eats does a dad like Tony Bourdain raise his baby daughter on? Find out in this week's webisode. We'll give you a hint: wild boar is on the menu, horse meat is not.
The new season of Tony's show No Reservations airs Mondays at 10 p.m. ET on the Travel Channel. Mario's show, Spain...On the Road Again, co-starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Mark Bittman, continues on PBS.
Mario Batali and Tony Bourdain are a couple of champion fat chewers who know and like and respect each other a great deal, so we thought why not bring them together for the next set of Chewing the Fat episodes. Over a glass of wine and some tasty nibbles Mario and Tony discuss everything from the pleasures of fatherhood to what they would eat for their last supper. They truly enjoy each other's company, and their conversation turns out to be revealing, intimate, and surprisingly moving. The first webisode finds Mario getting Tony to admit that the birth of his daughter has forever changed him.
The new season of Tony's show No Reservations begins January 5th at 10 p.m. ET on the Travel Channel, so consider these Chewing the Fat episodes to be an appetizer for that. Mario's show, Spain...On the Road Again, co-starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Mark Bittman, continues on PBS.
Thomas Colicchio, courtesy The Feed Bag, and Tony Bourdain, courtesy Michael Ruhlman's blog.
This is a toughie. Both were stud muffins in high school, but based on VFF (Voluminous Fluff Factor), we must hand it to Bourdain. That hair is just too good. Who would you have gone to the prom with?
Related
High School Anthony Bourdain Sure Had a Lot of Hair
Hair Inspirations for Young Anthony Bourdain
Meet & Eat: Tom Colicchio
When asked by the New York Post's Page Six this weekend what his food fantasy would be, Anthony Bourdain replied: "Chef Marco Pierre White and Keith Richards would be throwing something on the barbie in a backyard in Red Hook." Attendees would include, among others, silent film actress Louise Brooks (allowed to speak, presumably) along with Orson Welles and the "CIA director of counterintelligence." Interesting, Anthony.
My fantasy dinner would be held on the Massachusetts shore on a warm summer night. Mario Batali would be the ringleader, partly for the food he'd bring, but mostly because I'm quite sure he knows how to lead a Bacchanalian feast. He would also cook, of course, but the pizza would come from Di Fara. Recent (good-looking) Top Chef finalists would compete for the best hors d'oeuvres. Pouchon Fils-Aime, from the Little Chef Bakery in Princeton, New Jersey, would provide desserts. (And breakfast pastries, if the night went on long enough.) There would definitely be an In-N-Out truck stationed somewhere.
Enough—I'm getting too hungry. What would your food fantasy be?
From left: Moderator Michael Ruhlman with panelists Marco Pierre White and Anthony Bourdain in New York on Sunday, September 14.
At a roundtable discussion at the Star Chefs International Chefs Congress yesterday, Anthony Bourdain and Marco Pierre White bashed elaborate tasting menus. (Moderator Michael Ruhlman mostly stayed out of the debate, but seemed to be a quiet cheerleader). "I want two courses, not 18," White asserted, recounting a horrible experience when the chef kept sending out plates. Three and a half hours later, he had no idea what he was eating—and he wanted it to stop. "I was a fool to go with the tasting menu. All I wanted was my bill, and they said no. 'You haven't had your pudding yet, sir.' I didn't want the pudding."
Pudding is hard to turn down, but sometimes the stomach just has no real estate left. This is why multi-course tasting menus can suck. You don't know what you're eating, or you're too full to pay attention to it. By the fifteenth course, you get nervous about a delicious pastry denouement, which you'll probably have to skip because you're so full.
"It's cooking by the numbers. I get painting by the numbers, but not cooking," White said.
Clockwise from top left: Slash, Tiny Tim, Joey Ramone, Chewbacca, Janis Joplin, Robert Plant, Howard Stern, Yoko Ono. Center: Anthony Bourdain.
Related: High School Anthony Bourdain Sure Had a Lot of Hair
From left: Anthony Bourdain, Tiny Tim.
Earlier today, Michael Ruhlman uncovered photographs of Anthony Bourdain's high school hair. MenuPages Chicago's Helen Rosner clued us to a frightening similarity between Anthony Bourdain and camp '60s singer and ukulele player Tiny Tim.
Check out the mop on Bourdain's head from his Dwight Englewood high school years. Almost a year ago on Michael Ruhlman's blog, Bourdain criticized the hairdos on the Next Iron Chef America:
Ruhlman's hair is the scariest and most offensive aspect of the show. It looks like it's taking over his head! Like it's going to crawl across the table and swallow up half of Alton's face! With Andrew Knowlton's luxurious tresses bookending Donatella's lustrously flowing locks, it looks like the cast of Jesus Christ Superstar up there.
Ruhlman serves up his revenge today, and Bourdain should talk! Though he seems to visit the salon pretty regularly now, looks like he could barely get a comb through that thick forest before.
Looks like Anthony Bourdain's daughter has a more advanced palate than I do:
My one and half year old baby daughter loves olives. And caper berries. And salty parmigiano reggiano cheese. Her love of rabbits (as food) is already well established. But I discovered today that she adores polenta--served with the hot, rendered fat of roasted game birds. And that she goes absolutely bat shit over risotto made with wild nettles.
Gone are the days of apple juice and milk for toddlers, since his daughter also prefers "[a dipped] finger in the local red wine" to juice. No doubt about it, Bourdain is raising a foodie's dream child.
Want doughnuts topped with bacon or frosted and dipped in Cap'n Crunch? Then make your way to Voodoo Doughnut in Portland, Oregon. Anthony Bourdain visits the famed doughnut shop to to try their unconventional "non-conformist doughnuts" ("I kind of wish I was drunk before eating this," he says about the chocolate and peanut butter doughnut), and learn about their failed doughnut flavors, including Jägermeister and NyQuil. Watch the video, after the jump.
That Amateur Gourmet video interview with Anthony Bourdain? The bleeped bits? Damn. Strong stuff. As reported on AmGour: "On Sandra Lee: 'She should be taken to Guantanamo and waterboarded.'" And that's not even the worst of it.
As part of The FN Dish, his new online video series for the Food Network, Adam "Amateur Gourmet" Roberts interviews Anthony Bourdain, who goes on an extended rant about the network.
Tyler Florence on the dubious honor of winning Anthony Bourdain and Michael Ruhlman's "Rocco" Golden Clog award:
"I think that salacious, chef attack thing that Gordon Ramsey and Tony Bourdain do all the time is a shtick. I think people are tired of hearing it. With Tony, it's like... those who can't teach, criticize [others]. I don’t know what he does honestly."
Food critic Alan Richman, blogging for GQ, totally dogs Les Halles, the restaurant many food TV fans know as Anthony Bourdain's joint. (Bourdain consults for Les Halles as "chef-at-large.") Says Richman:
What's more appalling than the food or even the absurd title of Chef-at-Large is that the smirking Bourdain has somehow become the de facto public face of the restaurant industry. It's as if Steven Seagal had been named president of the Screen Actors Guild.
The review is unusually harsh, from seating to dessert, and one can't help but wonder if it's payback for the Golden Clog award that Bourdain and Michael Ruhlman bestowed upon Richman last month. Why Les Halles? Why now?
I just mentioned Bourdain in an earlier post as being one of Serious Eats's favorites. Here's just one reason why. From his Travel Channel blog:
Currently, wading through the submissions for the Travel with Tony thing—an often terrifying task. Just started in—but so far it’s like choosing between John Wayne Gacy, Linda Kasabian, or Robyn Miller. So many people seem to be videoing themselves from a cellar apartment—a suspicious-looking chest freezer in the background. Posters of Taxi Driver and multiple copies of Catcher in the Rye. Empty tubes of airplane glue. A plastic tarpaulin rolled up against wood paneling … So many candidates seem to want to take me to rural areas in the Pacific Northwest. The words “drainage culvert” and “wooded area” keep coming up. And I’m supposed to TRAVEL with one of these people? I’m demanding a full background check, polygraph…and a Minnesota Multi-Phasic Personality test—along with the usual Rorsach
Since we know Serious Eats readers are not homicidal Dungeon Master basement dwellers, maybe we can help Bourdain out here by mentioning to our fair audience that the Travel with Tony contest (it's exactly what it sounds like, folks) is open to video-entry submissions until March 15.
Anthony Bourdain was interviewed by Google executive chef Nate Keller at Google headquarters on November 20, 2007, as part of the Authors@Google series. 55 minutes! Video after the jump.
Our friends at Eater San Francisco live-blogged the Golden Clog Awards. We are sure Anthony Bourdain and Michael Ruhlman were sufficiently inebriated (even in the daytime) to make the whole affair more than a little amusing. Some of the high-lowlights:
The Fergus Award for "greatest achievement in pork and guts" went to David Chang of Momfuku fame.
The Rocco for "worst career move" went to Tyler Florence for "Applebee's, Applebee's, Applebee's."
Ina Garten won The Alton, for "being on the Food Network and yet, somehow, managing to not suck."
In this clip from No Reservations, Anthony Bourdain interviews Eric Ripert after both of them having worked a dinner shift on the line at Les Halles. [via Eater]
Video after the jump.
The nominees for the inaugural Golden Clog Awards were announced on Eater today. The Golden Clogs were created by Anthony Bourdain and Michael Ruhlman to honor, dishonor, or skewer various people in the food biz. (Full disclosure: I served on their informal board of advisers, suggesting a couple of awards; they took me up on one. In no way did I get to vet any aspect of the Golden Clogs, be it the awards themselves, the award descriptions, or the nominees.)
The nomination and awards language can be described as more than slightly wicked and vicious, and is entirely Bourdain and Ruhlman's. I have taken the liberty of taking out an award or two that I found particularly objectionable. I am fairly certain that Bourdain and Ruhlman will not be consulting me (or anyone else) before announcing the winners.
From his blog on the website of the Travel Channel, where he's currently producing episodes of No Reservations, Bourdain says:
They have nothing newer, or fresher or better - after all that time - than my first, stumbling, nascent attempts at making travel/food television? They don't have any material from anyone else - like from someone who doesn't make constant rude and obscene suggestions about their stable of "stars?" Surely they haven't reached so far down the bottom of the archives as to want ME back?!
[via Eater]
Anthony Bourdain didn't pull any punches when he was interviewed by my friend Robb Walsh on the subject of illegal immigrants working in restaurant kitchens.
"People have differing opinions on what we should do about immigration in the future. How open or how closed our borders should be. Fine. But let's be honest, at least, about who is cooking in America NOW. Who we rely on--have relied on for decades. The bald fact is that the entire restaurant industry in America would close down overnight, would never recover, if current immigration laws were enforced quickly and thoroughly across the board. Everyone in the industry knows this. It is undeniable. Illegal labor is the backbone of the service and hospitality industry--Mexican, Salvadoran and Ecuadoran in particular."
Anthony Bourdain tells Time that the worst thing he has ever eaten is fermented shark in Iceland, adding that "[Icelanders] celebrate their hardy Viking roots by eating shark that has essentially been rotted and then marinated in lactic acid for six months. There was also the warthog rectum in Namibia. Steer clear of that." On why he picks on Rachael Ray: "She genuinely offends me ... When Rachael tells you that it's perfectly OK to buy pre-chopped onion from the supermarket, I mean, how hard is it to chop an onion?"
Word is that Anthony Bourdain filmed an upcoming No Reservations holiday-themed episode with rock band Queens of the Stone Age (QOTSA). While Bourdain prepares a traditional holiday feast at his Connecticut home, QOTSA are rocking out in the basement rec room. Bourdain describes the episode:
It’s a traditional Thanksgiving/Christmas meal with turkey, all the trimmings, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie … some Christmas carols … and a vicious brother-on-brother knife fight. We spent a fair amount of time spraying stage blood onto my niece and nephew’s face. What’s a holiday special without violent mayhem? I think it’s an honest reflection of the holiday season.
Happy holidays, indeed.
[Thanks to Kathryn for the link!]
This week's episode of No Reservations follows Anthony Bourdain as he traces the footsteps of legendary French impressionist Paul Gaugin, who ditched Paris for the sun and fun (and artistic angst) of Tahiti and the Marquesas Islands. Each segment, framed by a quote from Gaugin, shows a different hop along the path from civilization to oviri (or "wild" in Tahitian). The food goes from the fusion fare of an expatriate French chef preparing to open a high-end restaurant in Papaete to amazing-looking coconut crabs on the beach in Rangiroa. That said, the star dish was the omnipresent raw fish salad that seems to be the national dish of Tahiti—poisson cru. Tony gets his first taste after a night of clubbing with Tahitian transsexuals, but the recipe crops up again and again throughout his travels.
After managing to miss the first couple of installments due to my own incompetence with the big red button on the TiVo remote, I finally got a chance to check out the latest run of No Reservations, which is billed as "Season 3, Part Deux." Having watched the previous seasons pretty much in their entirety, it was just like returning to a well-worn vinyl chair at the kitchen table of an old friend, albeit an old friend who you are incredibly envious of. I mean, why does this mook get to travel to the world's great cities, get whisked instantly to the best local spots by eager, attractive foodies, all the while having no apparent raison d'etre beyond getting smashed on free booze in every country on Earth? Is it because he's a great writer and a one-of-kind personality who it's very difficult not to like? Oh. Yeah, I guess that's it.
Take your pick: Catherine Zeta-Jones or Tony Bourdain.
On Friday, July 27, Zeta-Jones and Aaron Eckhart debut No Reservations on the big screen. Following on the heels of Ratatouille, we've got a second food-related film hitting theaters this summer. No Reservations is a remake of Mostly Martha, a German film released in 2001 that centered on an uptight chef who is forced to work on her personal life when her young niece comes to live with her. The remake, judging by the preview, looks to be a faithful adaptation of the earlier film. That bodes well, considering the original was a very charming affair. As for the chemistry between Zeta-Jones, Eckhart, and Little Miss Sunshine's Abigail Breslin—take a gander at the trailer and judge for yourself.
For a much more proven recipe, witness Bourdain globetrotting to exotic locales, eating native fare, making friends, and narrating each grand tour with his signature, self-deprecating bravado. The third season of Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations premieres on the Travel Channel on Monday, July 30 at 10 p.m. The first episode of this campaign has the chef traveling to Shanghai for a return visit to China.
For a taste of the show, you'll find a few clips on the Travel Channel website, or you can search YouTube for a sampling.
Despite the fact that it crashed and burned like a soufflé left in the oven too long, the first and only season of Kitchen Confidential makes it to DVD this week. Darren Star's half-hour riff on Anthony Bourdain's excellent memoir starred Bradley Cooper (Alias) as the stand-in for the wiry world-traveler. I don't think more than half of the 13 episodes collected here aired before Fox loudly announced "Check, please!" but if you're a glutton for a Sex-and-the-Citified sitcom where everyone wears chefs' whites, look no further than this two-disc set. Other stars include cult favorites Nicholas Brendon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) and John Francis Daley (Freaks and Geeks). Netflix at your own risk.
Okay, so Sunday's first ever Food Network Awards? Tony Bourdain thought it was a trainwreck, and so did you guys, but apparently people watched it anyway. Like, a lot of people watched it—according to Nielsen, about 4.6 million of them did. They were "the second most-watched program in the network's history. In addition, the program placed in the top 10 rated shows on the network, on both a household and P2+ rating basis. Finally, among the 18-49year old demographic, the show tied as the highest-rated telecast this year among adults 18-49 and women 18-49."
I guess I'll be waking up on a Monday morning next year waiting to read Bourdain's new rant on the Food Networks Awards 2008.
Anthony Bourdain has a new rant up over at Ruhlman, on the disaster that was the Food Network Awards:
It is a measure of how seriously crack-brained, rapacious and evil the Deep Thinkers at Food Network must be that I find myself--yet again--in deep sympathy with their stable of stars. Last night, during the breathtakingly awful, interminable cruelty that was The Food Network Awards, I even found myself feeling bad for Rachael Ray. YES, friends. Rachael Ray. If nothing else, Rachael's BIG now. Network talk show-- doing- well- in- ratings- Big. Own magazine Big. Friend-of-Oprah Big. So, how must it have felt for her to stand up there in front of what appeared to be a halfway empty room of stunned, near comatose trout and feign enthusiasm while presenting the award for "Best Appliance"?
Previously: Bourdain reviews the Food Network lineup, Bourdain on Top Chef, and our inaugural Q&A, Meat & Eat: Anthony Bourdain.
Already not a fan of the James Beard Foundation, Anthony Bourdain is pissed off at the plans they've made for this year's awards:
This year, it has been decided that in favor of bigger and swankier accommodations for the self-congratulatory nearly all-white attendees, that the cooks can take it in their collective poop-chute. At the new venue, Avery Fisher Hall, only hot boxes, induction tops, and propane burners are allowed. Reheats only! Out of town chefs with ambitions to actually cook at some point in the prep process are invited to bunk with the locals, jamming their food and staff into New York's already too-small, too crowded kitchens. It's a breathtakingly tone-deaf, dismissive move—one that will only cement the unspoken wisdom that the clueless Beardies are "outsiders"—not "one of us" at all—and completely uninterested and uncomprehending of the real world of cooks and restaurants.
The "equally horrifying episode" he goes on to describe after that is quite the doozy, so try not to read it while you've got something in your mouth that could potentially end up sprayed on your monitor.
Today marks the debut of our Q&A feature on Serious Eats. Each Friday we'll be asking various food lovers what makes them tick. Here, we're happy to have chef and author Anthony Bourdain kick off the series.
Just one week after restauranteur Jeffrey Chodorow bought a pricey full-page ad in the New York Times declaring war on food critic Frank Bruni for dissing his new steakhouse with a starless review the week before, Bruni visits Robert's Steakhouse, the restaurant of the Penthouse stripclub in Midtown and gives it a very positive one star review. Anthony Bourdain weighs in: "Maybe I'm being cynical here but the Message seems to be: "Even a freakin' strip club--where you get lap dances offered between courses is better than your soulless, overpriced meat-emporium. I'd rather spend time in a hot tub with Bob Guiccione than you!" Subtext? "Don't Fuck With Me!"
Previously: Mimi Sheraton on Chodorow VS Bruni, You Win Some, You... Get Really, Really Mad At Some?
Yesterday we linked to Michael Ruhlman's response to Anthony Bourdain's Food Network rant, today we point you both to the return of serve from New York Magazine's Josh Ozersky in defense of Rachael Ray: "We don’t think this mandarin hauteur has any intellectual basis. Aside from the fact that it is unbecoming for a privileged and educated man to sneer at his own countrypeople, even by the standards of practical gastronomy his complaint doesn’t hold water. Rachael Ray and Sandra Lee are culinary lightweights, as they would be the first to admit, but they’re a product of — and engine for — people’s love for food. (...) For an amateur, taking tips from Rachael Ray is no less legitimate than a good cook learning from Lidia Bastianich or Mario Batali. (And that’s leaving aside the class issue — Ray’s special appeal to the hard-working people who barely have the time to make meals for themselves and their families.)"
Immediately volleyed back by Nina Lalli of the Village Voice: "Our problem with her—aside, of course, from the baby talk and gufawing—is that her food doesn't just look bad, it looks dangerously fatty and in many cases, not cost efficient. If Ray's passion is for the regular, hard working families who might otherwise turn to cheap, greasy takeout, she has an opportunity—if not an obligation—to explain that buying pre-shredded cheese is barely a time-saver and a huge waste of money, or that eating that much cheese to begin with is unhealthy as well as avoidable—even on a budget."
(We've got a continuing discussion on the Food Network's personalities in Serious Eats: Talk, you can tell us whom you like best or least over there or respond to the hullaballoo in the comments here.)
Michael Ruhlman discusses the online fuss generated by Anthony Bourdain's thoughts on the Food Network's hosts: "And the passion itself—over shows you don’t even have to watch. You’ve got to listen to George Bush; you don’t have to listen to Rachael. My god people care about this stuff. But will the food network listen? Not likely. They work according to their own methods, whatever those are. They’ve made their decisions based on something, and that something has resulted in the peculiar offerings addressed in Tony’s post. Clearly they know that the way to America’s vast girth is through mediocrity."
(Who's your most/least favorite food personality on Food Channel? is still a hot topic in Serious Eats: Talk, go add your two cents if you haven't already!)
Anthony Bourdain shares his thoughts on the Newer, Younger, More Male-Oriented, More Dumb-Ass Food Network over at Ruhlman's, a few choice bits excerpted here:
On Mario Batali: "Oh, Mario! Oh great one! They shut down Molto Mario--only the smartest and best of the stand-up cooking shows."
On Rachael Ray: "We KNOW she can’t cook. She shrewdly tells us so. So...what is she selling us? Really? She’s selling us satisfaction, the smug reassurance that mediocrity is quite enough."
On Sandra Lee: "Pure evil."
(His "IRON CHEF AMERICA match-ups I’d REALLY like to see" are pretty amazing, I'd watch them even on Pay Per View!)
We've had a related question over in Talk for a few weeks, if you haven't chimed in yet now's your chance: Who's your most/least favorite food personality on Food Channel?
Guest-posting on food writer Michael Ruhlman's blog, Anthony Bourdain dishes up the short order on some of this season's Top Chef contestants. Of the remaining two:
Marcel:Is there ANYTHING this guy doesn't want to foam? So slavishly devoted to what Ferran Adria was doing TEN YEARS AGO it's....scary and sad.
Ilan: So Ilan cribs his offerings shamelessly from Andy Nusser. And he's a manipulative, conspiratorial, vindictive, weasely little shit....(Hardly impediments to a career as a chef). These are classic assets.
If you need to catch up on the show, Bravo is airing all the back episodes on Wednesday, January 31, starting at 10 a.m. ET, and ending with the season finale at 10 p.m. ET.
We love chefs who write (Tony Bourdain, Michael Ruhlman). We love restaurateurs who write (Danny Meyer). We love farmers who write (Wendell Berry, Verlyn Klinkenborg, Andy Griffin, David Mas Masumoto, and our favorite Arkansas homeboy/Slavok Zizek devotee, Ragan Sutterfield).
But we LOVE writers who happen to be all three rolled into one, and cute to boot.
Dan Barber's latest in the NY Times: Amber Fields of Bland.
Subscribe to our feeds:
Subscribe by email:
