Tuesday, July 14, 2009

SEVERAL RESERVATIONS

It seems I’m not the only one who finds Alice Waters a bit of a pill.


Here’s Anthony Bourdain speaking about her:

“I'll tell you. Alice Waters annoys the living shit out of me. We're all in the middle of a recession, like we're all going to start buying expensive organic food and running to the green market. There's something very Khmer Rouge about Alice Waters that has become unrealistic ... I'm suspicious of orthodoxy, the kind of orthodoxy when it comes to what you put in your mouth. I'm a little reluctant to admit that maybe Americans are too stupid to figure out that the food we're eating is killing us. But I don't know if it's time to send out special squads to close all the McDonald's.”

Of course once you get the idea in your head that you COULD send out special squads and close all the McDonald’s ...


And here he is on Rachel Ray:

“She's hugely influential, particularly with children. And she's endorsing Dunkin' Donuts. It's like endorsing crack for kids. I'm not a very ethical guy. I don't have a lot of principles. But somehow that seems to me over the line. Juvenile diabetes has exploded. Half of Americans don't have necks. And she's up there saying, 'Eat some [bleeping] Dunkin' Donuts. You look great in that swimsuit — eat another doughnut!' That's evil."

And just in case you think I’m enjoying these women’s humiliations, I should say that Bourdain once reviewed a novel of mine. It was not a good review. The words “always clever, seldom fun” are embossed in my memory, though I’m sure not in his. Here he is with a fan:

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