The Sac Rag

I spent a lovely evening last night with about about five or six hundred of my food focused friends witnessing author and TV personality Anthony Bourdain speak at the beautiful Memorial Auditorium. I’m a big fan of Mr. Bourdain. I find his take-no-prisoners, worship-no-false-idols, non-nonsense approach to food and travel refreshing and invigorating. He was a brash, funny speaker, tearing into the low-hanging fruit of Food Network personalities like Guy Fieri and Sandra Lee, while fully admitting that he was wrong to rip on folks like Rachel Ray and Emeril because, after real-world interactions with them, he found them to be good people whom he really had no beef with.

It was an entertaining evening…with one uncomfortable caveat. The folks there seemed to regard Mr. Bourdain as some sort of revivalist preacher, or, even worse, a worship-worthy firgure whose words carried with them something more than wit and practical knowledge. A few folks sitting in our section shouted out things like “pork,” and “pho,” and “pig fat” as if they were religious incantations and recitational responses worthy of a pentecostal tent meeting. The Q&A session at the end of the talk was uncomfortable at best with people speaking of the author in messianic tones and declaring their life path had been inspired by him and, in another occurrence, that a certain couple’s “way of life” was dictated by his “teachings.” Continue reading “Hallelujah and Pass the Bacon”