Quotes of the Day

"I love Whole Foods talking about lobster and clam cruelty, when people are being fucked to death, kidnapped, starved, bombed. There is so much cruelty to humans — so much cruelty to animals — in this world. And people are worried about a fucking mollusk. Unbelievable."

And:

"I think the notion that the government or somebody owes you absolute safety and security in everything you eat is a destructive one, with cheese being the easiest example. With cheese having to be pasteurized or aged to a certain degree, none of us will ever experience a real brie, or how good that used to be. There are laws that you have to sign a release, or at least read a warning statement, before you eat a rare burger. I think we've slipped over into the twilight zone here."

And:

"In 25 years, I don't remember ever seeing an American-born kid of any income level walk into my restaurant, or any restaurant owned by any of my friends, and ask, Do you have a dishwasher job, or a prep job, or a job for a kitchen porter? We're not willing to do it. If somebody else wants to come over here and do it, that's fine with me. And yeah, I think we should open our borders, for a variety of reasons. First of all, we've got plenty of work for people, apparently. People say "they're taking our jobs" — well, no one's asking for those jobs. I also like the idea of people from other places coming to our country and multiplying. It makes for better food, higher expectations, more diversity and cuter people. Foreigners should come to our country and have sex with our womenfolk."

— Bad-boy chef Anthony Bourdain, in Salon.

Comments

[mk]

I've worked with quite a few chefs over the years and many of them have told me that burgers should be at least medium-well. Steaks, of course, ought to be rare; medium-rare at most. The problem bacteria tends to be on the surface of meat so a simple pittsburgh-style bit of charring will make most cuts safe. The problem with hamburger is that it was almost all on the surface at some point or other.
Of course, one ought to be able to make the choice themselves. I've had grain-fed pork before, which is pork that can be cooked to order. A thick-cut pork chop cooked to medium is a wonderful tasty thing.

[Tony]

That first quote is ridiculous. There are worse things in the world than cruelty to lobsters. No kidding. That doesn't mean that said cruelty somehow becomes acceptable. By Mr. Bourdain's logic, we can only address the most egregious cruelty in the world. When that's solved, we should move on to the next worst. I'm not buying it.

And Whole Foods is a grocery chain. If it came out against kidnapping, what benefit would we get from that? Does anyone believe Whole Foods supports kidnapping? Mr. Bourdain is misguided in his criticism.