Frank Bruni, man of the people, friend to the mediocre.

Like Don King, Anthony Bourdain understands that it's feuds what put butts in the seats -- or gets the clicks in this case. The crux of his feud with Alice Waters is Waters' myopic elitism, and he's got a point. A food revolution that can feed some, but not all, Yale undergrads is a revolution that needs work. 

But. You can only call someone Pol Pot in a muumuu so many times. So, in a different vein, Bourdain recently pointed out that maybe the food that Paula Deen pushes is not so healthy, and that she is in bed with various corporations that produce food unsustainably. The gist of Deen's response was to suggest Bourdain was fancy: 

“You know, not everybody can afford to pay $58 for prime rib or $650 for a bottle of wine. My friends and I cook for regular families who worry about feeding their kids and paying the bills . . . It wasn’t that long ago that I was struggling to feed my family, too.”

What Deen says is true, but it's not relevant. It's a Palinesque misdirection tactic -- when someone raises a question about you, you respond by suggesting that the person asking the question is too fancy to understand how things are on Main Street. 

Not surprisingly, friend to the mediocre Frank Bruni rushes to Deen's defense:

Put aside her one-with-the-masses pose, ludicrous in light of the millions she has made from television shows, cookbooks, cookware, mattresses and more. She’s otherwise 100 percent justified in assailing the culinary aristocracy, to which even a self-styled bad boy like Bourdain belongs, for an often selective, judgmental and unforgiving worldview.

And her retort exposes class tensions in the food world that sadly mirror those in society at large. You can almost imagine Bourdain and Deen as political candidates, a blue-state paternalist squaring off against a red-state populist over correct living versus liberty in all its artery-clogging, self-destructive glory.

Bruni's argument is hard to follow. He establishes his credentials as part of this culinary elite by mentioning his preference for Lucky Peach over Food Network Magazine, then tells us that pointing out that food that is bad for you, is, like, bad for you is the kind of thing this out-of-touch aristocracy does because they can't relate to real people. Also, if the ex-junkie ex-chef who makes a living eating testicles and drinking moonshine across the developing world is "paternalistic," I wish I'd known Bruni's dad. 

Buni props up this argument with a ludicrous false dichotomy:

But these preferences reflect privileges and don’t entitle me, Bourdain or anyone else who trots the globe and visits ambitious restaurants — the most casual of which can cost $50 a person and entail hourlong waits — to look down on food lovers without the resources, opportunity or inclination for that.*

So, if you are not booking a flight for a dinner at St. John, your other option is tucking in to that Bloomin' Onion at Outback? There has got to be a third way, right? 

Besides, treating Deen, Lee & Co. with anything that smacks of moralizing and snobbery isn’t likely to move them or their audience toward healthier eating. It’s apt to cook up resentment. And we’ve got enough ill will and polarization in our politics. Let’s not set a place for them at the table.

This last graf suggests that the problem is not treating the poors with paternalistic condescenscion, but condescending to them more effectively, so they make better choices. 

In the end , Bourdain emerges as the voice of reason by suggesting at least the possibility of some sort of middle ground between Deen and Waters. Bourdain is refreshing for his lack of interest in saving the world, but the guy who comes out of this smelling like a rose is Jamie Oliver. Grandstanding at times, yes, but he is one of the few food celebs who is actually making an effort to think on the scale necessary to address America's fat problem. 

*In Bruni's defense, the same writers who bemoan the poor dietary habits of "Americans" are often the same folks celebrating restaurants that are serving food that is more expensive, but no healthier than the stuff Deen pushes. A while back, a tipster pointed out that Bittman lamented the demise of gut busting bistro M. Wells just hours after publishing to tax the foods that make poor people fat.  Play us off, Lord Rockingham!

 

Comments

[Anne Lounsbery]

It's the Upper Crust! I didn't know you were a fan too. Hey little rickshaw boy!

[Ann]

Terrific riposte to Bruni, who doesn't seem like a bad guy but maybe got his argument wrong. That middle ground is what needs to be explored. That's where the real alternation needs to happen.

And massive high five on the Upper Crust, the world's most privileged band.

[Lia]

bizarre of bruni to attack bourdain as elitest when he's probably most responsible (other than robert sietsema, to nyc readers) for the shift over the last decade in (ugh) foodies being able to think of cheap but quality ethnic food you eat on the street or in a shopping mall, as just as exciting and valid as anything in a nyt starred restaurant, which are all $$$ and either european or japanese.

[Josh]

Gay writer defends gay icon (odd and kind of creepy that she is, but true. No news there.

[Doug]

Good article, but desperately in need of an editing pass.

[The Gurgling Cod]

@Doug. Yipes. Fair enough.

[KJams]

Bourdain would run a busload of school kids off the road if it meant he could make a nasty comment about it later. So insincere it's repugnant.

[Marco]

I commend The Cod for trying to sort out all of this bullshit and with a musical soundtrack to boot. All of this with Irene headed toward the 617. But, I find it all a little fucking boring and redundant. How many times do we have to hear the same thing said a million ways? Think of how hard it is to change your eating habits, let alone your consciousness in any meaningful transformative way.
I also appreciate the way certain people in the food writing profession bend with the quantity of those clicks. No pun intended, but, but...

[Jim]

Nice job! First kudo for recognizing that Bourdain didn't accidentally fall into this feud. Second (and super-sized) kudo for reminding people that Bruni was, and always will be a GWB toadie. Third kudo for the step-by-step destruction of Pancho's argument.
And final kudo for recognizing that Jamie Oliver is one of the few celebrity chefs using his fame in an effort to truly make a difference on this issue.

[dubarry]

My mother, who has an excellent palate and would not even know what foodie means, is a retired Brooklyn Italian-American schoolteacher who ate at Paula Deen's restaurant, and said it was SWILL, absolute SWILL.

This is a woman that knows her way around some polenta/grits, gnocchi/mac&cheese, polpette/meatloaf. Paula Deen is no working class hero. In fact, adding a few sticks of butter to somewhat processed food - cream cheese, eg, is in my mother's book (and mine) an expensive way to do things.

Red/blue politics are all about the upper classes manipulating the lower, in both cases. In neither case is their a genuine class divide.

[dubarry]

I meant neither side actually represents the lower classes, in both cases there is a class divide among the capitalists and the proles. Plus ca change y'all.

[cloverleaf]

Having watched Paula host Jimmy & Rosalyn Carter on her show in the past, treating them with the utmost graciousness, made it quite clear that she was a supporter. That kind of blows holes into Bruni's blue state/red state argument.

I think Tony and Paula are both concerned with the common person's plight in their own, distinct ways. As for their prospective success, Tony, who I so admire, calls himself a sell-out, while Paula gets overly defensive about it. C'est la vie.

[newark]

You also can check with your state’s attorney general’s office or consumer affairs department.

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