Friday, April 27, 2007

Bad Boys who cook...


In particular, one who cooks, smokes, swears, sneers, drinks and travels the world in search of good eats...
...and lives to document his perspective of food and life in books, films, blog (as a guest) and interviews.

Anthony Bourdain = Yummy Yum Yum!

Since watching The Galloping Gourmet in the late 60's, I've always had a fave TV chef.
Graham Kerr taught me about rennet in cheesemaking and about clarified butter: ghee.
From Frugal Gourmet Jeff Smith I learned 'Hot pan, cold oil, food won't stick'.
Ah.....cooking mantras to chant and life-altering (?) lessons about the stomach lining of ruminants and the rendering of milk solids from butter...

Knowledge is to gold as exposés are to unrecycled aluminum ??? (sorry, can't seem to find a good analogy) or worse - pond scum.
To my dismay, time has revealed these two guys to be troubled, less-than-upstanding members of society, if not tortured souls:
  • alcoholic cook-turned-Christian-reborn-non-alcoholic cook (Kerr)
  • ordained Methodist minister-turned-author-TV personality accused of sexual abuse-turned from society and gave up TV show (Smith)
Is there a pattern here?

I wasn't surprised to learn about Kerr (he gulped wine on the show and slurred something awful - not criminal by any means, and he did turn his life round...) but was shocked and disappointed when accusations surfaced that Smith had a penchant for seducing young men (against their will).
Good golly, I even met Smith at a Seattle restaurant once and was invited to sit at his table for a 20 minute chat. Geez, he seemed like a perfectly nice guy (just goes to show that you can rarely detect from public persona about an individual's deepest darkest secrets).

When one looks to these chefs as mentors, it ain't just about the cooking, I'll have you know. Not the best judge of character, I must be the all-time suckah for kitchen charisma coupled with the expert wielding of cooking knives.

I subscribe to a lifestyle of eating, cooking and living in (relative) harmony with nature and other beings.
It's fun as well as comforting to look to others to set examples for all of the above.
Wouldn't it be wise, then - and much less of a letdown in the long run - if I could admire characteristics of a foodie personality who already wears the BadBoy label?
And has tattoos?
And is a professed agnostic?


A couple of adjectives to describe Tony Bourdain: sincere and scathing. Or sincerely scathing.
That boy bites! Bad!
Laughing out loud and emulating the snicker and sneer is a good thing.
Definitely worth watching and reading.


Someone please let me know when the whole of 'No Reservations' is available as one big beautiful DVD collection. It'll probably co$t a bundle, but I'm willing to $pring for it.

Until then, I'll just keep renting individual episodes from Netflix and catching snippets on YouTube.

And saving my pennie$.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi, Ive never posted before. I found your blog when I was surfing to find bloggers who share my interests and have interesting blogs. I'm from across the pond, sunny England. And it is actually sunny at the moment and for a number of weeks past. TV chefs. Have you come across Gordon Ramsey from the UK? His MO is shouting, swearing and insulting people. But at times he can be quite entertaining. Polar opposite of Delia Smith. Now there's a lady.

baffle said...

Welcome to b's blog, catswhisker!
It's always exciting when someone who's stopped by to peruse b's blog actually checks in to say hello.

A reader with a 'voice' is pure gold to us bloggers. Spammers can stay mum, but you who have something real to say are welcome to Post Comment anytime!

Sure beats the one-sided conversation I'm often found having with myself, so I thank you kindly for letting me know you're out there.

Gordon Ramsay - not familiar, but I'll be sure to keep a lookout.

Even with his BadBoy moniker, Bourdain doesn't do much shouting or insulting. He tends towards quiet (but judgemental) observation, then he reacts with acid-dripping sarcasm and those lovely sneers.

Quite endearing, really.

Delia Smith - has she been on for eons? I may have seen her on BBC on one of my visits to your side of the pond...

What are your interests?
I may be able to wax poetic on a few topics (or at least be inspired to runneth the proverbial cup over with my usual nonsensical banter, thereby filling up even more blogspace).

Enjoy the sunshine!

House Dreams said...

I've got a bad boy cook!

He started when the last kid moved out.

I said I was done cooking after 35 yrs. and he picked up the pots and pans.

Yum!

Catswhisker said...

Hi Baffle, thanks for responding to my comment. You can see Gordon Ramsay in action on Youtube if you're interested. There are some clips of the American version of his 'Hell's Kitchen'. I think we share an interest in books. I am a bibliophile, bookaholic, bookworm, whatever. My taste tends towards the eclectic or as I spotted on a blog recently, if it's shiny I am attracted to it. I like mainly non-fiction, anything that takes my fancy. Philosophy, psychology, sociology, poetry etc. etc. etc. I had a yen just recently to read some, what I call, serious fiction. Alison Lurie or Anita Brookner. I'm looking forward to that. I think you and I are about the same age. I am 54. Thanks for blogging. I'll check in again soon if that's okay.

Cheers, Catswhisker.