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How fitting that Anthony Bourdain’s controversial interview with DCist, in which Bourdain called organic food proponent Alice Waters’ agenda “very Khmer Rouge,” took place in our nation’s capital. Welcome to Alice Watersgate, a brewing chef on chef scandal that (potentially) has the unexpected benefit of bringing ideas about our country’s food policy to a much wider audience.
Judging from the DCist interview, general timing seems to be part of Bourdain’s overall gripe: “We're all in the middle of a recession,” he told interviewer Jamie R. Liu, while complaining about the priciness and preachiness seemingly inherent to going green, “like we're all going to start buying expensive organic food and running to the green market.” Last November, Waters wrote a much-publicized open letter to the newly minted President Elect offering advisory services on choosing a new White House chef. It turned out that the old White House chef had a lot to offer.
But yesterday, an unusual comment was added to our original Waters/Bourdain story: “See Anthony and Alice continue the conversation LIVE! Anthony Bourdain will be appearing with Alice Waters AND Duff Goldman May 14, 2009 at The Connecticut Forum.” With a potential celeb chef horn-locking on the horizon, we decided to contact the man himself and ask for further clarification about his Alice Waters criticisms; his full response below:
“I don't have any burning issue with Alice Waters, a restaurateur and visionary whose accomplishments clearly dwarf my own, so I doubt it. In a perfect, candy-colored world, I'd like to eat most of what she'd like to see us eat. I feed my daughter mostly organic food whenever possible—and greatly admire what Dan Barber is doing. My comments were a heartfelt reaction to her wildly hubristic letter to the (then) president-elect, a document whose tone, timing and content I found distasteful—particularly coming from someone who hadn't even bothered to vote in the four previous elections. True, I am suspicious of wealthy suburbanites who preach “back to the soil” philosophies—as if most—or even many—could start digging subsistence gardens in their back yards or afford expensive organic or locavore lifestyles. But Chez Panisse was inarguably a cradle of the food revolution. I respect Alice Waters’ enormous contribution to changing the way we eat and cook today. No one can take that away from her. No one should try. I intend to treat her with the respect she rightly deserves. She says some stupid shit sometimes—and she is certainly free to call “bullshit” on me when I do the same. I might, in the spirit of good fun, point out that following even my own not particularly distinguished career in kitchens—most of it in view of the “Choking Victim” sign, I DO, at least, know the Heimlich maneuver.”So there you have it. Tickets for the May 14 Connecticut Forum event featuring Anthony Bourdain and Alice Waters in conversation—with Ace of Cakes’ teddy bear baker “Duff” Goldman onstage as well, and perhaps playing the role of hapless bystander—go on sale next Friday, January 30.
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These two need to get their own Siskel-and-Ebert-style show, where they scream at eachother about cruelty-free, free-range "no-fu" for the tofu-intolerant.
Read "California dish" by Jeremiah Tower. Arguably he was the real reason California cuisine AND Chez Panisse were successful. While JT beats his chest quite a bit, I have to agree that Alice just coasted on other peoples coattails. Much like all Chef's, they rely on others talents to make things happen.
I will check that out. I enjoyed Ruth Reichl's "Tender at the Bone," and the parts about her days in Berkeley around the rise of California Cuisine.
Why Anthony Bourdain continues to be considered relevant at all boggles my mind.
Jeremiah Tower Cooks is such an amazing book.
Bourdain is the Man, and, despite her many accomplishments, Waters disgraced herself by not knowing the Heimlich maneuver.
If you don't know what I'm talking about, see here:
"Tom Colicchio: Hero."
"Alice Waters flung herself into the banister behind me. She was shouting. “Does anyone know the Heimlich maneuver?” She ran back. This is not what you want to hear at a dinner party. Moreover, this is not what you want to hear in the room full of chefs. Don’t they teach the Heimlich at the CIA?"
As for her open letter to Obama, Bourdain is correct; it was "wildly hubristic". However, in this case, it not only embarrassed Waters, but its tone-deafness served to embarrass others in what she calls a "grassroots food revolution."
Her New Year's Resolutions should be to learn the Heimlich maneuver, and spend less time writing open letters and more time updating her (dated) menu.
"Why Anthony Bourdain continues to be considered relevant at all boggles my mind."
The fact that you can't figure it out is even more mind boggling.
I rather like Anthony Bourdain because he doesn't strike me as someone who seeks to be relevant. He's a guy who likes food and restaurants and is very no nonsense in the way he comments on them. He's down to earth but intelligent, and despite the bad boy image that seems to have attached itself to him thanks to Kitchen Confidential, he well... seems like a nice guy.
Alice Waters sometimes reminds me of why we often call California "The Granola State": because whatever ain't fruits or nuts is flakes!
Or that every nut will eventually grow in California.
I'm with Bourdain on this one. Waters has done some very good things in bringing locally sourced and organic food to our attention but she also continues to make it sound like some new age revelation which immediately turns most people off from what she's pushing. She's great at doing, not so hot at talking about what she does in a way that will engage a broad range of people.
"chef scandal"
Can we start calling this Chefgate?
Let's see....begin by comparing the following two quotes from Bourdain on this topic: 1) "I don't have any burning issues with Alice Waters" and 2) "Alice Waters annoys the living shit out of me...There's something very Khmer Rouge about Alice Waters that has become unrealistic." Can DCist and Gothamist get together and hire an interpreter, please???
Given that Waters' influence (altho probably not her name recognition) will surpass that of Julia Child's, Bad Boy Bourdain can continue to be a pus-filled boil that bursts at the slightest irritation, if that's what he wants. He's beginning to sound like an alkie who's empire is sinking but he doesn't know it.
For the record, the CT Forum event has been booked for months and months, someone was just using this occasion to promote it, which is kinda sad.
common_tater, I think Bourdain was trying to be a nice guy and soften his criticism of Waters after the fact. However, Bourdain's original comments are closer to the truth than Water's acolytes want to admit. It's not that anyone believes that Waters would foster a policy of intentional mass murder. However, actually doing what Waters advocates (having all members of society rely on local, organic, non-factory farmed, sustainable agriculture for their food) would force millions of people out of cities and back to farms with predictable, tragic consequences. It is in this sense that there is an appropriate parallel between Waters and the Khmer Rouge. For full critique, see http://bit.ly/ghmb5.