Who is Josh Friedland? Ask Ruth Bourdain.

This is big. Ruth Bourdain, the bawdy, brainy Twitter mashup persona of Anthony Bourdain and Ruth Reichl unveiled him/herself to The New York Times this morning in front page news. Since March of 2010, Ruth Bourdain has been tweeting hilarious, pointed musings on the culinary affectations of modern day foodie greats.

The real identity of this James Beard award winning culinary star has been the subject of breathless speculation (at times). S/he turns out to be, Josh Friedland, a calm, somewhat serious foodie at the helm of Food Section, a website that features Josh’s original reporting and food stories that he gathers from all over the universe. The amazing thing is that there is not a hint of snark, irony or satire on his site. There IS however a huge amount of information, news and culinary intelligence that would work perfectly as the basis for Ruth Bourdain’s mocking messaging on Twitter. And let’s not forget that Josh lives in Joisey!  

  

The real world tweets of Ruth Reichl and Anthony Bourdain seem like a parody in themselves, so it was a brilliant idea to combine them. As of this writing, here is Reichl’s latest tweet:

ruthreichl ‏@ruthreichl 2h

Fuzzy gray Rothko sky. Strangely gorgeous. Sour cherry lemonade. Fresh warm biscuits. Apricot jam. Bright food for a pale morning.

And another:

ruthreichl ‏@ruthreichl 10 Jul

Air warm. Heavy. Skies gray. Wild turkeys on the lawn. Bright cold watermelon splashed with cream. Iced lemon verbena tea. Lighter.    

                   

These are some recent tweets from Anthony Bourdain (who has calmed down a lot after having a daughter and marrying):

Anthony Bourdain ‏@Bourdain 5 Jul

Are airport food service operations required to hire all staff through A Dribbling, Uncaring Idiots Union? No other explanation #GoatRodeo

Anthony Bourdain ‏@Bourdain 30 Jun

Breakfast: coffee, lipitor and my last Congolese painkiller.

                     

I was fairly certain Ruth Bourdain was Alice Waters, who actually admitted to it in 2011. Okay, it WAS on April Fool’s Day, but I loved the idea that the super serious and painfully earnest chef could mock herself with such abandon. It IS cool to know RB’s real identity, but I wonder if her/his tweets will lose a bit of their edge, knowing that they come from such a seemingly calm and dispassionate observer of the culinary scene.