I have to agree. While I enjoy most of Bourdain programming and have read his books; I cannot tolerate it when he talks trash about cooks.
I have noticed that he never talks trash about chefs.
Can’t say I am a fan of Guy and I do enjoy Bourdain’s schtick better but they are both playing a role and are, in the end, slaves to the same master Cheap shots poking fun at someone never make the bully look good in the end.
Both of them get paid to travel around and eat and talk about it i will not waste time shedding a tear for either of thier plights.
So it took me a few stops and starts but I read the GQ article, and on occasion the writer is able to stop with the cheap shots long enough to kind of humanize Guy in a way few folks seem to bother. It’s kind of not the writer’s fault–GQ sent an admitted wine ignoramus to write an article about Guy’s new wine venture, so he didn’t have much to work with other than rehashing old gossip and feuds.
But he did get enough backstory and anecdotes in to make the point that, despite his colors and his volume, Guy isn’t a dumb guy. He has limits but also ambitions that should be considered on their own terms. Which clearly GQ couldn’t be bothered with (nor was the photographer apparently chosen for artistic nuance).
Fieri doesn’t seem to hold a grudge, and Bourdain probably doesn’t think twice about it all. It’s a shame that the good parts of the article are so buried, even by the article itself.
I think both Guy Fieri and Alton Brown are caught in the crossfire of the larger issue of how Food Network has evolved and what it represents to society.
A long time ago we had cooking shows mostly by chefs who would teach us how to cook or how to appreciate parts of food culture. There was a sense of authenticity there in that the chefs were teaching the viewers something about their experience. These were mostly PBS or BBC shows in which profit wasn’t the sole overriding goal behind TV production.
Now the Food Network phenomenon is one where TV producers look at audience ratings and create shows all focused on profit and audience. Alton Brown has said as much in a recent interview. This new approach leads to all kinds of new shows, which – depending on your view – are really great entertainment or a horrible bastardization of a somewhat more noble goal of food appreciation.
Alton Brown and Guy Fieri are caught in the middle of this. Alton Brown especially, because his earlier show Good Eats was unlike any other on TV. But if you look at what both people are doing now, they are 100% sucked into the world of TV commercialization. Although there’s nothing wrong with profit, this new Food Network model isn’t really about food anymore. It’s about yet-another TV competition series and gamifying everything. It’s a completely different thing. Both those people aren’t in the world of food anymore, they’re in the world of entertainment because that’s Food Network’s approach to making TV shows & making money.
Anthony Bourdain’s show is a bit different. It’s not at all about teaching people how to cook, but it is about trying to show how food impacts culture and to show how different cultures view food. I’d argue this is a bit more “foodie” oriented. And while everyone has to figure out a way to make money, I’d argue that what Anthony Bourdain is doing now is a lot less of a sell-out - from a foodie perspective - than what Alton Brown is doing.
In the end I think these criticisms are taken way too seriously. It’s just that Food Network has become such a caricature that it’s all too easy to take pot shots at them for what they have become.
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if anything, the article paints a picture of guy as an even bigger douche than bourdain says. nobody has said he’s dumb; he just ACTS dumb and SAYS dumb things. that’s what makes him, y’know, douchey.
don’t you get the feeling he knows better, but just doesn’t care?
and as for holding a grudge…um, i beg to differ.
When I see Guy and Anthony I see two actors who know something about food. The difference is Guy knows how to describe the food he tastes, while Tony describes everything everywhere in the world he tastes as “good”. We know Guy does not like spicy, while the thing we know about Tony is he likes booze.
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I read it and not entirely sure how I should feel about this. I will get back to you later.
Do you watch “Parts Unknown”? It’s really more about the culture of a city/country and what part food plays in it. And he eats constantly 
I have started watching The Dione Lucas Cooking School show on Retro TV now. Here it is on from 12-1. I hardly ever watch any of the food network programs, They are all about the personalities instead of really good food.
