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In an upcoming article for the journal Gastronomica, Krishnendu
Ray of NYU examines the role of American FoodTV in bringing cuisine -as
distinct from home cooking-to an ever larger audience of American consumer. Dr.
Ray, a sociologist and former Associate Dean for Curriculum Development at The
Culinary Institute of America, also takes-on the notion that watching someone
cook something for it’s entertainment value alone is inherently pornographic (as in "food-porn") while watching with the expectation
that you will do it yourself is something else.
But the bulk of Dr. Ray’s essay is devoted to an analysis of the nature of the
types of shows and characters we find on FoodTV, which he says fall along a continuum with at least two poles: domesticity (e.g. Sandra Dee)
and anti-domesticity. Of the latter type (and I suspect of most interest to the
readers of Michael Ruhlman’s blog) Ray cites Anthony Bourdain as an example
-and I think does Bourdain a real solid- in the closing lines of his essay with a discussion of his affect and significance. What follows is excerpted from the closing pages of Domesticating Cuisine, Food and Aesthetics on American Television by Krishnendu Ray in Gastronomica (Winter 2007).
[Bourdain's] writing is not only a retort to Juliaesque domesticity but also a mirror
image of the somber masculinity of the “professional chef,” played with swagger and sardonic irony. His act is as much a caricature of masculinity as is Emeril’s. Bourdain’s conceit is a modernist celebration of
the bad boy, a rock star mocking himself. As one of the more thoughtful
students at the Culinary Institute of America, Christopher Fotta, puts it:
“Anthony Bourdain’s book [Kitchen
Confidential] is the antidote to the cia. In fact it is almost anti-everything that we are taught here. It is the opposite of the code of professionalism that is drilled into our psyche from the first time we set foot on campus. It highlights a subculture in the cooking industry that is seldom discussed in our sacred Roth Hall. It is the world of machismo, locker-room minded, substance-abused, foul-mouthed cooks that steal anything they can and screw every available
waitress in the dry storage area. This is the entry-level, humble beginnings of our glorious profession….I wholeheartedly agree with his sentiment that “the professional kitchen is the last refuge of the misfit.”
[Bourdain] shreds the aura around professional cooking, which appropriates a different posture—a proper, upwardly mobile, gentlemanly ethos—in contrast to his affinity for working class masculinity.
Both scripts are far from Julia’s, but the blue-collar foul-mouthed screed is
the more extreme counterpoint both in terms of class and gender. Bourdain predictably
appropriates it, but his attitude is not born of the class he hopes to mimic,
which is evident from his literary self-confidence. He writes:
Generally speaking, American cooks—meaning, born in the USA, possibly school-trained, culinarily sophisticated types who know before you show them what monter au beurre means and how to make a béarnaise sauce—are a lazy, undisciplined and, worst of all, high-maintenance lot, annoyingly opinionated, possessed of egos requiring constant stroking and tune-ups, and, as members of a privileged and wealthy population, unused to the kind of “disrespect” a busy chef is inclined to dish out.
Bourdain can even slip into some class and race sentimentality when he writes
that “the Ecuadorian, Mexican, Dominican and Salvadorian cooks I’ve worked with
over the years make most cia-educated white boys look like clumsy, sniveling
little punks.” That from a Vassar-educated and cia-trained white boy!
Bourdain’s language here exquisitely mimics the rhetoric of journeymen printers
at the end of the nineteenth century who, with the introduction of the Linotype
and the birth of publishing corporations, felt a serious threat to their working-class
masculinity. It is at this time that “male printers expressed even greater concern
and antagonism toward boys than toward women who worked in the industry.”
With Bourdain we see the other face of TV cooking, the gesture of denial against
domesticity and upwardly mobile gentlemen-boys tied to the apron strings of
well-bred women, which is the world Julia came to occupy. The most popular shows—Emeril Live, Rachael Ray, and Iron Chef—are basically contra-Julia, post -domestic
shows, reactions against the hegemonic model of The French Chef. They strike a chord
because, ever since Julia, we have been stuck in the TV kitchen and put in a dress. That is why Bourdain wrote, in Kitchen
Confidential, that he wouldn’t be caught dead on the Food Network. Of
course, even the best of us are eventually domesticated. In fact Bourdain’s
discovery of foreign food in The Cook’s Tour is another iteration of
domestic cuisine, albeit in opposition. Bourdain brings us back to the chase
-the ethos of movies -with which I began this essay- this time in pursuit of
authentic, exotic fare, by ranging widely across the globe, yet he does so by
keeping us glued to the home entertainment center allowing us to appreciate
anew the dialectic between the home and the world and the role of the man
within it.
Cross-posted at A Hunger Artist.
“Bourdain brings us back to the chase -the ethos of movies -with which I began this essay- this time in pursuit of authentic, exotic fare, by ranging widely across the globe, yet he does so by keeping us glued to the home entertainment center allowing us to appreciate anew the dialectic between the home and the world and the role of the man within it.”
FAB! “The role of the man within it [the world]!”
For all the barcalounger blog-screeching going on recently about how Bourdain writes like Hunter S. Thompson (but not as well!), and all the sniping about his vulgarity as opposed to his wit, I am glad that someone finally put his finger upon the very dialectic that I, personally, have found most appealing about Bourdain – his literal (and metaphorical) journeys into other cultures and kitchens, back into ours. While his rants are always fun and colorful and wickedly controversy-provoking, what keeps getting overlooked by people at the surface level are some of the most thoughtful, insightful pieces in TV travelogues. And it’s always great to watch a person who is sometimes dismissed as just a loudmouth lout take a physical journey and watch it evolve into journey of discovery, as much for himself as for a TV audience. He keeps growing, and so does his writing.
One of his best pieces was the endpiece he wrote for the Malaysia episode, about how travel scars you, leaves marks upon your body – and how it SHOULD scar you. Every time Bourdain takes down culinary mediocrity faster than a komodo taking down a wild pig, and every time the whole blogosphere cross-blogs those rants and the bloggo-snarkfesting begins, what is continually overlooked is not only the inherent excellence of Bourdain’s writing – beyond KC, beyong blogs – but also what he’s really saying about us having what Pinter called “the third rate” dished out to us, and about us sucking it up.
(That last one was an unpardonable run-on sentence, by the way, for which I am slightly cringing.)
Bravo, Bob, for posting Dr. Ray’s dissertation – tu fatto bene. Wonder how Bourdain is taking being the subject of a scholarly dissertation? (Or is he already getting his robes and tabard pulled together to accept an honorary Ph.D. in at .. . . ummm . . . Harvard? Vassar? (!!))
Great paper by Dr. Ray, but I disagree just a bit on his “analysis”. I do think that Bourdain is making a non-egotistical statement, i.e. that down and dirty professions like cooking still belong to the working class, not rich white boys.
How many of these students who can afford the CIA have travelled the world? How many of them came from Malasia, Lebanon or Mexico and how many of them have killed their own food?
Bourdain is unique because despite having privellege, the stars of his shows are people who live with almost nothing yet cook brilliantly. They are in the spotlight.
As a side note, we were all wondering how Marcel on Top Chef had remained such a saint through all the bullying – then he mentioned that he backpacked across the country. It gives you perspective, which Bourdain has.
How many of those bullies in Top Chef had ever done that? Getting your hands dirty and living like someone who has to work for survival is the only way to know real food, or real anything.
I’ll take K Ray over Ray Ray any day.
His brilliant observations (which he must have spent a lot of time sorting out) on the “chef trainer civility issue” in Reach of a Chef made it an even more refined book then it already was. And that is a tall order.
Somebody has a BOURDAIN BOBBLE-HEAD?!!!
I have been searching Ebay for DAYS for that bobble-head – How much do you want for it?
Is PayPal OK???
Great essay, Bob, thanks for sharing it! And Maya, I didn’t know that about Marcel. Like Tony once said, “Astro-Boy’s got balls!”
PS: Kudos to Krishnendu!
I WISH though, that somebody — anybody who gives Tony Testosteroni credit for being a “working class hero” would do their research!
If they did, the would find the truth; that Mr.T — I mean B.s OWN socio-economic roots are planted solidly in the Northern New Jersey hoi-polloi which he so verbosely attacks at every opportunity.
In case you are skeptical that there IS such a thing as “New Jersey hoi-polloi”, I will point out that Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis did most of her weekend horseback riding at Peapack, NJ, the white-hot center for the New Jersey hoi polloi.
Not even NJ native herself; Martha Stewart started from LESS humble beginnings than Bourdain (To her credit, at least Martha DID come clean about this, and even had her own mother on her then nationally syndicated TV show to speak about the celebration of Hannukkah in Martha’s home — before she became a “Stewart”).
The CIA — the very institution Bourdain so often cites as the red-hot center of all that is wrong with the professional culinary world today — is, of course, his own Alma Mater. Still, Bourdain persists in doing his damndest to obscure his own personal CIA trained, “sniveling white-boy” privileged roots, albeit more and more frantically, and somehow, increasingly pathetically — lest this privileged pedigree become more widely known. Certainly, like Martha in reverse, his reputation, and more importantly, his omni-media empire might be negatively impacted if his street cred be blown.
Indeed, the CIA’s own publicity literature, including their application for student admission proudly cite Mr.Bourdain as one of their esteemed and “successful” graduates. I assume that Bourdain is well aware of this fact, and I am also willing to hazard a guess that this tidbit of background information appears prominently in his press kit bio.
Just to be sure, I have requested said press kit from the Travel Channel, if for no other reason than to have it to shield myself from the spittle of his sycophants when I am set upon by them, as if by a pack of rabid javelinas, in response to this post.
A working class hero is something to be…
John Lennon
As a Vassar girl myself, I’m probably not one to be commenting on who is or isn’t “authentic” when it comes to what’s so charmingly known as “the working class”. Although that said, it seems to me that the question of one’s academic pedigree is rather moot — do not the vast majority of those graduates of elite colleges have to work for a living too?
At any rate, Bourdain is neither the first nor the last person who, although born to one class, takes onto him/herself the persona of one born to another. It happens all the time, particularly in America, where one’s social status is more mutable.
>…as if by a pack of rabid javelinas….
Mmmmm…..javelinas! New Mexico pork! Sorry, I got distracted. As far as Tony is concerned, he cops to his middle-class Jersey roots all the time, and as a fellow Jerseyite, I can understand the self-loathing. It’s kind of what we do in Jersey – *we* get to bitch about it, but watch when someone from another state starts dissing the Garden State. I bet you’d see Tony’s fangs then…being from Cleveland, which is similarly maligned, Ruhlman can surely understand this as well.
I see Bourdain’s purpose in the food world as the guy who reminds us that working in a restaurant kitchen is very tough, very nasty and very, very unglamorous. He’s kind of a check on those with soft hands who think since they can whip up a decent bearnaise they can move 150 covers a night in a shoebox kitchen in a Manhattan August. Some can. Most can’t.
i’d like to note that hoi polloi does not refer to the posh set, but rather to the masses. and in fact, bourdain was part of the hoi polloi, growing up in a middle class new jersey family. perhaps upper middle, i don’t know but still middle.
Anon. t.u. Pastry Chef -
Bourdain also refers to the CIA as basically the Harvard of culinary education. I think that his position is it is not enough for an obviously better-off white kid just to go to the CIA, graduate and expect to go right to the top of his profession – they should expect to pay their dues, start at the bottom and learn their craft at a professional kitchen from the ground up . . . just like his Ecuadorean dishwashers and Bengali runners and Mexican commis all have to, without the benefit of formal education.
In the sense that Bourdain champions the unacknowledged and unseen cooks of the kitchen who do the real cooking, he IS a “working class hero” – not a hero OF the working class, but TO the working class.
It is in no way unheard of, throughout history, to have members of a more privileged class espouse the cause of a less privileged one – during the unification of Italy, for instance, Italian and Sicilian ARISTOCRATS actively worked for and advocated the overthrow of the Bourbon dynasty, despite the fact that they themselves drew all of their wealth, position and privileges from the monarchy. It is neither unusual – NOR hypocritical, nor “posing” – for Bourdain to do the same, in an American paradigm, where the issue isn’t so much about class as it is about economic strata. The kitchen, rather than a royal court or Parliament,just happened to be his battlefield.
BTW, since this Ruhlman’s blog and you know Tony guest blogs on it frequently, why do you read it so much if Bourdain obviously gets your knickers in such a twist? And why would being either a Ruhlman or Bourdain fan (or both) make us all “sycophants”?
How’s the job hunt going?
HA-HA!!!
FREUDIAN SLIP!:
Jeez – this is so transparent that it reminds me of an “exercise in self-awareness” I once participated in at Esalen.
It’s called; “What I see in you that I see in MYSELF that I DON’T LIKE is…”.
The game is played by sitting across from another person knee to knee, whilst looking them straight in the eyes and saying:”What I see in [them] that I SEE in MYSELF that I DON’T LIKE is…”:Generally speaking, American cooks—meaning born in the USA, possibly school-trained, culinarily sophisticated types who know before you show them what monter au beurre means and how to make a béarnaise sauce. ***What I see in [them] that I SEE in MYSELF that I DON’T LIKE is***[are] a lazy, undisciplined and, worst of all, high-maintenance lot, annoyingly opinionated, possessed of egos requiring constant stroking and tune-ups, and, ***what I see in you that I SEE in MYSELF that I DON’T LIKE is…”*** members of a privileged and wealthy population, unused to the kind of “disrespect” a busy chef is inclined to dish out.”.
********************
OK – I apologize for the “Freud” thing. That, too was disrespectful…
But Tony, PLEASE stop and LISTEN to yourself speak. The truth you say you are seeking is right there:
The Nirvana you almost grasped at Macchu Picchu, or in the Shamans hut on Ayahuasca, or in that split second when you realized that that noise you heard in Beirut was live gunfire…
O! Tony – you are SO close to self-awareness that it hurts me to watch you be in so much pain, when the truth is on the tip of your own tongue…
SHAME ON YOU TONY FOR DISSING YOUR MAMA LIKE THAT!
I WAS FLIPPING TV AND I SAW SOMETHING ABOUT THIS PLACE DOWNTOWN THAT HAD A CHEF WHO MAKES THE BEST FRENCH FRIES IN THE WORLD. I THINK THEY CALLED THEM “FREE-TOS” OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT.
SO ME AND MY HOMEYS GO DOWN TO THIS “LAY ALES” (or what EVER), AND WE READ THE MENU NEXT TO THE FRONT DOOR, AND IT SAYS IT’S $12 FOR THE “FREETS” (OR WHATEVER),SHHE-IT MAN, WHAT THOSE FRIES BE MADE OUTTA MAN – GOLD?
BUT ME AND MY BOYS, WE GOT THE $12 UNDERSTAND? SO WE TRY TO GO AND BUY SOME, CAUSE THEY SUPPOSED TO BE THE BEST FRENCH FRIES IN THE WORLD, BUT THEN THE MAN INSIDE SAY WE CAN’T EVEN COME IN AND SIT DOWN AND BE COMFORTABLE WHILE WE BUY OUR FRIES, NOT EVEN FOR NO $12!
I MEAN DAMN! THEY WON’T EVEN GIVE ME SOME FREETS OR FRIES OR WHATEVER TO GO!
LIKE WASSUP WITH THAT SHEE-IT MAN?
THEN I GO HOME TO THE BRONX AND I FIND OUT THAT MY LATINO BRUTHA JOSE HAS A COUSIN THAT WORKS GRAVEYARD AT THIS “LAY ALES”, AND HE SAID IF WE COME TO THE BACK DOOR AT LIKE CLOSING TIME HE CAN FRONT US SOME FREETS LIKE, NO SWEAT. HE SAID JUST GIVE JOSE $8, AND JOSES COUSIN WILL FIX US UP GOOD WITH ALL THE FREETS WE WANT MAN. COOL!
GOOD THING TOO, CUZ WE WAS JUST ABOUT TO GO BACK DOWN THERE AND TAG THE PLACE WITH SOME COLORS. BUT WE DONT WANNA GET JOSE’S COUSIN IN TROUBLE YOU UNDERSTAND, CUZ HIS COUSIN GOT ENUF TROUBLE WITH THAT LA MIGRA (OR WHAT EVER), AND WE DON’T DISRESPECT OUR BRUTHAS THAT WAY MAN.
STILL, DUDE ON THE NET SAY THAT THIS TONY DISRESPECT HIS OWN HOMEYS, AND THAT JUST AIN’T RIGHT!
Tony from UPtown
Anon., pastry chef:
…lest his priviledged pedigree become more widely known…
Did you even read Kitchen Confidential before you spoke?
Tony wrote openly about his priviledged upbringing, private schools and his stint at the CIA in the opening chapters of his (best selling) book.
Do your homework next time; our boy is not hiding anything.
Well-said, Claudia.
Isn’t the “mutability” of socioec class aka “affectation”?
I would posit that it is the modern day equivalent of being a minstral, a veritable Al Jolson!
“Mammm-maaay!!!…”
RE:Posted by: fiat lux | April 25, 2007 at 03:01 PM
At any rate, Bourdain is neither the first nor the last person who, although born to one class, takes onto him/herself the persona of one born to another. It happens all the time, particularly in America, where one’s social status is more mutable.
Um, there’s a schoolyard taunt that goes: “It takes one to know one.”
Better than flapping one’s jaws (or fingers) and knowing *not* of what one speaks.
So the problem is… ?
I’m not sure that AB would self identify as upper class Joisey, but he’s had a lifetime of observation that makes him utterly qualified to talk smack on his homeys.
–parkbench
(psst…congrats on the little one, tony!)
Tony’s great. But the Thompson references are a little unfair. Hunter was a journalist, Tony is a cook who writes. But who knows, maybe when Tony’s in 17 books and hundreds of articles deep a whole “Gonzo Culinary” movement will be attributed to him.
Highly Educated CommentatOR:
Mutability isn’t affectation, but merely, in this case, socioeconomic empathy – drawn, perhaps, from the wellspring of a Libertarian/liberal Democratic upbringing? And an empathy born of conviction, of perhaps recognizing when one is born more privileged than others, but still has a sense of social justice – not a desire to be a minstrel.
RE: Hoi polloi
I stand corrected sir!
Hoi polloi is what Chef Bourdain is PRETENDING to be in this particular instance…in other words, he has become a “Hoi-Polloi Wannabe”.
Martha Stewart (nee’ Kostyra), on the other hand WAS NJ hoi polloi.
In Martha’a case I can understand and even sympathize with a public figure’s aspirations to be identified as one of the “old money’s” own — even if it, too did ultimately become a pathetic contribution to her self-inflicted downfall.
In the same vein, it’s when the reverse is attempted that Bad JuJu can also ultimately come to pass.
Biting the hand that fed you and mocking the industry that made it possible for you to have a media soapbox from which to then loudly berate it is just…WRONG!
Now I’m just getting pissed off! It was a sad and sorry day when I put one cent of my own hard earned money into that self-serving self-parody’s pocket!
To think that I read, and worse, BELIEVED Bourdain’s “non-fiction” essays! And that was before I gave up a financially successful but not “soul satisfying” career to plunk down a chunk of my 401-k to try and become educated enough to FEED people. FOOD (not words)!
…Not just reasonably tasty food, but also food safely prepared in a sanitary environment by conscientious PROFESSIONALS, and not compromised by drug/alcohol addled and/or inadequately trained “cooks” (or even dishwashers for that matter).
In defense of kitchen PROFESSIONALS — including dishwashers — EVERYONE in the kitchen counts! I believe that you even cite this maxim in one of your own books (“The Reach of…?”), and for that I salute you.
I mean no disrespect to any kitchen employee who’s training was in the home at his mother (or father’s)knee: Your food may be delicious, but you are risking a Typhoid Mary nightmare scenario if you cook and serve food without the proper safety and sanitation procedures. Procedures which are taught, and the understanding of which must be proven by written examination at any reputable culinary school.
…OH MY GAWD!!!
…”TYPHOID MARY”!!!
…Here it IS — I bought it on Ebay, ’cause I thought it was out of print…
IT’S BOURDAIN’S OWN PUBLISHED BOOK!!!
Talk about shitting where you eat!
http://www.amazon.com/Typhoid-Mary-Historical-Anthony-Bourdain/dp/1582341338/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/104-6294980-5787109?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1177535314&sr=1-1
Using the word “genteel” in context with the words “culinary school” definitely does NOT describe MY school experience.
My graduating class is known for the 5 Chef Instructors that were fired (4 for sex with students not yet 18), 2 student arrests (again, sex with a minor and drug possession/distribution), and 3 wineries in the Santa Inez Valley who have barred us from ever entering the premises again for public drunkeness. I won’t go into the known episodes of sex in restaurants while visiting as a class.
“GENTEEL”????????????????????????? WTF???? That’s just FUNNY!!!!
Here’s a hint: the name changes, but the e-mail address is still “suzypfisch@aol.com”. I don’t think you’re covering your troll tracks all that well….
1. Bourdain is NOT pretending to be part of the hoi polloi – he is both who he was born and what he made of himself, as are we all. He can’t help that he was born into an upper-middle class family, any more than he is pretending to be deeply simpatico with his fellow kitchen workers of the less affluent classes.
2. Bourdain’s “media soapbox” didn’t come from his food, per se – not from being a Joel Robuchon or Tom Keller – but from his WRITING. True, Kitchen Confidential is about his life as a chef, but his fame derives from his book, not his cassoulet. And, being true to his own voice and his own experience – in the kitchen, granted – he should be perfectly free to write, rant and otherwise bitch – about his 30+ years’ accumulated knowledge. Why not? He doesn’t owe anyone for making him famous – he did it throught his own efforts.
3. The alcohol/junkie thing is very, very old. Bourdain was clean for over a decade before he even wrote KC, and, if you notice, he says the kitchen gave him not only a sense of belonging but a reason, for the first time, of being proud of something, of having pride in himself and having some direction – so I doubt he was so “drug addled”, as you put it, that he maniacally crapped up people’s food on a daily basis – that wouldn’t fly. And, further to that, I believe that one of his points in KC was that regardless of his own past addictions, the fact is, the kitchen harbors a lot of other social misfits, drunks and users – TO THIS DAY – behind those crisp white chef jackets. I am not implying that you are an addict, by any means, but – wake up. You might not know you have a few amongst you – yet – but you will. (Oh, and you know as well as I do there are more than a few in the “401-K” world, too – you know how many cocaine-sniffing lawyers I worked for the in 80s? Guys people have to trust more than their duck confit with? They’ve just moved on to prescription meds, is all, but they’re still working – professionally). I’m also not defending their addiction(s), mind you (I once lived with a truly evil junkie, against whom I would gladly violate my strong anti-gun principles and shoot dead if I saw him come up my walkway) – but I AM saying you can still be high-functioning and highly professional AND addicted to something, without necessarily being the kind of incompetent, “unprofessional” scum you’re implying Bourdain once might have been.
4. Wolfgang Puck, for instance, was trained in his mother’s kitchen at the inn in Alsace the family owned. You wanna go tell Wolfie that he’s skank and doesn’t know what he’s doing because he didn’t take formal Kitchen Hygiene 101 at the CIA or FCI?
5. Typhoid Mary lived and worked in an age that predated the teaching of kitchen hygiene and sanitation – in the restaurant OR the home, for that matter. Bourdain was not saying, “Yay! Way to go, Mary – don’t wash your hands after you pee!”, nor was he saying she was an evil, negligent scum who didn’t care about contamination – he was just saying that she was a product of her time, her era. Considering Tony himself just survived severe e.Coli poisoning last year from eating uncleaned warthog rectum, I doubt he is championing unclean or unsafe food handling procedures, by any means. So there is no hypocrisy there, either.
P.S. St. Julia studied at MY school – Le Cordon Bleu. Not everybody is a C.I.A. graduate who works in this biz (nor do they want to be).
I can see where some people are coming from here. There’s something completely nauseating about the presidential candidate or Hollywood star holding a shovel with one arm around the farm worker for the photo-op, especially when said celeb is wearing a spotless white freakin’ button-down shirt. It’s gross.
But Bourdain puts his money where his mouth is. If he wants to hang out in Iceland with natives who have no electricity or running water and give them quality Travel Channel celebrity time, I think that’s brilliant. They deserve it.
People like Alton Brown who push thier little carts down the megastore Whole Foods aisle all day when there’s probably a good local market down the street that deserves attention should realize the grand opportunity to help local businesses.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m a HUGE Alton fan but I get flustered seeing the megastores get EVEN MORE airtime.
Just because I’m a veterinary paraprofessional that doesn’t mean I’m going to toss aside my stray cats and only treat freakin’ AKC snotty purebread doggies and kitties.
Anyone who “makes it” has no obligation to hang out with wealthy white-bread folks all the time.
In spite of my (self-financed) culinary school education, I DO come from the hoi polloi, albeit from the New York side of the river. Flatbush, Brooklyn to be exact. This may explain my fury at Bourdain’s repeated (and repeated, and repeated…) attempts to discredit the education I worked so hard for — only to be faced with the prospect of ridiculously low paying job — that is IF anyone in this country will hire me, since I am now that lowliest of the untouchables: The (white female) “clumsy, sniveling little punk” of a culinary school graduate!
These low wages, BTW are not being helped one bit by B’s soap-box rally cry of : “Fuck the culinary school grads! Why pay more when you can hire a Latino cook who is deserving of so much more — for so much less?”.
Me think white man speak with fork tongue!
Isn’t it more than a little bit ironic AND hypocritical when you, Chef Bourdain are paid a handsome wage to profile the sushi chef in Texas who has not been able to see his own family in Mexico, and even more heartbreaking; who’s parents have never seen their own infant grandchild?
You beseechingly implore your dear viewers to have pity on this poor man, pity you even appear feel for him yourself, and then “cut” — you turn and walk away!
HOW COULD YOU then add insult to injury by traveling to sit at his parent’s own dinner table in Mexico while his mother cooked and shared her family’s own humble dinner with you (and crew?), and say to her that “I saw your son, and he’s doing fine”.
Hey Tony! Why don’t you put at least a teeny bit of your wealth where your mouth is? It’s a TAX DEDUCTION for you man! Why don’t you help put deserving guy through school (albeit culinary school) — just like that “pussy” Food Network you denigrate at every opportunity.
Why don’t you use some of your celebrity connections to pull some strings for this man who may have even risking his own tenuous fate with US Immigration to appear on your show. The show which you were/are paid for and, I presume, he was not.
I worked my way by my bootstraps up that ladder of money and privilege. Money and “privilege” I earned for myself in the soul-less world of banking and stock brokerage firms — just so that, as God is my witness, my child and I would never have to eat the Welfare Cheese again — something which she and I did have to do while I was a college student the first time around.
And maybe THIS is why I get so incensed when somebody born with a silver spoon in his mouth pretends to be “down with the Homeys” so that he can elicit the sympathy for himself of the book-buying, satellite TV viewing public — all the while financially benefiting only himself, and at the expense of the GOOD reputation so many of us have worked so hard to achieve. A hard-won reputation Mr. Ruhlman’s books so respectfully, beautifully, and truthfully portray.
It’d be so nice if some of you could stop reacting to the flamer.
Bourdain does not need to be defended, his work is strong enough to stand on it’s own.
Your flamer is in a bad space where she is only able to find satisfaction in beating up on someone whom she desires but cannot know.
Le what?
I read but have not yet been moved to post but the degree of “OTness” has moved me to do so. I will readily admit that I fangirl Tony Bourdain in a big way. No Reservations on TiVo? You betcha. KC and other books in my collection? Check.
However, the article mentioned another who seemes to be passed by in these comments – and it is one Juila Child. As someone who loves food – is a patron of restuarnats rather than a chef – and is a solid home cook – I still find inspiration in Juila. I completely dig on PBS for old episodes of her and Jaques Pepin. Isn’t Juila’s message that food is worth cooking for, worth waiting for, get yer ass out of the TV aluminum dinner and get in the kitchen once again?
I think that Tony and Julia actually share similar missions – if you will please beg my pardon of my interpretation. From both of them I take the same thing – take the time to prepare and enjoy food. From Julia it was to get back in the kitchen and bother to spend the time (hours) it might take to prepare something traditionally French. I’m a complete Francophile and lived there for a year so I can absolutely appreciate this from multiple levels. From Bourdain, I love his wit and his personality (as I’m a snarky smart ass myself I appreciate whenever I see another). More than personality, however, the message of learn from and enjoy food is paramount. It need not come from a Guide Michelin Three Star restaurant, it might come from the street food from the guy on the corner who has a few sores on his arm. But it is all about the FOOD and the experience while you eat it.
Who cares if Tony came from what background of privilege or not? Who cares that Julia married into a life of the noblesse and foreign service? The message I get from NR and from In the Kitchen is to try something out of your comfort zone. Upward or downward mobility be damned. Isn’t all about the food?
Beg your pardon, I can actually spell on occasion. Restaurant.
Bravo, Gina.
Claudia, your comments are…excellent. And accurate. So accurate in fact, it almost sounds like Bourdain himself making the 3rd person comments?!?
Poly. Yes, agree.
I would just like to point out that while there is a good culinary education to be had at the California Culinary Academy, it should be noted that most of the chef instructors there chose to become teachers instead because it paid better and had fewer work hours with much less grueling conditions than a full service restaurant kitchen.
I recognize that the CCA is not the CIA, but it is still a Le Cordon Bleu school, so they’re obviously doing something right.
And anyone that absolutely believes all of the BS that the people in the sales department (otherwise known as the registrar), they’re in for a rude awakening when they find that their skills aren’t up to snuff because they haven’t really worked in a real professional environment. Which is why so many of their graduates don’t get employed.
Take this advice with a grain of salt. Before going to school, make sure that this is what you want to do for a living. There are plenty of places that would let you work there for free in exchange for training. Since you have to pay the culinary school anyway, you’ll get some experience and save some money in the process.
Ultimately being a chef – or a good cook – comes down to your skills. If you don’t have any marketable skills, you’ll probably end up spending most of your day posting snarky trollish comments about someone you envy and changing your name with every post but forgetting to change your e-mail address.
Skawt, I’d ask you to marry me but I’m not Mormon.
Gina: Re; Le Cordon WHAT?
I love Julia too. I first learned about how to cook from watching her on PBS in the mornings, before I walked to school for kindergarten.
Julia Child was a graduate of La Cordon Bleu in Paris, 1946.
As the first female graduate of the “Professional” course offered at Le Cordon Bleu, a course which she was initially denied entry into, but which, in Julia-like fashion, she simply REFUSED to be deterred from attending. Upon completing the course of study,
Julia was then repeatedly denied her Diplome’ by the Dean of Le Cordon Bleu.
In her recently published posthumous autobiography, Julia recounts with her usual good humor, and some amount of glee about how she was finally able to extract her hard-won Diplome’ from LCB with the use of some “borrowed” American Embassy letterhead, and a (self)typewritten letter containing a vaguely threatening implication as to what sorry international incident might befall LCB if Mrs. Child did not receive the document in question with urgent dispatch.
As I pointed out in my FIRST POST to R.com — in response to “STROKE THE COOKS/FUCK THE CHEFS” by Bourdain — Julia is most likely the very reason that people Ruhlman and Bourdain are considered to be the writers cum celebrities in the now legitamatized media genre which arguably would not exist at all were it not for Julia’s pioneering efforts.
(I only temper that last statement at all because M.F.K. Fisher’s seminal books, which were in fact MUCH more than “cookbooks”, but which could only find publication as cookbooks, pre-date Julia’s appearance on PBS by more than a decade…).
That Julia is still universally revered today, is a testament to the fact that Julia was JULIA. What you saw and heard from Julia is who she was. Period.
There was no affected “mutability” in her solidly centered sense of her “self” and her own place in the world. She always rebuffed any attempts by the media to make her into what she herself felt she was not.
She NEVER criticized, demeaned or discouraged anyone else’s culinary aspirations, she only ENcouraged.
Nor did Julia ever stoop to what is now known (sadly) as “snarkiness”, that sad new “hip” trend in the media (including the literary media)which has it’s roots in the “Gonzo” tradition, but has sadly twisted what was once a truly new and revelatory literary genre into something inherently snidely insincere.
“Snarkiness” seems to be a form of self-conscious self-parody, pot-holed by the use of “cleverly” snide remarks at the “other’s” expense, whilst the “other” is snidely rebuffed as being so “un-hip” as to be deemed barely worthy of the “snarkmeister’s” contempt.
In some recent examples, I am sad to see the very talented Mr. Bourdain stooping to what seems to be the wanton use of “snarky” remarks as well as self-rightious and pointlessly profane rhetorical “proto-Gonzo” rant.
Please; go back to being the Anthony Bourdain I knew and loved. Try to temper your own very public “proclamations” about the failings, in your eyes, of others who are sincere — maybe misguided — but sincere nontheless; i.e. the James Beard Awards.
And please, do not fall for hiding behind the thin veneer of literary “snarkiness”. It only comes off as envy, and as a seemingly desperate grasping for “hipness”.
Mr.Bourdain: You are no Dr.Gonzo!
You are however, standing on the razor’s edge between securing your own place in the Pantheon of Literary Cooks with own inimitable literary style as your legacy — or you can misstep one too many times, and risk plummeting into the abyss of literary obscurity…(does anybody remember Jeff Smith?)
sorcha:
I’m not Mormon either. But you’ll still have to wait in line behind my wife. And she’s not done with me yet, since I still do most of the cooking here.
Which reminds me, I feel inspired by a visit to an Indian wine bar this past week. Something with ground lamb and lentils, I think.
No – I WILL NOT stoop to say what needs to be said!
YES – I believe I will! FUCK YOU Skawt, Sorcha, and the whole rest of you fawning Bordain groupies!
ONE LAST TIME: YES: I HAVE READ ALL OF BOURDAIN’S PUBLISHED WORKS, INCLUDING “GONE BAMBOO”, “A BONE IN THE THROAT”, AND “TYPHOID MARY”.
YES – I HAVE ALSO READ ALL OF RUHLMAN’S CULINARY WORKS AS WELL.
NO: I AM NOT A “VIRGIN” IN THE AREA OF PROFESSIONAL RESTAURANT KITCHEN WORK. MY WORK IN A PROFESSIONAL RESTAURANT SETTING PRE-DATED MY DECISION TO ATTEND THE CCA, WHICH DESPITE IT’S FAULTS, IS STILL CONSIDERED TO BE A REPUTABLE CULINARY SCHOOL.
THE VAUNTED “CIA” IS NOT THE ONLY GAME IN TOWN!
AND BTW: I HAVE A JOB, THANK YOU VERY MUCH, AND I CHOOSE NOT TO SUBJECT IT’S LOCATION TO YOUR SCRUTINY AND DERISION IN SUCH A PUBLIC FORUM.
JUST WHERE EXACTLY DO YOU WORK SKAWTCH, SORTCHA, AND THE REST OF YOU? WANNA TELL EVERYBODY HERE? GO AHEAD – BE MY GUEST! IT’S YOUR ASS/JOB…
AND MY CONDOLENCES TO TONY ABOUT THE UNFORTUNATE BRUSH WITH E.COLI, BUT IT WAS HIS OWN DAMN FAULT FOR EATING THAT JACKALOPE’S ASSHOLE.
NOW MAYBE HE HAS SOME REAL EMPATHY FOR THE VICTIMS OF “TYPHOID MARY”. (BTW Miss Smartypants, but if you had READ THE BOOK, you would have known SINCE TONY WROTE ABOUT IT that “T. Mary” was fully aware of the fact that she was contagious, and yet she knowingly and selfishly continued to work as a PROFESSIONAL COOK (a kitchen position she refused to abandon, despite her full knowledge of the deadly consequences of her actions) by purposely eluding health department authorities, and knowingly leaving an epidemic of fatal illness in her wake…)
but YES: I ENJOYED WATCHING TONY HOISTING HIMSELF FIRMLY ON HIS OWN E.COLI INFECTED PETARD.
I AM EAGERLY AWAITING THE NEW EPISODES TO SEE WHAT FUN TONY HAS IN STORE FOR MY VIEWING PLEASURE NEXT…
WHO NEEDS “JACKASS” WHEN THERE IS TONY?…
…and the bunch of you hanging around here for my early evening blogging amusment, since I am on PST…
Wanna get your jollys by dissing me some more? Go ahead!
Na-ne-na-ne-nana!
(My apologies to Ruhlman…
Hey man – you know I love ‘ya!)
Dear FangIt:
No, I’m really me. No mistaking a 5 foot 2 inch fiery little Italian for a 6 foot 4 inch, tall, lean, dark half-French guy, as Ruhlman will tell you. (Good thing Ruhlman was sitting down when I met him. Otherwise, also being 6′4″, he’d have missed me entirely (!!))
suzypfisch-sticks needs to give it a rest.
First Tony is the hoi polloi-which she used incorrectly. Then she’s the hoi polloi(although posting under a different name).
Fischsticks writes she’s read every one of Bourdain’s published works. Yes maybe she can read, but comprehension eludes her at every page.
What is really funny, in the way something is so sad it’s funny, is fischsticks refers to her time in the “soul-less” world of banking and brokerage firms. Wait a minute, isn’t her point on Bourdain that he’s bashing his former profession? I bet there are some pretty nice folks in the world of banking and brokerage firms, raising families, going to church, and stuff. How dare you FischStick!
I work in investment banking….and as far as I can tell, my soul’s intact.
Actually, that’s a pretty inaccurate account of Mary Mallon’s situation – if anything, it was ignorance rather than selfishness that kept her in the kitchen. Being told that you’re sick in 2007 when we’ve got tools and charts and MRIs that can back it up will help convince one of their illness, despite their physical condition – being told that you’re sick in turn-of-the-century NY when you believe that you’re perfectly healthy because you’re not splayed out in the gutter with festering sores like the “sick” probably didn’t always sink in, especially if you felt that you were already persecuted and that this was just an attempt to carry out an agenda.
“And anyone that absolutely believes all of the BS that the people in the sales department (otherwise known as the registrar), they’re in for a rude awakening when they find that their skills aren’t up to snuff because they haven’t really worked in a real professional environment. Which is why so many of their graduates don’t get employed.”
The reason why people aren’t employed after they graduate from LCB/CSCA is because entry level culinary jobs pay about $8 an hour. You graduate with a student loan of $40,000. Add to that the cost of living in the Southern California area and you have a mostly unworkable financial situation.
None of the graduates I know have had anyone consider them lacking in kitchen skills. Everyone I know who is not working in the industry opted out for financial reasons.
Here’s the math. On an $8 an hour salary, pay $1500 a month in rent, $500 in loan, and then eat, make a car payment, and car insurance. For those of us who are entering this as a SECOND career (who are used to making a LOT more money) – this is simply not worth the gas it takes to get us to work.
For those of us who have MORTGAGES and not rental payments, $8 an hour equals default on your home loan.
In a nutshell – most people I know can’t afford to take the wages hit it takes to BE a chef.
P.S. You have to do a 360 hour externship in order to graduate in a restaurant, off campus. How is that not “a professional situation?”
To paraphrase All That Jazz, re: Suzy; “She’s not even reviewing a review.
She’s telling you how clever she is.”
Meanwhile, I love that food/anthropolgy has come to the fore; thanks for posting Dr. Ray’s piece.
And this brings me to my second point: The ages of the people who are going to culinary school.
A good portion of the people in school these days are over 30. Some, over 35. Some, well over 40. They, unlike a 20 year old with plenty of time on their hands, don’t have 15+ years to devote to grind work before they can move up. Its not easy being 40 and stable and taking orders from a kid/”Chef” who’s a complete train wreck, simply because he got there first. Most of the chefs I can work with – are young enough to be my sons.
Of course, nobody knows that because I still look like I’m in my late 20’s, buuuut I digress.
Jennie:
I should clarify. I watched quite a few classmates drop out during the first semester because they found out that being a chef was going to be a lot of hard work. In class, you don’t have the pressing time constraints that you would in a restaurant kitchen, nor do you have the chef and a bunch of wait staff yelling at you. And yet the work in school alone was too much for them.
Of course, dropping out for them isn’t the end of it; they’ll be getting phone calls and letters and e-mails from the sales department begging them to come back for the next few years. The CCA isn’t picky when it comes to students. If you qualify for a loan or have the money to pay the tuition, you’re in.
The courses are very rushed. You get what is the equivalent of a 4-year course at the CIA in one year’s time. Yes, you learn necessary skills, and I learned a hell of a lot there that made me a much better cook than I was. But you don’t have time to hone those skills in a practical setting, developing the speed and finesse required in a working kitchen.
If a student gets far enough to hit the externship, then they REALLY find out what it’s like to work in a pro kitchen. And that can be an eye-opening experience.
And finally, you pointed out the most important fact of all – the money. The last time I heard, CCA’s tuition was over $50K. Mine was $40K and I’m still paying it off. Fortunately I am in a career where I can afford the payments without difficulty. But many people can’t, and I’ll bet you anything that there are a lot of students out there that defaulted on their loans.
Caveat emptor.
Skawt – I completely agree. I felt very very rushed and took off more than a year after graduation to practice what I learned and become more comfortable with it. I really wished for a longer program. There’s no time to think in CCA’s.
I didn’t see too many people drop out of classes – but I did see them crash and burn when restaurant rotation came around. The Chef had no problem pulling somebody off the line mid-dinner (especially at the grill) for not being good enough. Its hard watching someone being permanently demoted to garde manger in front of 60 paying customers (the kitchen was entirely open). All that time, effort, and expense and they probably can’t hack it in reality.
And I’ve seen plates go back again and again and again for broken sauces. Egos shrink right back down to size in situations like that.
I feel like I was lucky enough to get the best of both worlds — two years being educated by a CIA-trained chef at community college prices. For those of you who don’t want to pay those incredibly high tuitions, you might want to check out your local CC.
Despite it all – I’m still making the argument FOR school – ANY school. What you want to avoid, in my opinion, is too many “I don’t know how’s” when your Chef tells you to do something. Of course you have to have a GREAT work ethic to make it, buuuuut too many, “Gee, Chef – can you show me how’s?????” looks baaaaaaaaaad on the job.
I remember a guy who graduated, got a job – then got fired because he was asked twice by his chef to make a simple tartar sauce. He didn’t know how. He was fired on the spot.
One of my own Chef-Instructors (a guy who was at Aqua in San Francisco before CSCA) fired at least one line-cook for not having shined his shoes before a shift.
I avoid the phrase, “I don’t know how, Chef” like the plague.
If there is any “harsh reality” that needs addressing here, its this:
You automatically have 2 strikes against you when you’re a culinary grad looking for work.
If you do well – its held against you (Well of course YOU did well, you’re rich and went to school). If you make a mistake (and everybody does at some point) – you’re incompetent and not able to work hard. Where others are readily forgiven, culinary grads aren’t.
Drop the bar all the way down to the floor for some – raise it to standards God couldn’t keep for culinary grads. That’s the real issue here.
Double Standards.
Jennie:
Now you know why I decided not to make a career of it. I went on a couple of interviews while I was in school. Every single exec chef I met (in San Francisco) was derisive of the fact that I was going to school for culinary training.
Fortunately after the first semester I realized that to continue training to become a chef would not suit me, and that I would come to hate cooking over time, and went back to my career in IT. I still love to cook, I make excellent sauces, and I make enough money to be comfortable.
There’s only a certain amount of abuse I’m willing to put up with, and I put up with plenty during my younger days. I paid my dues. I’m not going to pay them again for the next 5 years standing on my feet for 12 hours a day in a 120 degree kitchen while people yell at me all day.
Screw that shit.
Amen Skawt! I realized after about the second quarter that it wasn’t going to be for me, but did the two years because I really enjoyed the experience. Immediately returned to work in the legal field after I finished — better hours, much better pay.
Well said, Skawt – weeeell said.
For those of us who went to school, there is the very real danger that we’ll come to hate cooking. Entire areas of the industry itself are against us. Former chefs like Bourdain are vocal about being FOR the untrained, and as we’ve heard, heaps praise on them liberally (and reaches the point of becoming maudlin about their hardships).
Now, I bleed veal-demi just like every other chef does, buuuut I’m not stupid enough to ruin myself in an industry that won’t appreciate me. I could work as a line-cook in a restaurant exclusively, but I work more often in Mass Care/Mass Disaster Feeding and Logistics (i.e. how to feed tens of thousands) as Chef instead. They’re happy to have a culinary grad in the non-profit sector.
There are other uses for culinary degrees. You don’t have to be a chef (all the time).
Should the attitudes change in the restaurant world, I’d definitely consider going back to full time again. But if not – why should I?
Instead – be lookin’ for some damned fine cooking at the scene of the next big disaster
P.S. All you chefs who brag at 400 covers a night. On a busy disaster scene – try 3000 covers. Daily. Screw 12 hours shifts – try 20 hour shifts.
Way to GO, Jennie! No one’s topping THOSE stats! And for humanitarian reasons, too! You got big clangy blue ones, girl! (I mean that in the best possible sense.)
LOL, Claudia!!
P.S. I too am 5′2″, and *ahem*, feisty
Let’s here it for the Shorties!!!
Jen
Jennie — great point about how there are many other things you can do other than work the line with a cooking degree.
Tony Bourdain is an asshole.