Today, Gayle King, caring girlfriend to many, talked to Anthony Bourdain, riotous antagonist to most, on her XM radio show.
Unfortunately, I only caught a little of it, but it was fascinating. I liked the counterpoint between sunny and funny Gayle and surly and sarcastic Tony. In the understatement of the century, Gayle said it seemed that there were quite a few Food Network chefs that he didn't like.
He went into a long explanation of what a chef was...Still Gayle was clueless. And THEN Gayle said, "I thought if they were on the Food Network, they were CHEFS, like Rachael Ray." I almost spit my teeth out of my head.
To Tony's credit or perhaps DIScredit, he calmly said even Rachael Ray doesn't consider herself a chef. And Gayle repeated that she had always thought of RR as a chef, BECAUSE she appeared on the Food Network. Back to Tony talking (correctly) about how a CHEF is the leader of a troop of cooks in a professional kitchen. That IS the correct understanding of the French word CHEF. It means leader, head or chief. The only thing RR leads is a gross adulteration of the culinary arts.
Anyway, I guess Anthony Bourdain is capable of civilised conversation (darn!), when the situation (talking to the best friend of the most powerful woman in media today) requires it. But who would have thunk that Tony could have held his tongue? But hold it he did, even though Gayle's naiveté should have driven him wild.
5 comments:
Wow! Sue this is so interesting. I am a huge Tony Bourdain's fan (isn't he hot in a rocker kinda way?!) RRay a chef? how can Gayle not know? wow!
I love your blog!
Oh man, I wish Tony would have gone off on her. I would have died laughing.
Well I am really proud of Tony for not going nuts on RR. I do love him, but he can tend to be a bit mean at times. But hey, its all part of the facade. I think he is probably a big snuggly teddy bear off the air!
;)
Kathy,
I guess Gayle's innocence is part of her charm.
Emilie,
He must be learning restraint in his old age.
Jenn,
I do kind of agree with you. I think it might have been a bit yucky if he started dissing RR in front of Gayle. After all, she's probably contractually obligated never to disagree with Oprah.
I read recently that Tony is married (apparently, he has been for a long time) and now has a small kid AND is cutting down on his smoking. I hope he doesn't get too nice.
Here's an old interview with him I just found that's pretty interesting:
http://www.restaurantreport.com/features/ft_bourdain.html
All this talk over Rachel Ray's cooking prowess is chef egoism. Rachel sometimes prepares really delicious food. I've made some of it. As for Bourdain, i've eaten at his favorite place, Prune, and I must say the food is interesting, reasonably priced, but having raisins on the vine is kind of cheap don't you think? Reminds me of my youth eating wild boisenberries in the woods. Great when I was 10.
Post a Comment