Bourdain Being Bourdain
February 15th, 2007 by theportlychef
Both David Lebovitz and Simply Recipes (among others) have covered this story, but I thought I’d provide the link for you as well, in case you don’t read those sites (as you should).
Anthony Bourdain (whose D.C. Les Halles is one of my favorite lunch places) was a guest blogger over at Michael Ruhlman’s blog and offered his thoughts on many of the personalities “on the Newer, Younger, More Male-Oriented, More Dumb-Ass Food Network.” You can read the entire article here, but some of the real tasty morsels are excerpted below:
On Emeril Lagasse: “[A]s much as I hate [his] show — comparted to the current crop of culinary non-entities, he looks like Escoffier.”
On Mario Batali: “Is there any more egregiously under-used, criminally mishandled, dismissively treated chef on television? Relegated to the circus of Iron Chef America, where-like a great toothless lion, fouling his cage, he hangs on-and on.”
But he saves the best for Rachael Ray (this site confirms her plan for world domination, in case you doubted her — and that photo is definetly “pre-wedding Rachael”) and Sandra Lee (both of whom I detest). No excerpts can do these two gems justice, so you’ll have to read the whole thing.
Feel free to use the comments as an open thread for your thoughts on Food Network personalities.
Update: Grub Street has this defense of Rachael Ray and the Food Network. Seriously, the picture of Rachael Ray is worth the click. Compare this shot of post-wedding Rachael with pre-wedding Rachael above.
Over the past year I have really gone from watching Foodnetwork shows to the shows on PBS Create, like Jaque Pepin and Lidia Bastianich’s shows - they are fantastic. I was never a Ray Ray fan…I call her the dum-o who says yum-o! I wish she would slip and fall on some e.v.o.o. in her kitchen. Sandra Lee’s assemblies are so nasty that I don’t know HOW that is considered cooking. I admit that I have a soft spot for Ina Garten, Nigella Lawson, and Michael Chiarello.
Emeril Live is tough to sit through, but his Essence show is great and has some great recipes! (Thanks for allowing me to post my dissertation about the FoodNetwork!)
:)
Dum-o who says yum-o — I love it. I have to admit that I’ve taken to calling the extra virgin olive oil EVOO. What really kills me about Sandra Lee is that she redecorates her entire “kitchen” (set) every show to match the color scheme of whatever she is doing that day. Ech.
I LOVE Bobby Flay, Paula Deen, everything Emeril, Alton, and Iron Chef. And Giada. I often tell my wife “There aren’t many people that could break us up, but Giada….*sigh*.” She normally replies with “Honey, if you think you can pull it off, go right ahead.”