So I'd never watched Anthony Bourdain and had never read Anthony Bourdain, but this spring ran across an interview he did with the DCist in Washington where he compares Alice Waters to the Khmer Rouge. I thought "well THAT'S a little extreme" but wasn't ready to form an opinion until (a)I had read some Anthony Bourdain, and (b) had learned more about Alice Waters and had eaten at Chez Panisse.
Both A and B have been accomplished. Ironically, I chose the Bourdain book where he attends a dinner party of vegetarians in Berkeley which is a HILARIOUS chapter. From his perspective, the Berkeley-ites come off as virtuous, hypocritic Alice Waters-disciples who tout a lifestyle completely out of reach and disconnected from the average US citizen. I see his point. Then again, I imagine that one of those dinner party attendees would say that 'Tony' is a chain-smoking and offensive vagrant who behaves badly for fame and a paycheck. Neither party is innocent.
But what he really criticizes at that dinner party is the vegetarian cooking. If vegetarian food is cooked poorly, it's not going to taste good. Period. However, Bourdain didn't actually eat at Chez Panisse. If he had, he would have had the best vegetarian meal of his life. Last month in Berkeley, Eric and I made a pilgrimage to the CP Cafe. The ambiance was relaxed, the service was attentive but not intrusive, and my vegetarian meal was divine. And no where did I see signs of communism or other subversive powers at work.
And I picked up Alice's "In the Green Kitchen". It turns out to be a compilation book of techniques by her favorite chefs, but the foreword is passionately written by her and illustrates that her philosophy is not meant to be virtuous, its meant to drive a return to local, homegrown and sustainable food. I see how that might be out of reach for some, but for many communities (including the impoverished SW corner of DC that just received its first Yes! Organic Grocery store) Alice's movement IS coming and it IS going to provide access to pesticide-free, responsibly grown food. How is that bad, Bourdain?
Bourdain backsteps on his Waters-hating by saying that he appreciates what she did for local producers. I found it ironic that he went on from Berkeley to eat a 16 course, 4 hour, over-the-top meal at French Laundry and couldn't find anything to criticize about that. If you want to talk about something completely out of reach for the average American, lets talk about THAT!
Regardless of the philosophies, I enjoyed Bourdain's travels (especially his time in Russia) and found myself laughing out loud at his inner-dialogue. The man is funny, and I don't think anyone can argue with that.
Wow, Jill, thanks! Very interesting comparisons. I will definitely check out Burdain's book. And Alice Waters is very fascinating - you should take a look at "Alice Waters and Chez Panisse" by Thomas McNamee - features very entertaining Chez Panisse gossip and some surprising insights into how Chez Panisse operated. For example, the book says that when CP first opened, management believed the waiters should be very familiar with all the wine offerings, so they were encouraged to imbibe freely; Result after one year: $20,000 worth of wine unaccounted for! McNamee asserts it's a miracle they ever succeeded financially. Also interesting: the important contributions of a series of head chefs in shaping CP's character and menu (Waters was the guiding force, but greeted guests and did not cook).
ReplyDeleteAlso, I recently heard an interesting discussion of Burdain's scorn for Alice Water's crusade for natural, local food for everyone - Burdain says it's too expensive and therefore elitist for Waters to thrust this upon people who are only just getting by. But then someone quoted Michael Pollan, who evidently says that it's more a matter of priorities - that almost all poor people have (expensive) cell phones, so it's an indication of priorities, not means. So he argues that it's important to make everyone understand the significance of healthy local food.
ReplyDeleteI like Michael Pollan's point....Eric is actually writing a paper about this right now (if local, organic food is out of reach for the impoverished and the health and economic imlications involved); do you know where Michael Pollan may have said that? Have you read The Omnivore's Dilema? I loved it and actually did a pilgrimmage to the farm he features in the book last year.
ReplyDeleteInteresting about the wine at Chez Panisse. Since it was our "splurge" meal, we got a bottle of wine with our meal. The waiter was not only knowledgeable about their huge list but without asking us, he intuitively knew our price point and stuck to wines within that range to maintain our comfort zone. I thought that was more interesting than what he actually picked out for us! The service was impeccable.