Gothamist: Top Chef's Ted Allen Fires Back on Waldorf Saladgate

Elise Thompson

Thu, 03 Apr 2008 18:22:47 -0500

I think when people turn up their noses at classic dishes involving mayonnaise, they are forgetting that homemade mayonnaise was a very different animal than what we buy in the market today. Guess what the basis for aioli is?

sidenote

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 15:47:01 -0500

No need to hate on Ohio, Ted - just because it's not Chelsea or San Francisco doesn't mean it's devoid of value. You do realize Chicago is IN middle America, right?

Kingpin

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 14:49:56 -0500

"Which is approximately the last century that anybody with a creative or adventurous palate served it." Yikes, that was really uncalled for. Stuck up food snob.

badtzmaru

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 14:40:34 -0500

No, if you google "waldorf salad" right now, you will find a picture of Ted Allen with egg on his face.

Rocknrope

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 13:48:49 -0500

@14, you mean "was"....

babyhitler

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 13:10:24 -0500

everytime I see padma I can't help thinking how she's going down on old man salman rushie's gray pubes.

Dave Hogarty

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 12:52:51 -0500

Props to Ted Allen for being a good sport and responding to his mayo-apple-walnut salad comment critics. People from the midwest are often the quickest and most over-reactive critics of their home states. Personally, I LOVE Waldorf salad, especially on a hot summer evening. I'm glad that its Gotham origins are being publicized. And Kojak, yes indeed.

matty

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 12:51:31 -0500

co-op these nuts

Outter Burrougher

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 12:46:30 -0500

Also Matty, Stroganoff is Russian, not German. The point of the matter is that he claimed it ORIGINATED in middle America. Whether or not middle Americans eat it now does not factor into the issue.

Jen Chung

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 12:32:35 -0500

In Fawlty Towers, a customer says there are grapes in Waldorf Salad.

matty

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 12:07:01 -0500

Actually considering goulash is hungarian perhaps middle america did coopt it. But so what! :D

matty

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 12:04:42 -0500

considering most of Middle America is of German descent i don't think they co-opted Stroganoff. And Chicago has more polish people than anywhere in the US so we got goulash covered too. The reason Chicago was chosen for this season is that we have the most interesting and fast moving restaurant cultures in the country. This show does not even mention that fact it goes to the point of shitting on the city it's supposed to showcase. boo-urns to this show.

spnder

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 11:58:01 -0500

Yeah, I bet you could type in Goulash, or Stroganoff and it would say the same thing. That does not mean it is of middle america. It simply means that middle america coops EVERYTHING. Sheesh. Accept you slipped up and move on...

chuzzlewit

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 11:51:56 -0500

ALMOST convinces me to skim a page of Rushdie's work. almost.

Tim N.

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 11:44:40 -0500

Ted Allen from the line! YES! And it counts! Time out Pistons!

Kojak

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 11:29:39 -0500

Padma Lakshmi is quite hot.

matty

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 11:29:29 -0500

Why would he insult middle America on a show that is, in fact, filming in the epicenter of Middle America?

mercuryjv

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 11:27:10 -0500

This is newsworthy?

fakenewyorker

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 11:25:50 -0500

as one of the queer eyes he ought to know his fruit salad. all kidding aside he's right.