Current Events > Antony Bordain is comically pretentious

(+) Yeah! (+)

Heres a guy who grew up with money, became a good (not great) chef and burned out because he took too many drugs and fucked too much pussy.

Yet, he parlayed that into a massive tv deal where gets paid to travel and get experiences most people will never be able to do.

Now he basically bitches at other celebrity chefs and mocks people who eat at chain restaurants as if hes better than them.
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What do you do for a living?
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I really like his shows, or at least his earlier shows. Haven't seen recent episodes

but his book Kitchen Confidential is really great...I would highly recommend reading it or listening to the audio book

DuranOfForcena posted...

all celebrity chefs are pretentious pieces of shit

Even Alton Brown?
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Dont care i love his shows and books

I am also pretentious so whatevs
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Ivynn posted...

DuranOfForcena posted...

all celebrity chefs are pretentious pieces of shit

Even Alton Brown?

He's actually gotten somewhat annoying recently as well. When he was a humble young lad showing us what constituted good eats, I loved him.

Now he's a gameshow host

cut throat kitchen is aight

My favorite is when he's in places that are wartorn or poverty-stricken or have human rights issues and he's like "It might be easy to focus on all the things you think you know about this country, but sitting here and breaking bread with these folks puts it all in perspective; it's little moments like this that really make you appreciate what these people have, and what you're missing out on while sitting at home on your couch."

Yeah, I'm sure profound quandaries like that are really easy to make when you're being paid to go there on vacation for two weeks and then leave before it could become an inconvenience to you.
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Romes187 posted...

Ivynn posted...

DuranOfForcena posted...

all celebrity chefs are pretentious pieces of shit

Even Alton Brown?

He's actually gotten somewhat annoying recently as well. When he was a humble young lad showing us what constituted good eats, I loved him.

Now he's a gameshow host

cut throat kitchen is aight

This this this. 1000 fucking times this.

Alton Brown was my hero growing up. But he went Hollywood now, and endorses bullshit like bone broth and fad diets. It's really depressing :(
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I remember he was being a bitch over Baby Driver for, basically, no reason.
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Alton Brown is the Neil DeGrasse Tyson of food.
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Ivynn posted...

DuranOfForcena posted...

all celebrity chefs are pretentious pieces of shit

Even Alton Brown?

when wasn't he? even if he wasn't as bad as the other guys he was still very much the "your way sucks, do it MY way, i'm the pro, i know..." type of guy.
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Bio1590 posted...

Alton Brown is the Neil DeGrasse Tyson of food.

Never sully the great name of Alton Brown like that again
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KiwiTerraRizing posted...

Heres a guy who grew up with money, became a good (not great) chef and burned out because he took too many drugs and fucked too much pussy.

Yet, he parlayed that into a massive tv deal where gets paid to travel and get experiences most people will never be able to do.

Now he basically bitches at other celebrity chefs and mocks people who eat at chain restaurants as if hes better than them.

Some may call him pretentious, but the guy can go to third world countries and talk to the locals, find genuine appreciation for their culture (or at least fake it) and report on it.

He will literally hang out with some tribe in borneo, slay a pig with them in a ceremony and have a 3 day party with them. He will go to mexico and tell us that it's not the shithole that certain politicians say it is and that it's a cool country. He will go to the middle east and talk to the locals.

Meanwhile "unpretentious" heartland people will gag at the idea of eating the weird foods he's had to eat and will look down on anybody with darker skin than an office depot folder and cast every non western country as savages. Who is pretentious now?

ForestLogic posted...

Romes187 posted...

Ivynn posted...

DuranOfForcena posted...

all celebrity chefs are pretentious pieces of shit

Even Alton Brown?

He's actually gotten somewhat annoying recently as well. When he was a humble young lad showing us what constituted good eats, I loved him.

Now he's a gameshow host

cut throat kitchen is aight

This this this. 1000 fucking times this.

Alton Brown was my hero growing up. But he went Hollywood now, and endorses bullshit like bone broth and fad diets. It's really depressing :(

y'all know yr boy alton was directing commercials and music videos before doing good eats, right?

he was already hollywood.
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Shuto-uke posted...

KiwiTerraRizing posted...

Heres a guy who grew up with money, became a good (not great) chef and burned out because he took too many drugs and fucked too much pussy.

Yet, he parlayed that into a massive tv deal where gets paid to travel and get experiences most people will never be able to do.

Now he basically bitches at other celebrity chefs and mocks people who eat at chain restaurants as if hes better than them.

Some may call him pretentious, but the guy can go to third world countries and talk to the locals, find genuine appreciation for their culture (or at least fake it) and report on it.

He will literally hang out with some tribe in borneo, slay a pig with them in a ceremony and have a 3 day party with them. He will go to mexico and tell us that it's not the shithole that certain politicians say it is and that it's a cool country. He will go to the middle east and talk to the locals.

Meanwhile "unpretentious" heartland people will gag at the idea of eating the weird foods he's had to eat and will look down on anybody with darker skin than an office depot folder and cast every non western country as savages. Who is pretentious now?

The projection in this post is off the fucking charts lol.
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DuranOfForcena posted...

all celebrity chefs are pretentious pieces of shit

Gordon Ramsay isn't
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DuranOfForcena posted...

all celebrity chefs are pretentious pieces of shit

What about the master of Flavortown, @Guy_Fieri?
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As someone who only started watching Food Network a few years ago (due to wife) I'm surprised at the Alton Brown love. I don't dislike him but he seems weird, and he's a harsh judge. And pretentious. I guess he used to be different?

Guy Fieri is not pretentious.
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I like Bourdain. Sure he's pretty full of himself but his shows are entertaining.
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Doom_Art posted...

DuranOfForcena posted...

all celebrity chefs are pretentious pieces of shit

Gordon Ramsay isn't

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCc8IEvh70w" data-time="
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MC_BatCommander posted...

I like Bourdain. Sure he's pretty full of himself but his shows are entertaining.

All of this tbh. TC & @ForestLogic arent wrong ITT... but I still like the guy regardless.
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DuranOfForcena posted...

all celebrity chefs are pretentious pieces of shit

Does pretentious mean they have opinions about how to cook food
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EndOfDiscOne posted...

Doom_Art posted...

DuranOfForcena posted...

all celebrity chefs are pretentious pieces of shit

Gordon Ramsay isn't

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCc8IEvh70w" data-time="

What was pretentious about this. Reporter lured him into a supposedly friendly interview format and then asked him a fucking ridiculous question just to try and catch him out. I'd be mad too.
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EndOfDiscOne posted...

Doom_Art posted...

DuranOfForcena posted...

all celebrity chefs are pretentious pieces of shit

Gordon Ramsay isn't

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCc8IEvh70w" data-time="

guy asked for a well done steak and got a well done steak

and yeah like the fella above me said he got lured into the interview and asked a dumb as hell question
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TIL there are no heroes ;_;
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DuranOfForcena posted...

do you really need someone to look up pretentious in the dictionary for you and post it here, instead of looking it up yourself? cuz i'm not gonna do that

Obviously what I'm asking here is what do you consider pretentious to mean in this particular context. Does it honestly surprise you that a person with decades of experience in a specific craft has strong opinions about it?

If you got a carpenter talking about how to build a house you'd get a similar response. If you told him his houses were shit or that you knew better you can bet your ass you'd get a "pretentious" response.

Every 20 year old with an instagram account considers themselves a food blogger these days. That's why chefs seem pretentious.
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KiwiTerraRizing posted...

Heres a guy who grew up with money, became a good (not great) chef and burned out because he took too many drugs and fucked too much pussy.

Yet, he parlayed that into a massive tv deal where gets paid to travel and get experiences most people will never be able to do.

Now he basically bitches at other celebrity chefs and mocks people who eat at chain restaurants as if hes better than them.

I will admit that he's an egomaniac and very arrogant but he's my husband's hero so I'm forced to watch his shows on Netflix and I actually started liking how opened he is to other cultures and he's actually a deep person and very wise.

I don't like him personally, but ever since watching his shows on Netflix, I've gained a whole lot more respect for him.
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DuranOfForcena posted...

i consider pretentiousness to be pretentious

That's very clever, well done. Why even talk about things, I guess?
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Steak snobs are pretentious by definition
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Andrew Zimmern?
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EndOfDiscOne posted...

Steak snobs are pretentious by definition

That is circular reasoning, for starters.

I'll agree that someone who tries to tell you what you should enjoy is being a snob. Where I won't agree is (as Gordon is doing here) is that it's not snobby simply to point out the logical reasons why cooking a steak a certain way makes sense assuming that you want flavours and moisture and to get the most out of a quality piece of meat.

Again, nobody can tell you what you should enjoy. If you want it well done with ketchup that's your prerogative completely. But if a chef calmly explains that you've destroyed the quality of the meat and its no surprise it tastes like any other steak if you cook it way, there's verifiable chemistry and obvious craft behind that reasoning.

If I was a bespoke cabinet maker and you purchased my finest cabinet to burn for firewood and later said to me "Jeez man, you charged me $2k for this and I could have got some firewood down at walmart for $5!" then yeah...I'd call you a fucking idiot.
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I remember he did a Texas episode once, and he absolutely hated it and bitched the whole time. He's down to experience all kinds of different cultures all over the world and he's totally cool with it, but heaven to betsy he's in a politically conservative US culture and all of a sudden he shits on it left and right.
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SMAP- posted...

Bio1590 posted...

Alton Brown is the Neil DeGrasse Tyson of food.

Never sully the great name of Alton Brown like that again

It's kind of amazing it took so long for people to turn on Tyson. I couldn't stand the guy since the early 2000s. He's curator of a museum and therefore an educator to the public on scientific matters, but for years he neglected his responsibilities by excluding Pluto from the planetary display as a personal protest against the IAU. When the IAU decided to reclassify Pluto, he flips and says the decision must be respected and to go against it is to go against the march of science. He then goes on a victory lap in the media mocking anyone who disagreed with the IAU's definition of a planet.

What a hypocrite.
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Turbam posted...

DuranOfForcena posted...

all celebrity chefs are pretentious pieces of shit

What about the master of Flavortown, @Guy_Fieri?

Bourdain is a fucking NERD
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BB mofo posted...

SMAP- posted...

Bio1590 posted...

Alton Brown is the Neil DeGrasse Tyson of food.

Never sully the great name of Alton Brown like that again

It's kind of amazing it took so long for people to turn on Tyson. I couldn't stand the guy since the early 2000s. He's curator of a museum and therefore an educator to the public on scientific matters, but for years he neglected his responsibilities by excluding Pluto from the planetary display as a personal protest against the IAU. When the IAU decided to reclassify Pluto, he flips and says the decision must be respected and to go against it is to go against the march of science. He then goes on a victory lap in the media mocking anyone who disagreed with the IAU's definition of a planet.

What a hypocrite.

Fuck Neil Tyson. Dude was the one in a million example where some egomaniacal nerd in high school going NERRR YOU'LL SEE SOMEDAY I'LL BE RICH AND FAMOUS and then actually went on to do that.

Same boat as you though, never liked the guy, and so happy the rest of the world is starting to agree he's an asshole.
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ForestLogic posted...

Same boat as you though, never liked the guy, and so happy the rest of the world is starting to agree he's an asshole.

KINDERFELD posted...

I will admit that he's an egomaniac and very arrogant but he's my husband's hero so I'm forced to watch his shows on Netflix and I actually started liking how opened he is to other cultures and he's actually a deep person and very wise.

Finding theoretical scientists willing to engage the public is still a large problem. Brian Greene brought this up in an interview once. Scientists look down on these other scientists, which discourages their peers from participating. Their reasoning is that they're spending too much time being celebrities on TV and not enough time doing actual science.

I don't like Tyson very much, but I still appreciate what he does for the public, especially for minority children who I feel need a role model who will encourage them into pursuing STEM.
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