Bourdain names names, film at 11

Anthony Bourdain rails against the current crop of TV chefs and names names:

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. She's a friendly, familiar face who appears regularly on our screens to tell us that "Even your dumb, lazy ass can cook this!" Wallowing in your own crapulence on your Cheeto-littered couch you watch her and think, "Hell…I could do that. I ain't gonna…but I could--if I wanted! Now where's my damn jug a Diet Pepsi?"

Via Jody, of course.

Comments

I have *NEVER* laughed harder at an article in my life.  I know Tony is brilliant...I know Tony is talented...but this article proves once and for all that he is the single greatest thing ever to happen to the food business.

 

Rachael Ray terrifies me. I keep expecting her to unzip her smile the rest of the way around her head, lift off her skull, and reveal a grinning alien with sharp, pointy teeth.

Seriously. She creeps me out.

She too, creeps me out. And that voice!! Gah. Like nails on a chalkboard O_O!!

This was soooo funny, he is one smart man and as I read it I realized that it was true.... all the good chef's are getting pushed to the back. So sad.

Heh! Is it any wonder Food Network disowned him over the summer? They won't even show his previous TV series, "A Cook's Tour," anymore- or, for that matter, allow it to be released on DVD. This is a good thing, really. After all, "No Reservations" is in so many ways superior to the previous series that one almost wants to forget the former existed....

Here's to Tony's keeping the flame. Like him, I have more resepect for a back-alley Bombay street cook with half the town lined up for brain curry than Rachel Ray. Why? It's obvious he can cook...

PAULA DEEN ... A recent Hawaii show was indistinguishable from an early John Waters film.

Wow ...

I just about pissed myself laughing at that one.

 Oh sorry about the double post, kept seeing an error, didn't copy the error though :/

Happened again:

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Righto. Swamped at work, so I won't be able to troubleshoot this one for a few hours.

Yep, known issue: http://drupal.org/node/331960

There days of the classic chef, I fear, are numbered.  Guys like Daniel Boloud, Charlie Trotter, Terrance Brennan, Scott Bryan, Nobu Matsushita, Tim Goodell, Gary Danko, Grey Kunz, Traci Des Jardins, Ron Siegel, Thomas Keller, Roberto Donna, Todd English, Mario Batali, Wayne Nish, and Charlie Palmer (and those are just the guys in the US that I can think of off the top of my head) are all heading towards retirement. 

There are a few standouts in the new group of chefs coming up but it seems that the new era of "celebrity chef" is taking away the one thing that made most of the people mentioned above so amazingly good.  With the new idea of celebrity chef the days of getting a stage at a 3 Michelin Star restaurant or peeling onions for a master just so you can learn (after a year) what goes into the miraculous French Onion Soup. 

Everyone now thinks that they can go to a culinary school and bring a head shot portfolio and instantly they will have their own television show.  It isn't about the skill anymore...its all about flair.  And in a kitchen...I *LOATHE* flair.  I don't care if you are photogenic...can you brunoise a carrot properly?  Do you understand the concept of depth of flavor?  Do you know that great food need not have 200$ worth of white truffles sliced on top of it? 

Some of the new young guns get it...and they are plying their trade in what aren't considered to be centers of the culinary world.  People like Ethan Stowell at Union in Seattle, Sue Zemanick at Gautreau's in New Orleans, Sean Brock at McCrady's in Charleston SC, Chris Lee at Striped Bass in Philadelphia, Jason Wilson at Crush in Seattle, and Eric Ziebold at Cityzen in DC are doing good things with food and maybe given time they might get to the stratusphere with Keller, Boloud et al but I fear that the lure of television will be just too strong.

Food media is a good thing...it exposes people to what can be done...however, I implore the next generation...cook because you *LOVE* food and not because you *LOVE* the limelight.  That will take care of itself if you are good enough.