Bourdain a Hypocrite With a Chef’s Knife?
Posted: November 23, 2009
(From guest blogger – Natalie)
Oh, Anthony Bourdain. The “Bad Boy” of food, the one who has eaten fresh seal slain by Inuit and laid out on a kitchen floor that looked like a bloody crime scene. You’re such a rebel with your cigarettes and booze; you’ve turned the world of celebrity chefs upside down with your wacky adventures into far flung places.
You have been developing a following from real America because you openly criticize these elitist chefs on the Food Channel. You have written in your own blog about the sanctimoniousness of chefs such as Alice Waters and the granola hippies in San Francisco.
Before you arrived in Columbus to speak this weekend you did an interview with Alive magazine spouting off about the audaciousness of the word “foodie” and openly disagreeing with the likes of Michael Pollan and Alice Waters—or, as you’ve called her, Saint Alice.
But then you just turned out to be another wimp who bailed on your conviction and on family farmers when it got too hot in the kitchen.
At your show, when I asked you what you think of self proclaimed experts like Pollan and Waters, you pandered to your audience of about 400 people and criticized modern farming practices.
When asked about the dynamic duo of the foodie movement you changed the subject to putting down the food industry for using High Fructose Corn Syrup (farmers don’t delegate where their crops go). The crowd booed … it was like the Maury Povich Show for food snobs.
I defended the corn industry, saying corn sweeteners are the same as sugar, everything in moderation. And I got more boos than a visiting football team at Ohio Stadium (minus the large crowd).
What a hypocrite. In a recent blog you publically state there is plenty to sneer about in San Francisco because the Bay is “pretty much the epicenter of so many of my most cherished aversions: political correctness, veganism, rich hippies, sanctimoniousness about food, food fetishism, animal rights terrorists, gastro-dogma, and loud locavores who actually get their produce flown in from Chino Farms in San Diego.”
In closing, I have this to say to the so-called Bad Boy: if you say something, stick to it. Don’t pander to the audience and become the sell out that you claim Rachel Ray is now.
By setting out on a tour of the United States and speaking to crowds for about, oh, 20 minutes for $50.00 to $100.00 dollars a seat makes me think that you’re a sellout.
As for the blogger who attended Bourdain’s show and later called me a “dolt from the corn industry.” I represent family farmers, the same folks who feed you with little regard for you ignorance and arrogance.
Miss K Said,
November 23, 2009 @ 4:13 pm
I had to get out of it because to these people talking about food is as controversial as talking about religion. And they’re following the likes of Michael Pollan who is a journalism professor, not a scientist, veterinarian or a nutritionist. What has this world come to when these people are exalted as food gods??
DonEWG Said,
November 24, 2009 @ 9:42 am
“farmers don’t delegate where their crops go”
Maybe heavily subsidized big grain operations that sell to agribussiness don’t know where their product goes, but there are plenty of farmers out there selling directly to local markets and restaurants.
BobT Said,
November 24, 2009 @ 12:41 pm
I confess I’m entertained by Bourdain and often follow his steps when traveling to new places. But you nail him on the pandering point. “Dolt?” I’ve not thought of you that way Mark. Thanks for stepping up and asking the tough questions.
Natalie Said,
November 25, 2009 @ 7:10 am
Bob–I proudly wear the name badge of Dolt as it was my story
Don–We are talking about field corn, mostly fed to livestock, not sweet corn. Sweet corn is only about 1 percent of then nation’s corn. It is very good at farm markets! Yum! Nice and naturally sweet.
Rachel Said,
November 28, 2009 @ 11:21 pm
I was at the Anthony Bourdain appearance in Columbus and feel a need to correct a few facts you misrepresented.
1) Mr. Bourdain spoke for 60 minutes and then took 60 minutes of questions. That’s a fairly generous evening for an author/celebrity talk.
2) The representative of the Corn association who asked a question was clearly female. Either the listed author is incorrectly identified as Mark or someone named Mark is representing second hand knowledge as witnessed observations.
3) Mr. Bourdain, when asked your leading question, said that he prefers a middle ground between whole foods high roaders like Pollan and Waters and your association promoting high fructose corn syrup.
4) Mr. Bourdain was 100% correct in disputing the assertion that HFCS and sugar are the same. They are not. HFCS is defined as liquid, sugar is solid. HFCS is made with chemical enzymatic processes, sugar is made by dehydrating and milling physical processes. HFCS has been linked to increased rates of obesity in comparison with sugar. Wikipedia and review of scientific journals corroborate these statements.
If you hope to be taken seriously, perhaps you should start with solid reporting.
Bourdain’s Been Clipped « Cats Working Said,
December 1, 2009 @ 8:18 am
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