Bourdain and Deen
August 20, 2011 Leave a comment
I’ve always wondered if Deen can go an entire sentence on her show without saying “y’all.” OK, ok you’re from the south, y’all. I get it. I think Paula is OK though with her regular people recipes and style even if she does remind me of Divine.
I admire Bourdain with his globetrotting while checking out a location’s food. I watched a No Reservations yesterday about Italy. He compared pizza. He compared NY thin crust pizza with pizza from Naples. He asked, “When did it become OK to sprinkle packaged shredded mozzarella on a crust instead of using fresh mozzarella slices and pieces?” Of course, unless you’re in NYC or Chicago or even The Hill section of St. Louis it may be tough to find fresh mozzarella. And, I suspect most people don’t even know what fresh mozzarella is.
He showed a a man that worked at a Naples pizzeria with wood oven taking a crust, spooning a homemade tomato sauce on it, quickly putting very fresh mozzarella on it and then just a few whole basil leaves on the top. That’s it. He was served a pizza that looked about 14” in diameter at the table. He pointed out how everyone in the restaurant was eating it with knife and fork. He wondered how or why people started picking up pieces by hand. Ooops, suddenly he saw a diner taking a pizza triangle and slurping at it at the restaurant. I guess it’s however you want to do it, eh?
He went on later to show freshly caught urchins or anchovies being prepared and served with pasta, spaghetti style noodles. He pointed out how anchovies from the ocean are nothing like their gooey counterpart in the cans from the USA markets that so many Americans hate. The chefs simply put some EVOO in the pan, garlic, anchovies, maybe fresh basil, or parsley, or oregano or all three, add some fresh olives and served that with spaghetti topped with more green herbs and parmesan reggiano.
I admired the authentic Italian dishes completely. Bourdain widely criticizes and describes how he thinks food should be served and prepared all over the planet. That’s what he does. He was a chef for 28 years at a demanding restaurant in NYC. At the end of this particular Italy episode he sat with two young CIA chefs in Manhattan. These two talked about how they use the Italian technique of using ingredients from their particular area instead of importing them from the Mediterranean. And, that’s it. I agree. If a cook takes fresh ingredients from their area and uses them in an Italian recipe instead of using products from some other place on the planet then they’ve got something going on that can’t be done with products from a can.
Paula Deen says that she and the other people criticized by Bourdain give lots of money to charitable organizations. Huh? WTF does that matter about the style of food she or Sandra Lee prepares? I think people should eat or prepare what they want. But, I’d rather have Deen say – “hey, Anthony – I don’t care what you think about anything. I like my food and so do the people that eat it.”
Ain’t that good enough?
thegourmetcritic 