Frank Bruni on the food world’s big fat double standard

In today’s New York Times, former food critic Frank Bruni weighs in on the food fight between everyone’s favourite loudmouth food writer and former chef, Anthony Bourdain, and the undisputed queen of southern fried cooking, Paula Deen (Bourdain told TV Guide last week that Deen is “the worst, most dangerous person to America” for “telling an already obese nation that it’s okay to eat food that is killing us”). After noting that Bourdain himself used to serve some pretty unhealthy fare at Les Halles (duck confit, pâté), Bruni points to a double standard in how many in the food world talk about fatty foods. “When Deen fries a chicken, many of us balk. When the Manhattan chefs David Chang or Andrew Carmellini do, we grovel for reservations and swoon over the homey exhilaration of it all. Her strips of bacon, skirting pancakes, represent heedless gluttony. Chang’s dominoes of pork belly, swaddled in an Asian bun, signify high art.” While we reserve the right to poke fun at novelty fatty foods, Bruni’s got a point. Read the whole story [New York Times] »