Bourdain’s Buddies Unscathed in JBF Feud

By Karen 

Anthony Bourdain’s still lobbing grenades at the James Beard Foundation via Twitter, including a link to the 2010 financial report that seems to bear out his contention that the organization is largely self-serving, with more than four times as much money devoted to “in-house events” as to scholarships and education.

But, fortunately, nobody held it against his friends and colleagues, who raked in plenty of honors at the still-prestigious annual JBF Awards last week. Most notably, Tony and Ruth Reichl’s Twitter love child, Ruth Bourdain, swept the new humor category, which was most likely created solely to recognize her brilliant tweets. 

However, Ruth Bourdain didn’t lose her head and let the Beardies “out” her by luring her to the awards ceremony. Her identity remains a mystery, which is as it should be.

Tony’s BFF Eric Ripert’s PBS series, Avec Eric, won for best on-location program. And Top Chef won for best studio program.

Here’s a complete list of the honorees.

Tonight’s No Reservations is a rerun of the Ozarks. Tony has been filming in the Ukraine with Zamir, which isn’t a location I had on my list for Season 7, so I wonder if some other plan fell through. If so, I hope it was his idea to do the Graham Greene thing in the Congo.

Bourdain vs. JBF: Round 2

By Karen

James Beard Foundation president Susan Ungaro talked to the Village Voice and said she’s still “unclear” about Anthony Bourdain’s unwavering disdain for the organization, which he called “The Mummy’s Tomb” in a recent blog post where he ripped the hypocrisy of this year’s awards theme, “The Melting Pot.” He also wrote in Medium Raw (page 158):

The James Beard House… provides comfort and succor and the illusion of importance to a bunch of supremely irrelevant old fucks who have nothing to do and nothing to say of any significance to the restaurant business they claim to support and love. It’s a private dining society for the soon-to-be incontinent — like the Friars Club for old mummies who never themselves told a joke but like to hang around comedians.

I don’t understand what part of all this Ungaro doesn’t get. Does she need for Bourdain to provide a visual, like showing up at the awards and taking a dump on the stage? (Not that he would, of course.)

Eater provided some clips of, presumably, kitchen scenes Tony wrote for Treme, in case, like me, you don’t get HBO. They certainly have the ring of his voice.

Pajiba compiled Tony’s most profane quotes from the Boston episode, but some of the comments on them are even funnier.

Ottavia tweeted this picture of herself at the gym, where she practices MMA. She makes me think of the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and I mean it as a compliment. Nobody messes with the Bourdains!

Tony was recently out west filming an American Desert episode, and his latest blog post was about his car and the music, and he segued into his previous travels to Cuba.

Tony put out a tantalizing tweet that Zamir figures in the upcoming Ukraine episode. OK’s the guy can be a jerk, but he’s TV gold as Tony’s zany sidekick.

CelebStoner honored Bourdain as its 50^th pick for “Top CelebStoner.” He’s the first chef ever selected for the dubious honor.