Comments on: Does Writing About Food Make You an Asshole?

By: Pussy the Restaurant opens in LA. No one surprised. « Rage Against the Man-chine

Tue, 26 Apr 2011 04:36:09 +0000

[...] high end and comprehensive shopping and entertainment complex, but it was lacking an overpriced Porn Chic/Mexican fusion establishment. No more. Now there’s Pink Taco, several miles in LA traffic away from both the Hustler store [...]

By: Chef Du Jour

Chef Du Jour — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 20:04:10 +0000

Food writers are essentially talentless humps posing as journalists, largeley responsible for creating an elitist element we did not need within our culture. With a thesaurus in one hand and a perfectly chilled fork in the other they single-handedly gave birth to a cavalcade of egocentric media-whores and elevated this group to ‘celebrity’ status, (whatever that means). There are many truly talented working Chef’s in the US, and most (thank God) lack that essential media-whore instinct to see their faces peering out at us from supermarket freezers or idiotic TV shows in which showmanship matters more than the ability to cook well. From reading this blog, I purposely watched ‘Diners, Drive-ins and Douchebags’
which from a professional Chefs’ point of view was neither entertaining nor educational. The host was an ‘entertainer’ with sunglasses perched on the back of frosted tipped hair stuffing his face and grunting his way through an overstuffed hoagie roll of pastrami with all the fixins’. I guess some would consider it ‘entertainment’. Then there was a show built around a group of people who had no business being in a professional
kitchen competing to out-do each other and win the approval of a panel
of ‘judges’ who did their best to drive them to suicide through humiliation for their efforts to please. The ‘judges’ were a motly collection of people consisting of a creepy bald-headed guy and a good-looking woman of questionable genetic origin. As the ‘show’ progressed, there were tears and vicious attacks. I didn’t want to see who won the contest, I didn’t care, I just wanted them all off my screen.

By: Get on the fucking ball, janitors. « Rage Against the Man-chine

Get on the fucking ball, janitors. « Rage Against the Man-chine — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 02:18:55 +0000

[...] than feminist porn. We tried “pizza porn” (3,190,000 results) and got a combo of photos foodies had taken of pizzas with ridiculous shit on them and sites about “big sausages.” We [...]

By: Paul

Paul — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 19:54:44 +0000

Thank the heavens, I thought I was the only one. However, I have to disagree with you when it comes to Anthony Bourdain; unlike Guy “Fee-ay-day,” Bourdain actually makes an effort to expose his viewers to a little bit of the rest of the planet while using food as an excuse to do so. I’m not quite as opposed to some guy waxing poetic about the virtues of roasted meat or some obscure root as long as he’s doing it in a setting that’s halfway interesting.

Fieri seems perfectly content to wander the U.S. in his midlife-crisis-mobile and show us Americans the same crap we’ve been eating all our lives (as disturbing as that sounds, considering some of the “food” he shows off), stuff we could easily find without the aid of his “brilliance” if we had no other way to kill a weekend. As far as travel shows go, I don’t think Bourdain does any worse with his “screw the touristy crap, let’s see what ELSE there is around here” approach than any other traveling host. As pretentious as he seems sometimes, he still exposes people to countries and cultures they probably wouldn’t have had the intellectual curiosity to seek out on their own; whether that’s good or bad is up for debate, I guess.

By: The Hooburrito is here! « Rage Against the Man-chine

The Hooburrito is here! « Rage Against the Man-chine — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 01:22:45 +0000

[...] ruckus moshing in their bedrooms. I’m pretty sure this new Denny’s menu is even making Guy Fieri and his 1996 Rockabilly kit look [...]

By: The Hooburrito is here! « Shit That Sucks

The Hooburrito is here! « Shit That Sucks — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 01:21:25 +0000

[...] ruckus moshing in their bedrooms. I’m pretty sure this new Denny’s menu is even making Guy Fieri and his 1996 Rockabilly kit look [...]

By: The Hooburito is here! « Rage Against the Man-chine

The Hooburito is here! « Rage Against the Man-chine — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 01:20:23 +0000

[...] ruckus moshing in their bedrooms. I’m pretty sure this new Denny’s menu is even making Guy Fieri and his 1996 Rockabilly kit look [...]

By: Dan

Dan — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 14:04:49 +0000

Awesome article!!

Did you know Guy FeeEddie’s (lol) real name is Guy Ferry?? Check it out on Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Fieri

More can be found at: http://guyfierisucks.blogspot.com

By: Peter Thompson

Peter Thompson — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 03:12:13 +0000

I recently traded rejoinders with our local hack. There was an act of fellatio masking as a story on a well-known overpriced Tahoe tourist joint. So I wrote:

See, this isn’t an article…it’s an ad. I have no problem with that, but at least be honest that this was bought and paid for by a free dinner for Kathleen Steebins. Disclosure people. Why do you think nobody trusts newspapers anymore? It’s the puff, stupid!

Our local FOODIE, Jonathan L. Wright, was absolutely incensed!

You are sorely and grievously mistaken.
All formal restaurant reviews are paid for out of the food and drink budget of the Reno Gazette-Journal. Kathleen did not, and never has, accepted a free meal for a restaurant review. That is standard RGJ and newspaper industry policy.
I would caution you about making recklessly untrue statements that could meet the legal standard for libel. I would also remind you of the terms of service for posting; comments that are libelous, abusive or otherwise impermissible under those terms of service can easily be removed.
Please comment away, absolutely, but please do so responsibly and with respect to those topics on which you are qualified to comment.

So I wrote:
Don’t point your stinky finger at me, Wright, you lunar tundra of culinary writing! Her’s was a canned puff piece, in my opinion. While you’re busy protesting a little too much about the sterling integrity of your paper’s “foodies,” I should think that you, more than anyone else, should stick to writing about things you are qualified to write about. You’re a small-town hack, in my opinion, so I guess that means another visit to Red Robin and a box of red-colored wine for you. I would rather eat sushi from a vending machine than have to digest any more of your wastewater prose…

What a little prick this man must have. Now he just goes in and deletes my comments before reading them. There can be no dissension in the ranks. Foolish and stupid.

By: crankosaur

crankosaur — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 13:57:07 +0000

At work yesterday, I saw that we had put up a sign about “localvores” (people who eat only local produce) and it reminded me of this post.