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.

WHO is Ruth Bourdain? Really?!!

It actually DOES make sense.

I’ve been away, so that’s my only excuse for not presenting this important story as breaking news. But this is HUGE news…WHENEVER you hear about it.

The real life identity of Ruth Bourdain has been the subject of speculation ever since she started Tweeting. The alternately poetically waxing and scurrilously cursing Tweetster has demonstrated a wicked sense of humor AND an intense, deep knowledge of food topics and issues. Who could this person have been?

I found it quite surprising for a couple of reasons to learn that Ruth Bourdain is no other than Alice Waters, chef of all that is good and holy and, hopefully, organic.   

Firstly, we don’t think of the Mother of California Cuisine as being foul-mouthed or particularly amusing, but, boy, is she! Apparently, she needed an outlet for the more base parts of her personality, while still wanting to express her foodie-ism. And secondly, she has an ongoing feud of sorts with Anthony Bourdain, which makes this whole taking-on-part-of-his-identity-thing even funnier.

Alice Waters said this about him and Ruth Reichl:

"Well, Tony has always been something of an ass to me. So there's that. But he also represents this tremendous dark-side of the human psyche. He is drugs, and sex, and rock music. Then to pair that with the lovely, idyllic musings of Ruth Reichl just seemed to make sense to me at the time. I'd had a glass of wine at that point, certainly."

Bourdain has said this about HER:

Alice Waters annoys the living shit out of me. We’re all in the middle of a recession, like we’re all going to start buying expensive organic food and running to the green market. There’s something very Khmer Rouge about Alice Waters that has become unrealistic. I mean I’m not crazy about our obsession with corn or ethanol and all that, but I’m a little uncomfortable with legislating good eating habits. I’m suspicious of orthodoxy, the kind of orthodoxy when it comes to what you put in your mouth.

The full story, or the up-to-right-now story, is here.

Alice Waters, AS ALICE WATERS, tweeted the truth on April 1st:

AliceWaters 

Yes, It's True. I Am @RuthBourdain

1 Apr 

In the past, there have been reports that both Tony and Ruth Reichl loved Ruth Bourdain’s tweets. So far I haven’t found Tony’s response. Here is Ruth Reichl’s:

 

ruthreichl @lalioneyes If Alice Waters is Ruth Bourdain, I will follow in Herzog's footsteps and eat my shoe. Did I miss that rumor? Not a chance.    1 Apr  

ruthreichl @lalioneyes Yes, I do believe it's really Alice. She called to tell me that, no longer a luddite, she was about to begin to tweet. 1 Apr 

I’m kind of sorry to lose the illusion of Ruth Bourdain, but, at least, she’s still tweeting. One recent tweet: 

RuthBourdain
I just got Gwyneth Paltrow's new cookbook, and I have to say it's very illuminating. That's because I set it on fire. 7 Apr 

We’re lucky, though, that the Bronx Zoo Cobra is still active on Twitter, even after being found. She is still one of the funniest tweeters online. She reacted after the public voted to name her Mia:

@BronxZoosCobra So, the vote is in. They want to name me Mia. But in my heart I'll always know that my true name is Mrs. Justin Bieber.
7 Apr via web 

I guess the lesson from all of this is that funny tweets can come from anyone or anywhere - cook or cobra.