Make Love Not Lard

Frank Bruni Spanks Anthony Bourdain for Hating On Paula Deen

Deen's not his
Deen’s not his “cup of lard,” but quit pickin’ on her! Photo: Curtosy of Publisher’s Weekly

Bruni is not pleased with the way Bourdain lashed his razor-sharp tongue at Paula Deen, reminding us that on top of everyone else Grub Street recently noted, Bourdain has also insulted the untouchable force-of-good Alice Waters, once calling her “very Khmer Rouge.” Granted, Bruni isn’t buying Deen’s I’m just like you, y’all retaliation, calling it “ludicrous in light of the millions she has made from television shows, cookbooks, cookware, mattresses and more,” and he clumps together her and co-lowbrow chefs Rachael Ray and Sandra Lee as the “champions of downscale cooking.”

Most interesting, he says something that many New Yorkers, while sipping negronis at some Keith McNally joint, have surely thought about: “When Deen fries a chicken, many of us balk. When the Manhattan chefs David Chang or Andrew Carmellini do, we grovel for reservations and swoon over the homey exhilaration of it all. Her strips of bacon, skirting pancakes, represent heedless gluttony. Chang’s dominoes of pork belly, swaddled in an Asian bun, signify high art.” So, basically, some Americans are gross pigs, some are skinny snobs, but we’re all … big, fat hypocrites.

Unsavory Culinary Elitism [NYT]
Related: The Ten Most Insulting Things Anthony Bourdain Has Said About Food Network

Frank Bruni Spanks Anthony Bourdain for Hating On Paula Deen