Posted by Adam Kuban, March 11, 2008 at 9:35 AM
Gothamist interviews Village Voice restaurant critic Robert Sietsema just ahead of his Choice Eats food festival tonight:
You recently wrote a cover story for the Voice about how bogus Iron Chef is. What are some of the responses you’ve gotten to that article? I was delighted by the responses, especially the thoughtful flames—but some flamers went off their nut, either because they really love the Iron Chef, or because they have a vested (and often undisguised) interest in the show or the network. The funniest responses came from crybaby Iron Chef judges.... I approached the taping as an interested occasional watcher of the show, and I really assumed it was some sort of contest, no matter how manipulated. The argument that everyone knows TV is fake doesn’t hold water. What would you say if you learned every NBA game was fixed, and that the players had carefully rehearsed the sequence of plays—including ball turnovers—according to a script?
Related: Iron Cheffing (and Judging) Are Legit (If Imperfect)
Posted by Adam Kuban, January 29, 2007 at 2:45 PM
All-things-NYC blog Gothamist interviews rock star and food columnist Alex Kapranos of Franz Ferdinand:
It seems as though a lot of chefs fancy themselves to be rock stars. Do a lot of rock stars harbor secret desires to become chefs?
There are personality traits common to people in both- disregard for conventional life, a desire to travel, swollen egos, tendency to alcohol and substance abuse. More chefs consciously behave like rock stars than rock stars behave like chefs, but that's because most guys in bands don't think about food much. Eating is something they have to do between the important stuff, similar to pissing or throwing up.
Having said that, because any vagrant can get a job in a kitchen, a lot of rockers have worked in catering at least once in their scabrous lives. Success changes a few of them, though - three or four platinum albums down the line, they think they are connoisseurs of fine cuisine and wine. I'm not under that illusion. I might write about food, but that doesn't mean I know sod all about it.
Mr. Kapranos's Sound Bites columns, which appeared in the UK's Guardian newspaper until August of last year, have recently been collected into a book of the same name
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