Here‘s a very interesting (if completely one-sided) back-and-forth interview between Anthony Bourdain and Michael Ruhlman, two significant personages in the world of food:
Telling people what they should and shouldn’t eat is cultural imperialism — and deeply disturbing. That a group of people could say, “You know, how you eat and how you’ve been eating for hundreds, if not thousands, of years — traditional Jewish cuisine, Western European food since Roman times — that is wrong and should not be allowed.” I find that offensive. Ethnically insensitive, jingoistic, xenophobic, anti-human and disrespectful of the diversity of cultures on this planet, and for human history. But that’s just the kind of law that has passed — in Chicago, our second city, no less. It’s a win for the forces of darkness, willful ignorance and intolerance.
Later on in the exchange, Bourdain defends fois gras as a relatively benign practice (specifically compared to the big business farming that goes on in the chicken and beef industries). Also openly mocked: Whole Foods’s pro-crustacean, pro-biped stance, as chronicled in this space a few months ago.
[Salon]
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