Anthony Bourdain calls Paula Deen ‘the worst, most dangerous person to America’
Anthony Bourdain is happy to smack down celebrity food personalities. CREDIT: AP
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Anthony Bourdain has never been shy about his opinions. Just read his book “Kitchen Confidential” or listen to him on his Travel Channel show “No Reservations.”
In the current print edition of TV Guide magazine, he also sounds off on various celebrity chefs, including Savannah’s own Paula Deen, whose buttery blood might boil if she read this:
“The worst, most dangerous person to America is clearly Paula Deen. She revels in unholy connections with evil corporations and she’s proud of the fact that her food is f–king bad for you [...] plus, her food sucks.”
“No Reservations,” Mondays 9 p.m. Travel Channel
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By Rodney Ho, rho@ajc.com, AJCRadioTV blog
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369 comments Add your comment
John
August 17th, 2011
11:07 pm
actually , as a chef, I cringe everytime I watch her cook with rings and bracelets on. A major health issue and not safe. I’m just waiting for her to get her hand caught in a mixer.
catfish
August 17th, 2011
11:09 pm
after reading all of these comments it’s clear that nobody is watching Bourdain’s show for any sort of enlightenment. he travels the world and show’s the reality of how fat and dumb and lazy American’s are as a whole, as is proven by some of the idiotic comments in here. he and Zimmern look NOTHING alike though so many of you can’t seem to tell them apart, which clues me in to how much attention you’re paying to what you’re watching. his whole show is a look at the human condition from outside our confined ideal of how people should live, and shows how lucky we are as Americans. his opinion is spot on, although i do like Guy’s triple d show (mom and pop style joints are some of the best). in short, i wish more people were as cynical as Bourdain and myself, but there aren’t, just slobs with no real opinions.
Kevin
August 17th, 2011
11:11 pm
Sue, you’re a self-loathing, miserable person.
Go wallow elsewhere in your abysmal guilt.
Maimou
August 17th, 2011
11:11 pm
I don’t know. I tried one of her recipes once (chicken and dumplings) only because I wanted strip dumplings. I was way underimpressed with it in terms of technique and seasonings, so I didn’t follow it exactly. I did burrow around her recipes online and, again, way underimpressed. Mama’s a Savannah Clark, btw. She can cook.
Christina
August 17th, 2011
11:12 pm
Paula Deen should be ashamed of the dope she is pushing. Encouraging people to cook like she does is akin to encouraging teenagers to take up smoking.
Karen
August 17th, 2011
11:13 pm
JACK THAT IS “AWESOME”
steve Brown
August 17th, 2011
11:21 pm
I went to Tunica a few weeks ago and looked forward to Trying Paula Deens. had breakfast on a Saturday morning and was disappointed. Maybe a step above Shoneys.
Spike
August 17th, 2011
11:21 pm
RE:Janet’s comment, “I always thought she seemed like a nice lady until I read that she repeatedly turned down a request from the same kid who wanted to meet her thru The Make a Wish Foundation. How awful is that!!!!”
I hate to break it to you but that wasn’t Paula Deen. It was that snotty, self-important Ina Gartner, the Barefoot Contessa. I can’t STAND that woman!
j l madara
August 17th, 2011
11:30 pm
The south is filled with obese, ignorant people who think Paula Deen is great. The south is noted for
the highest rates of poverty, illiteracy, sexually transmitted diseases and high infant mortality.
Eatin' in ATL
August 17th, 2011
11:53 pm
WOW! So much anger! Few key points then I’m out of here:
1. Paula Deen’s cooking may be high calorie, but no one’s making you eat it. Be an informed eater or STFU. She’s nowhere near the worst, most dangerous person in America, but I can at least agree on the point made about her partnership with Smithfield Foods. Nasty company and I will not buy their products. This is why I said “be an informed eater” because there’s more to food than fat and calorie counts.
2. Bourdain’s snobby attitude was cool and now it’s just grating. He’s not helping, he’s simply sitting on the sidelines complaining. Pro tip- if you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem.
3. Rachel Ray is on my top 10 list of people who I wish never became famous, and EVOO will send me into a rage, but maybe she’s inspiring people to try cooking something other than Hamburger Helper. I have no idea though, I stay away from everything she touches. *shudder*
4. Not sure what’s so wrong with Sandra Lee’s works on this planet. At least she’s doing something productive, even if she encourages a half-arsed way of cooking.
Finally, if you don’t like the South or the Stereotypes, then either help fix the problems or leave. I’m beyond done hearing a bunch of whiny Yankees and self-hating Southerners complain about our obesity, ignorance, etc. Help fix it, or GTFO. Spread a better message, or go up North.
GaFemale
August 17th, 2011
11:56 pm
As many of us proud southern women here in Georgia would say – Well, bless his heart, which we all know means screw you and the horse you rode in on.
smelliot
August 18th, 2011
12:08 am
I live in a house made up of 4 twenty something men and all of us look forward to watching bourdains show every week and if there is a no reservations marathon on, there is a good chance that the 4 of us will be on the couch for 4 hours glued to the tv. Not only because we enjoy good food but because of the straight shooter bourdain is. He visits the places I would want to visit, eats the food I would want to eat and reacts the way I hope I would I react. I love the show, love his no b-s attitude and will also admit that I deep down inside also love diners, drive in and dives with guy fieri ad well.
Southern before Southern was Cool
August 18th, 2011
12:11 am
I understand that Mr. Bourdain had classical training, and Ms. Deen (if the mythology is true) initially studied at the school of providing lunches for ordinary working people while rearing two sons absent a father.
My question to you all is, if the cuisine at Ms. Wilkes is the more authentic Southern cuisine, what makes it so. I look forward to responses. Thanks.
Still in exile in the south
August 18th, 2011
12:21 am
Anyone who wasn’t raised in the south never develops a taste for too much salt, bacon drippings, mayonnaise on everything, vegetables cooked beyond recognition, and all the other fats. Bourdain’s programs are very interesting to this viewer for the arm chair travel, but I am unlikely to try the recipes from those places. Watching Paula Dean is like watching a car wreck–you can’t stop watching, even if you want to look away. I can’t imagine two more disparate persons to be doing food shows on TV. For that reason, THEY HAVE TO DO A SHOW TOGETHER AND DUKE IT OUT!!!
Joan Kelley
August 18th, 2011
12:37 am
I knew there was something I didn’t like about this guy. Now I can point my buttery index finger right at it! Does he really think all Southern cooks load down their skillets with double pounds of butter? We watch our cholesterol just like the rest of America and enjoy watching Paula’s schtick. As for their corporate connections, more power to them. As far as I can tell, all the other cooks in America are bad because they aren’t him. But you know, he just ain’t the big chicken, y’all!
pawpaw
August 18th, 2011
12:49 am
i’m sure John Doe is a northern moron…
Jeff
August 18th, 2011
1:18 am
I hate that moron with a passion but Paula Dean’s food and her restaurant is severely overrated. All I heard about was her world famous fried chicken. KFC, Popeye’s, and Bojangles all blows her’s away and I am not a fan of the 2 latter chicken places. My family and I all had the buffet. It was like $18.95 a piece for the darn thing. A dessert was included but it was some God awful chocolate contraption that tasted like what I think crap would taste like. My total bill was well over $100.00 for a family of 4. They automatically added 20% gratuity when all the waitress done was refilled our drinks.Paula Deen is a fraud and a hack.I know a few people from around Savannah and they all say she is held in very low regard by the locals.
Andromeda
August 18th, 2011
1:26 am
Thank you Anthony. I’m from right here in GA, and I have to agree. Paula Deen is going to be the death of all those fat slob idiots who eat that greasy gunk she cooks up, one look at Paula, and you know why you shouldn’t buy her cookbooks. Her cookbooks are laughable, and she’s making a mint on all the obese who follow her recipes. No thanks Paula, I like blood flowing thru my arteries, not butter.
david
August 18th, 2011
1:43 am
I like Bourdain but he is your typical uptight northerner who thing he is better than everyone and really needs to not take himself so serious….He really sounds like a pompous windbag.
Duncan
August 18th, 2011
1:43 am
Why would anyone care who stands in line at Paula’s restaurant, or what they look like? You think you’re better than somebody because you’d eat somewhere other than TLAS if you were in Savannah? Truly pathetic, some of you. Bourdain’s an asshat, but other than this acknowledgement, I really don’t care what he says or does. Live and let live.
Rainey L
August 18th, 2011
1:46 am
Jeff, don’t hate on Paula just because you’re a sucker.
Tony C.
August 18th, 2011
1:47 am
If you’ve never worked in a kitchen, you probably don’t get Bourdain…and if you really think Dean’s food is better, then God bless you, but go exploring the next time you go out to eat-don’t be afraid to go someplace that’s a little more fancy (but probably charges comparable prices) than Dean’s and don’t be afraid to order that beef dish with the funny-looking name….
Knockahoma
August 18th, 2011
1:49 am
Sometimes these blogs drive home the point that I was born and raised in one of the most ignorant regions of the planet.
Dean’s food is total garbage. However, you’ll never sell that to a region of people who are proud of the fact that building codes at stadiums require seats to be wider.
Good for nothing fat lard asses should have to pay more taxes for taking up more space than the rest of us.
That or they should be forced to run until their hearts give out. Wouldn’t take long at all.
Tony C.
August 18th, 2011
1:53 am
Also, don’t take his disdain for Ms. Dean as an ASSAULT ON THE SOUTH BY YET ANOTHER DAMN YANKEE!!!
Seriously. When I want good home-cooking I call my mom for recipes, sometimes she’s nice enough to tell me. I once tried one of Ms. Dean’s recipes (before my mom entrusted me with the secret of her macaroni&cheese)…I have never been to her (Dean’s) restaraunt, but if the food is similar, I feel that I’m not missing anything…seriously, the macaroni&cheese @ Donnie’s Country Cooking is better (and that guy’s asian)!
Rick
August 18th, 2011
1:57 am
Clearly you folks have forgotten what ya Momma taught ya, if you cant say anything nice about someone, dont say anything at all. Paula has never professed to be a chef, she is a cook.
Jason
August 18th, 2011
2:58 am
As far as I am concerned, Bourdain’s assessment of Ms Deen and her cooking is right on the money.
Steve
August 18th, 2011
5:08 am
I think we have a sarchasm here. No Reservations might be the best show on TV and Tony’s sarcastic comments are an important part of the show. Paula and her corn-pone show are clearly for the OTP, Cracker Barrel crowd.
A Sane Black Woman
August 18th, 2011
5:12 am
I happen to agree 100% with him. I remember years ago when a lot of the other Chefs went on strike against Smithfield because of the way they treated workers, she stepped out and began a tour. I dont like the fact I have never seen her cook. The cooks at her restaurant the last time I walked by were almost all black. She has no personality other than that fake Southerness.
I like Bourdaine because he is willing to go where no one else will. Most importantly he has a respect for the people and culture of other countries. Yes he does drink a lot but he appears to have slowed up since he got married. I believe his best shows were the ones on middle east. Beruit, the tragic situation in Haiti and all of his African programs.
By the way I didnt hear him say anything about Emril who happens to be a real chef and who is also committed to human rights.
Cut off her leg
August 18th, 2011
5:33 am
It is funny that Paula Deen has become diabetic but that has been kept from the media.I guess all that added sugar did do something.
ha
August 18th, 2011
6:08 am
Bourdain cooks better food and is way more entertaining than that fat living room cow. I have been to her place and it sucks, the only place worse is her brother’s overpriced swamp shack.
oliver
August 18th, 2011
6:12 am
Have another cigarette Anthony!
Tom
August 18th, 2011
6:21 am
None of these folks are good cooks. They are all TV personalities who, if given a task to whip up a dish, probably would produce, at best, something completely average. Paula Deen’s food is probably what you’d find in a southern small town, tasteless and stodgy. Racheal Ray as someone else has said is just a TV fabrication. Bourdain himself is just happy criticizing others. His TV show started off well the first season but then once it became all about him, and his making unpleasant, sarcastic comments about other foods and cultures….deteriorated rapidly. I no longer watch it. As of this moment, you certainly wont find any outstanding chefs or cooks on TV. The Internet/you tube is a better place to find authentic and tasty recipes prepared by people who actually know how to cook!
Paul M.
August 18th, 2011
6:25 am
Bourdain is and has been “off track and in left field” most of his adult life. After watching a couple of his shows a couple of years ago, I do something else now. He is sycophantic traveler; everywhere he goes in foreign countries he “disses” the USA as being “not as good” as the country he where he is “staging.” Sure Paula Deen is not the healthiest cook in the world but, neither are the people he “interviews” but, Paula is at least honest and not a “fence-sitter”; she cooks the way many of our grandparents and some parents cook and she never talks “politics” which is about all Bourdain does, or hints towards. He is a “fawning”, idiot awaiting a “spine donor.” Of course his earings are sort of cute…on him but, I would rather see them on women!!!
chkrdr
August 18th, 2011
6:46 am
paula’s food is so greasy..and all you are paying for is the name. i can make this stuff at home…why would i want to go out and pay for it in this day and time? and some of the recipies in her cookbook i have seen in other cookbooks..so they are not all originals.
Highlander
August 18th, 2011
6:52 am
Paula Deen is a cook, not a CHEF (to be said with nose firmly tilted upwards, evidently). And she’s probably proud of it! As many have said, she cooks the way many mothers and grandmothers have for years and years.
It’s almost laughable when some of the folks here have claimed or inferred that she’s really not “Southern.” Obviously, due to the fact that Albany is NORTH of Savannah!
And if Bourdain wants to talk about health dangers, why doesn’t he start with the ever-present cigarette that always in his hand! …What a hypocrite!
Debby
August 18th, 2011
6:58 am
Every time I see a butter comment I have to laugh. Can’t you people think for yourselves and come up with something a bit more original? As you sit home eating your box of mac and cheese loaded down with margarine or your ramen noodles (I absolutely do not believe you all eat as healthily as you proclaim) just remember, those aren’t particularly health foods either. You only wish you could cook like Paula, and be as famous too.
GB
August 18th, 2011
7:02 am
I can’t even watch the commercials for his show, they’re so gross. Paula Deen rocks.
dagadawgs
August 18th, 2011
7:11 am
This is the same moron who eats live cobra hearts right? What a douche
Bob from Cobb
August 18th, 2011
7:16 am
Bourdain is a washed-up hack frycook. How in the **** does this man have a TV show? He has the personality of a turnip and all he does is travel around (wearing his little earring), cursing, and eat weird crap. I will do that for 1/2 of what they pay him and I, at least, have some personality. My wife used to watch his show and even now she cannot stand him. He needs to cram a stick of butter “where the sun don’t shine”.
SuperB
August 18th, 2011
7:17 am
Who is this guy?
LaQuanza J.
August 18th, 2011
7:27 am
I have to say Paula Deen is way way way way over-rated. The food at her place in Savannah is comparable to Picadilly at triple the price. She is pretty much taking all you overweight southern hillbillies to the cleaners.
Dirk Diggler
August 18th, 2011
7:32 am
Now yall be nice to Miss Paula. Yes, she is a fat country cornpone hick. But without Paula, her 2 little sissy-boy sons would not have a job. Paula makes me about as sick as Oprah and that is saying a lot.
It's all good
August 18th, 2011
7:35 am
Not all viewers are searching for fine French cuisine. The popularity of Paula Deen, Guy Fieri, and even Rachel Ray stem from the reality that not all of us live for the next trendy gallery opening or strange and expensive gourmet fad (remember the gold dusted burger). Most Southerners acknowledge that Paula Deen has commercialized her food, her act, and her empire; however, her on screen demeanor is consistent with many Southern women, including the accent, good cheer, and focus on therapeutic value of food. Guy Fieri is popular because he covers variations many folks want to see….casual food, offbeat interesting people, and a fun lifestyle. Give me cooks anytime over pretentious New York chefs. BTW, I also like that fact that down here in the ignorant South, we have our share of non-pretentious and highly competent chefs as well.
Diego
August 18th, 2011
7:37 am
Bourdain is entertaining and rireverent and takes us to places and food we would have never gone without him. He has shown me worldly foods that I lust for. His show is what it is, entertainment! Like his personality or not the food is the reason………
Real Foodie
August 18th, 2011
7:41 am
To Southern before Southern was cool – Mrs. Wilkes is honest, humble good southern cooking. There are no “fake” attitudes there and you get your money’s worth. They don’t need national attention and loud, aggressive behaviors to bring people in. There is always a line and there virtually no advertising. I am southern by the grace of God and y”all is a part of my vocabulary, but not in such an exaggerated way. What you see on TV is nothing more than a character actor.
Ralph Malph
August 18th, 2011
7:41 am
If my dog had a face like Paula Deen, I would shave his butt and make him walk backwards.
Ramiro
August 18th, 2011
7:45 am
People line up at Deen’s restaurant because it’s a tourist attraction, not because it’s good food, and having once visited they never come back. My wife and I stood in line, ate there, and vowed never to go back despite several return trips to Savannah.
As for Bourdain, he’s just a smart mouthed horse’s behind. Glad to hear at least one of his victims put him in his place. Go Sandra! Go Sandra!
Kim Bowers
August 18th, 2011
7:46 am
What a bully. Making a living insulting other people and being a foul mouthed arrogant jerk is nothing to be proud of either.
The Right One
August 18th, 2011
7:49 am
Hatred is a bad look on anyone…please give it a rest and get a real life!
Ricky Lee
August 18th, 2011
7:55 am
The guy is clearly trying to be controversial for publicity purposes. That said, he is right about Paula Deen’s food, as anyone that has ever been to her over-rated restaurant will agree with. I can’t stand watching most of the women cooks on Food Network. Waaaaaay to perky, perky, perky.