Nanny State

Wall Street Journal on Anthony Bourdain: "He hates vegetarians, raw-food enthusiasts and celebrity chefs' product endorsements"

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Writing in The Wall Street Journal, Moira Hodgson reviews Anthony Bourdain's new book Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook:

He hates vegetarians, raw-food enthusiasts and celebrity chefs' product endorsements. But then he confesses that he also "sold out" when promoting "Kitchen Confidential"—and that, deep down, he sort of understands why, for instance, Emeril endorsed toothpaste. So many people depend on Emeril for a living that he's obligated to keep expanding his empire. Mr. Bourdain also retracts some of his past invective, admitting that it was "excessive and bombastic" of him once to refer to Alice Waters, the revered doyenne of California cuisine, as "Pol Pot in a muumuu." But he's not exactly making nice now by saying: "With Waters's fondness for buzzwords like 'purity' and 'wholesomeness' there is a whiff of the jackboot, isn't there?"

Read all about it here. And then click below to watch Bourdain discuss foie gras bans, smoking bans, and other nanny state interventions with Reason.tv: