This article mirrors my thoughts on the Paula Deen & butter issue and the (newer) Paula Deen & diabetes issue, the former of which I wrote about previously (in a decidedly less eloquent fashion) here. I think there are some very obvious and shameful class and gender bias issues in the constant berating of Deen and her methods, and so I suppose it is my station as a woman from the rural South that I take so much offense to it.
How many of Deen’s critics have also spoken out against the cream-enriched legacy of Julia Child, or James Beard—a man of enormous girth who cooked with butter and fistfuls of cheese, and who served as the moon-faced pitchman for Omaha Steaks?
And what about Bourdain’s own glorification of fat and cholesterol on No Reservations? Take Bourdain’s 2008 visit to Au Pied de Cochon in Montreal, which he called “a temple to all things fatty, porky, and duck-related,” and “one of my favorite places in the world,” an “ode to goodness and excess.” Bourdain wades into chef Martin Picard’s foie-gras poutine—part of a suite of fatty foie gras dishes—the way Deen wades through buttercream. Pure hypocrisy on Bourdain’s part, or are the obligations for the host of a travel show different from those of a cooking show? How many culinary tourists has Bourdain led into an artery-clogging black hole?
Perhaps our notions of health and excess are rooted in class. Deen, we assume, speaks to a down-market audience who need to be lectured about nutrition and willpower. Bourdain speaks to the well-heeled traveler for whom a foie gras hot dog is an occasional indulgence, not a moral failing. Right? Or is it somehow acceptable for men to engage in extreme eating, while women have an obligation to show restraint?
Though I certainly have my problems with Paula Deen (i really hate the way she’s become the face of Southern cuisine in popular culture, when what she’s really been cooking for the last half decade is better described as “nouveau State Fair”), i’ll agree that a lot of the reaction to her recent announcement has been more than a little distasteful. But just because i find the joy some people have expressed at this news to be disgusting, doesn’t mean i’m ready to co-sign “Leave Paula Alone!” posts like this.
First of all, asking why Julia Child and James Beard haven’t faced the same amount of criticism as Deen is kind of ridiculous. Cooking and promoting rich food is one thing, being the person who gave the world deep-fried lasagna or Krispy Kreme bread pudding is another. It’s not about class, it’s about knowing the difference between indulgence and repletion. Also, while i’m sure some of the attacks on Deen are definitely couched in sexism, i think you’ll find that a lot of the same criticism is also lobbed at that human cheese fry Guy Fieri. His critics may not be as loud, but i think that has more to do with the fact that Deen’s primary exposure is as a cook, while Fieri’s is as a guy who travels around and eats things. I can certainly say that i’ve never met somebody who was grossed out by the kind of food Paula was making that wasn’t also repulsed by the type of consumption Fieri promoted on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.
(via brookehatfield)
