My beloved Paula came under attack recently for revealing that she has Type 2 diabetes. One of my other favorite chefs, Tony Bourdain, was the attacker. Specifically he remarked that, "When your signature dish is hamburger in between a doughnut, and you've been cheerfully selling this stuff knowing all along that you've got Type 2 Diabetes... It's in bad taste if nothing else." Tony, why the hate?
It should surprise no one familiar with her cooking that Paula developed health issues. Anyone who has watched even one episode of any of her cooking shows would surmise that a daily diet as rich as the one Paula champions is not exactly be health-conscious. And Tony knows this and needs to get off his high horse. As the chef who got his start at Les Halles, a French bistro with menu items such as foie gras, crème brulee, and enough steak to make any cattle rancher proud, he might want to rethink his umbrage. He is also a chef who champions offal, which is not necessarily good for one's health.
Rich restaurant food is not meant for the everyday and most people understand that. Similarly, Paula's food is clearly not everyday fare if one wants to retain their health and their waistline and if someone isn't wise enough to realize that, well, you can't really blame Paula. The entire Food Network and food media in general (Cooking Channel, magazines such as Bon Appetit, blogs such as Eater) have consistently promoted the rich, fattening, the sweet because these foods are delectible and make for great food porn. A simple salad with vinaigrette is not usually as enticing as a standing rib roast or chocolate souffle.
doesn't this look like more fun
than this?
Now, don't get me wrong. I love Tony. I loved him when he wrote 'Kitchen Confidential' and all my co-workers and friends in the restaurant business were up in arms for his 'telling tales out of school.' I loved him when he wrote a "Cooks Tour" I followed the companion television program when it aired and have been a fan of his show "No Reservations" since it began as well. I have seen him on television and in person being his forthright self, which I have always appreciated, and my love for him is definite and unwavering. Which is why I would remind Tony that most culinary celebrities became famous not because they showed America how to steam vegetables (Jaime Oliver's current promotion of healthy eating not-with-standing). In other words, you, Tony, like virtually every chef I have ever known or followed, live in a glass house. A glass house full of triglycerides and sugars.
Demonizing Paula will not improve the health of the millions of Americans who are already obese or in otherwise ill-health. Paula Deen is certainly not "the most destructive person on the Food Network" as Mr. Bourdain has previously stated. Watch any number of shows on that network and you will see a veritable parade of bad-for-you dishes. She is not the first to promote rich cooking and she won't be the last. She probably should have come clean about her health status sooner, although I am of the camp that believes that sort of information is really nobody's business. (And, let's face it, she is not only a person, but a business and that business has advisors who I'm quite sure agreed that this information was bad for it.)
Which is likely why Paula responded to his remarks with "Get a life." Yes, Paula will likely now have to promote a healthier agenda in her cooking and otherwise make amends for her "destructive" ways. And I fear her recipes may suffer for it. After all what is traditional Southern cooking if not gloriously fattening and naughty. But as for Tony's assertion that Paula's food sucks? He is sorely mistaken there. Whether it will suck going forward is another question entirely. And one for which Tony may be partly to blame.
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