Archives for the 'anthony bourdain' tag
Standing the Heat
TIME Magazine (not Time but TIME!) has a review of five new books, fictional and non-, about life in a restaurant’s back office. Writer Lev Grossman frames his roundup in “the post-Bourdainian era:”
It was invisible then. Now we recognize it right away: this is Anthony Bourdain’s world. … He changed our whole cultural idea of what a kitchen is. Pre-Bourdain, it was a warm, cozy, maternal place. Now it’s a profane, brutal, masculine crucible, where human frailty is rendered away like so much tasty bacon fat.
A fun read even if you have no intention of picking up the books discussed.
This Week in Bacon
Marco Pierre White’s revelation of the secret behind his renowned bacon sandwiches has caused a backlash worthy of Carla Bruni’s new album. White, the eminent restaurateur and chef who has had a hand in the careers of chefs like Gordon Ramsay and is revered by guys like Batali and Bourdain, says the key to a great bacon butty is… the microwave.
He demonstrates his technique in the latest episode of his ITV1 show, Marco’s Great British Feast.
Not only does it taste good, but it saves on washing up, according to White, who claims to have employed the technique for the past 15 years.
“Why do I want to wash a grill tray? Why do I want to make a mess? When I cook my bacon I have only one plate to wash up. It tastes better and it’s practical. Every household needs one,” he proclaims in the show.
Food writer Tim Hawyard takes White to task at the Guardian’s Word of Mouth.
As I watched last night’s edition of Marco’s Great British Feast, with hot, salty tears in my eyes, Marco Pierre White sat in a cabman’s hut and ordered his bacon microwaved.
[...]
Why would it be necessary for a man with MPW’s towering talent and stunning technical ability to go so insanely off-piste? Microwaving bacon, if my interpretation of McGee is correct, would sort of steam it from within. There’s no crispiness, no caremelisation, just a hot floppy cured product.
I must come to White’s defense (defence?) here. I know from crispy. I appreciate microwaved bacon, not surprisingly, for its crispiness, and also for its lack of mess. But too often microwaved bacon is burnt, and (like most microwaved food) is unevenly cooked. And, frankly, there’s still usually a grease splatter and a hot-ass plate to deal with as well. So it’s not perfect. But it’s hardly deplorable, right?
How about you, dear reader. How do you prefer your bacon?
Note: I found the foreign bacon controversy more interesting than the domestic one.
Bourdain Kind of Announces Next Season’s ‘No Res’ Schedule
With last night’s Laotian season debut of No Reservations still on my DVR box, I can’t really comment on what Tony’s been up to.
I can, though, talk about what he’s up to now, and what he’s going to be up to soon. Actually, I’ll let him say it:
From Tuscany to Sardinia and now to Lombardi for a couple of days and then the long drive to Rome and then home – and back to work. Meaning: Mexico, DC, Vietnam, Venice, Chicago, Ethiopia, Provence, Thailand – and some other places I forget right now.
No Reservations in my neck of the woods (DC)? How… pedestrian and exciting at the same time.
I can already tell where he’s hitting: bar in Adams Morgan, maybe the bar at the Mayflower, an Ethiopian joint off U Street, and a hot spot each from Jose Andres and Michel Richard. It’d be cool if he hit some ethnic joint in Wheaton or Rockville or anyplace in Northern Virginia or thereabouts (Salvadoran, Korean, etc.).
Crispy Podcast Episode 0
We’ve received hundreds of letters and emails asking us to produce a weekly audio show that recaps the best stories from Crispy on the Outside and also features interviews and general bluster. We’re happy to let you know that we listened and we’re going to give you what you demanded–later this week sometime. For now, here is a test episode that will help us calibrate our podcasting software. You’ll definitely want to listen because it includes Baylen’s interview with Anthony Bourdain. Stay tuned for the free weekly podcast later this week.
Letterman First to Ask Bourdain About That Whole Cobra Heart Thing
Not really. And as a result — despite Tony’s best efforts — Bourdain’s appearance on the Late Show last night was pretty boring.
It also followed the pattern any post-fatherhood Dave interview has taken: if a guest has had a child within the last 57 months, you can bet Dave’s going to bore his viewers by asking about the kid. When he wasn’t asking about Tony’s daughter, Dave really only seemed to be paying any attention when Tony brought up Eric Ripert. (It certainly wasn’t when he went to commercial claiming No Reservations is on “Mondays at 10 a.m.”)
Tony did manage to get in one good line. When Dave asked if he’d ever “been really ill” from eating, Tony talked about picking at “the business end of a warthog” in the Kalahari, and then offered up this truism:
Most of the time, if I find myself on a cold tile floor after a meal on the show, most of the time it’s alcohol-related.
No video up yet. Bourdain’s first Late Night Show appearance (requires Real Player) here.
Bourdain Inspires… Vegan Blog?
Anthony Bourdain once called vegans the “Hezbollah-like splinter faction” of vegetarians. The vegan response generally mimicked what the more extremist elements of Pakistani society did after the whole Muhammad cartoon controversy.
But lo and behold — at least one vegan understands how to express her anger where it counts: in the kitchen. Thus, we have Hezbollah Tofu.
Last month, a North Carolina blogger named Sara (who self-identifies as a B-12 enema addict) decided to take Bourdain’s criticism of vegans’ bland, gas-inducing food and veganize the French classics Bourdain lovingly churned out for years from his perch in the Les Halles kitchen. In an open (and no doubt unopened) letter to Bourdain, Sara writes:
Because, Anthony, you’re kind of tragically wrong about us. But don’t worry, we’re not going to do something silly like picket the Travel Channel or go around bookstores drawing giant penises on your book covers with Sharpies. We have two key advantages over you in this game: we’re easily mobilized, and we can cook.
So we aren’t just going to “enjoy” food, we’re going to enjoy vastly improved, veganized versions of your masturbatory, blood-oozing recipes. And then we’re going to compile them, sell them in zine form, and donate the proceeds to vegan outreach organizations and farm sanctuaries–in your name. Anthony, I have to say, I’m really looking forward to the great work we’re going to do together for veganism.
This is an open call to vegan cooks of all stripes: professional chefs and bakers, cookbook authors, food bloggers, amateur cooks, and–perhaps most importantly–ordinary, everyday people who just want to live their lives and eat their dinners without unnecessary heckling from the heroin-addled peanut gallery.
This blog will serve as a meeting ground of sorts. Send in your veganized recipes, your ideas for veganized recipes, your photos of veganized recipes, and your thoughts in general to hezbollahtofu@gmail.com, and they will comprise the blog content and eventually the zine. In addition, I will periodically post Bourdain recipes in their original format, and you can veganize them as you see fit. Further, once the Hezbollah Tofu project reaches its zenith, the non-profits that receive the proceeds will be decided on by consensus.
I can’t wait to be part of the “consensus”. My vote? Send the donations to the Culinary Institute of America. Or the Artisan Farmers Alliance.
Mom and food writer Nancy Rommelmann reconsiders her tolerance for her daughter’s vegan boyfriend’s crappy palate here.
Bourdain, on SoBe, Makes Nice with his Enemies (or Vice Versa)
Anthony Bourdain filed three posts from the South Beach Wine & Food Festival over the weekend. They were great reading, of course, but also contained several bits of… well, there’s no other way to put it… alarming kindness shown to culinary enemies.
It’s been a confusing weekend on the beach. My Saturday event was a roaring, enthusiastically belligerent success–yet … I feel, I dunno, diminished and drained by the whole sordid enterprise. Maybe I’m just not angry anymore. I tell you, it shakes you to the core when people you’ve been insulting for years–at every opportunity–are decent to you.
In the last three, up-is-down and down-is-up days Rocco Di Spirito bailed me out, Emeril Lagasse generously fed me, Jamie Oliver talked child rearing with me for hours. Cat Cora was civil and … drum roll please … Rachael Ray was unfailingly polite. I fear I might even have hurt her feelings.
If one’s 50s are the second stage of life (after the LiLo and Paris stage) where some people start to make frenemies, my hope of hopes is that Bourdain avoids it like he avoids a mouthful of iguana.
More on SoBe from Bourdain here, here, and here. Full list of “personalities” who attended SoBe F&W here.
Bourdain in NOLA
Tonight’s No Reservations takes place in New Orleans. It’s Bourdain’s first trip to the city since Hurricane Katrina struck. The Times-Picayune, which was the world’s Pulitzer-winning lifeline to news of the tragedy, has a good interview with Bourdain here.
“I don’t really care what Alec Baldwin says about politics. Even when I agree with him, I think he’s sort of a liability to the cause, because the natural instinct is to say, ‘The guy’s on TV. He probably lives in a compound in Hollywood. What does he have in common with me?’ I’m pretty wary of that.
“In this episode we’re concentrating on people in the business, in the restaurant industry, and we’re letting people know their stories. We’re just asking simple questions like, ‘What was business like before? And, ‘What is business like after?’
I’m excited for the bit where he sits down with Emeril, who, Bourdain notes, “always had a sense of humor about when I called him an Ewok”.
Your chance to be on the show here. Show schedule here. Food Network is airing old episodes of A Cook’s Tour — that schedule is here.
