NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 21: Celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain attends the "Treme" New York Premiere after party at Rouge Tomate on April 21, 2011 in New York City.
John W. Ferguson/Getty ImagesTravel Channel host Anthony Bourdain is in a war of the words with Food Network personality Paula Deen over her cooking.
Bourdain, who travels the world in search of gastronomic finds as host of Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations, recently told TV Guide that Deen was the “most dangerous person in America” because of her “unholy connections with evil corporations” and her pride in “the fact that her food is f**king bad for you.”
He said, “I would think twice before telling an already obese nation that it’s OK to eat food that is killing us. Plus, her food sucks.”
Bourdain elaborated on his position in a series of tweets Thursday. He wrote, “What was Jesus’s position on gout?” and linked to Deen’s “The Lady’s Brunch Burger” recipe — which calls for butter, bacon, eggs and glazed donuts in place of hamburger buns — saying, “I give you the ‘horrific’ ‘Lady’s Brunch Burger’ (yikes) this erodes our military readiness!”
Other zingers aimed at the Southern chef included “I love red beans and rice. Do I need it between pancakes?” and a clarification on his TV Guide interview, “My comment was actually ‘worst, most dangerous to America cook on FN [Food Network].’ “
Bourdain has a history of outspokenness in general, and has put down his fellow TV chefs in the past. He has called Rachael Ray a “bobblehead” and a “freakazoid” before, and said of Sandra Lee, “Pure evil. This frightening Hell Spawn of Kathie Lee and Betty Crocker seems on a mission to kill her fans, one meal at a time. She must be stopped.”
Bourdain told The Hollywood Reporter last year that the chefs take his comments in stride and he makes sure he keeps to himself in case they don’t, “Rachael Ray sent me a fruit basket. And I had an uncomfortable meeting with Sandra Lee, where she pretty much had me for breakfast. It’s not like we socialize together. They work their side of the street, I work mine.”
and Tashkent [Uzbekistan] are not high on my list.
On “No Reservations,” when some nice family in the middle of nowhere is
making you something that looks utterly horrific in a bucket, and you go, “Umm, that’s good,” I always think: “Sometimes you have to be full of it.”
“]
