Food Fight

I kind of like Anthony Bourdain, and I kind of don’t. He’s cocky, he’s arrogant. But there’s no question he knows food. And he’s a solid writer too.

(Aside: that very special Lebanon episode of his Travel Channel show “Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations” – the one where he just so happened to be in Beirut when Israel went after Hezbollah – was awesome.

I love this wonderful smackdown of some of the Food Network's personalities. (If you’ve never watched the Food Network, it’s a mixture of primarily 30 minutes segments with some of the most irritating people on Earth and some brilliant chefs and food experts, shot with digital cameras and then reran incessantly.)

The endlessly irritating yet inexplicably popular Rachael Ray is arguably the largest cultural success the Food Network (and Oprah) has had in recent years forcing another celebrity “chef” down our throats. Anthony Bourdain describes her masterfully:

“Rachael [Ray] uses her strange and terrible powers to narcotize her public with her hypnotic mantra of Yummo and Evoo and Sammys. ‘You’re doing just fine. You don’t even have to chop an onion--you can buy it already chopped. Aspire to nothing…Just sit there. Have another Triscuit…Sleep….sleep….’”