Fresh Greens

Anthony Bourdain: "Alice Waters Annoys the Living [Expletive] Out of Me."

By Maura Judkis

Posted: January 26, 2009

No Reservations host Anthony Bourdain has a bone to pick with Chez Panisse chef Alice Waters. Though Bourdain has stated in the past that he cooks organic food for his family, it seems that Alice Waters' philosophy is, to him, unrealistic in our current economic climate.

In an interview with DCist, Bourdain said:

"Alice Waters annoys the living [expletive] 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. I'm a little reluctant to admit that maybe Americans are too stupid to figure out that the food we're eating is killing us. But I don't know if it's time to send out special squads to close all the McDonald's. My libertarian side is at odds with my revulsion at what we as a country have done to ourselves physically with what we've chosen to eat and our fast food culture. I'm really divided on that issue."

He later backtracked, saying, "I respect Alice Waters' enormous contribution to changing the way we eat and cook today. No one can take that away from her. No one should try."

Do you agree with Bourdain?

More: Make Your Food More Eco-Friendly

Chez Panisse is wasteful!

Chez Panisse serves beautiful organic food. You know how they make organic produce look so perfect? They ditch anything that doesn't look perfect!

Junior kitchen staffers at Chez Panisse are often tasked with sifting through oranges or strawberries and setting aside all but the most perfect specimens. Where to the left overs go? Compost.

Berkeley Hungryton of CA @ Nov 20, 2009 13:02:57 PM

Anthony and Alice

Khmer Rouge? Tony, overstatement may be your style, but come on.

Instead of expander her empire, like your buddies, by opening a Chez Panisse Vegas, or Maurice a Mer in New York, Alice has worked out a plan that pays the farmers and her workers a living wage. She encourages them to pursue other interests in their lives, in addition to restaurant work, and pays them enough to have the time to do it.

Also, she is actively trying to expose children to organic produce, teach them how to grow it and how to cook it.

As a Berkeley citizen, this opinion sounds like a complaint I hear often. Yes, we are an opinionated group. We tend to think globally and act locally, but MacDonalds beat us. When I moved here in 1974, there were no fast food joints in Berkeley. Now a couple have made it.

Do you eat at MacDonalds?

Jude LaBarre of CA @ May 08, 2009 18:15:52 PM

Isn't it obvious that this country has a problem?

It's true that we Americans may be too stupid to realize that we are poisoning our food before we eat it, but, no one is ramming any style of eating down our throats. All Alice Waters is doing is presenting an alternative and sane approach that deserves attention and can only be of benefit to this society. Hormone, chemical and pesticide-free food isn't the norm, but should be. Bourdain mouths off on all matters under the sun, yet seems reluctant to give that right to others.

Pinkie of NY @ Mar 20, 2009 12:02:03 PM

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Fresh Greens

Fresh Greens

Maura Judkis is a producer at U.S. News. She writes about the green movement and looks for ways to be an ecofriendly consumer without breaking the bank. Send her your green tips.

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