May 2013
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FROM JAMES BEARD AWARD WINNER RUTH BOURDAIN COMES...
Not since Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin’s landmark The Physiology of Taste has there been a more comprehensive guide to the world of food and wine. From food history to dining etiquette to matters of taste, this practical handbook offers the basics for navigating every aspect of gastronomy.
What they’re saying about Comfort Me with Offal:
“Fucking awesome.” - Boston Phoenix
...
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10 Tips for a Great James Beard Award Acceptance...
Have you been nominated for tonight’s James Beard Foundation Awards — the greatest culinusterfuck of all time — but you don’t know what to say if you get the prize? Here are 10 last minute tips for a winning acceptance speech.
1. Make a style statement
This is a food event, so when it comes to wardrobe, expandable waistbands and feedbags never go out of style. But, you also have a...
February 2013
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Sexy Food Talk: Some Culinary Pickup Lines
Let’s face it: Restaurants, food shops, and markets present tremendous opportunities for the mingling of the sexes. While you’re at the butcher checking out rib eyes, a lovely young lady or a handsome young man may catch your eye. Attraction can be elusive, but if you’re prepared with an appropriate pickup line, you might just find your match. Try these epicurean lines, which pair beautifully with...
January 2013
1 post
Introducing the DoucheCard
You may have heard of the ReviewerCard, but unfortunately it costs $100 to join. That’s why I’m introducing the DoucheCard, a first-of-its-kind FREE membership card for aspiring amuse douches and douchebaguettes.
Just print out this page, clip-and-save the card, and use it at your favorite eateries.
Here’s how it works:
1. Display DoucheCard at restaurant.
2. Receive looks...
December 2012
3 posts
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Gifts for people who like to cook, host, read, eat...
CNN’s Eatocracy lists Comfort Me with Offal in its holiday gift guide:
Even if you’re not familiar with Ruth Bourdain - the unholy Twitter-borne mash-up of Ruth Reichl and Anthony Bourdain - the food freak in your life is. RuBo, as she(?) is known to fans, won the inaugural James Beard Award for humor writing, and brings ever bit of that biting wit to this send-up of modern-day food...
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Top Ten 2013 Food Predictions
1. On the heels of trademarking April Bloomfield’s Spotted Pig in the UK, chef Gordon Ramsay will secure trademarks for The French Laundry, Noma, Per Se, and Babbo, and open a new flagship restaurant called Gordon Ramsay’s Momofuku Grill.
2. Out: Buttchugging. In: Earshots
3. Banana Republic will launch the world’s first “Smart Casual” restaurant, pairing flat front...
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Gourmet Live: Ruth Bourdain's Holiday Gift Guide
From Gourmet Live:
Twitter’s most vociferous gourmand and the author of Comfort Me with Offal offers her holiday gift ideas for those with special food needs.
November 2012
5 posts
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Exclusive Excerpt: Offal Good: 20 Organs to Eat...
Offal, or organ meats, have become increasingly popular ingredients in contemporary gastronomy. Once considered peasant foods, these “nasty bits” have gone mainstream, prized by some of the world’s most celebrated chefs, not to mention the television series Fear Factor. But please don’t stop at pork bellies, beef cheeks, and marrow bones. There’s a whole world of nasty bits out there for your...
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Where Food Meets Porn: Ruth Bourdain And 50 Shades... →
If there’s anything that’s become a Big Thing this year, it’s the twisted combo of food and sex, immortalized in book form. The reigning Emperor/ress of Food Porn for years has been Ruth Bourdain, whose book Comfort Me With Offal quaked the loins of food lovers everywhere. But when F.L. Fowler recently published 50 Shades Of Chicken, a cookbook about a shy young chick with an undeniable, juicy...
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I Have a Few More Questions for Guy Fieri
New York Times restaurant critic Pete Wells recently asked some questions of celebrity chef Guy Fieri in his review of Guy’s American Kitchen & Bar. I have a few of my own which remain unanswered:
You have been seen wearing sunglasses on the back of your head. Do you or do you not have an extra set of eyes?
Does Donkey Sauce come from donkey balls? And, if so, do you have a hand (no...
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Exclusive Excerpt: Culinary Code: A Guide to Food...
Whether you are conversing with a friend on instant messenger while searching for recipes online, texting from your smartphone while cooking, or tweeting from your favorite restaurant, you need to know how to communicate quickly and succinctly. In-the-know, technologically-savvy gastronomes use these acronyms to convey key culinary information using the latest technology. [[MORE]]
FMLP: Fuck my...
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Food Republic: Investigating The Faceless Voice Of... →
Take the craggy face and crude humor of Anthony Bourdain, and add the luscious mane and lyrical prose of Ruth Reichl. Out comes a queerly twisted, pork-obsessed character of Twitterspheric proportions — Ruth Bourdain.
October 2012
10 posts
Pete Wells, PONTIFICATE, and the "21" Club
I recently published an excerpt from my new book Comfort Me with Offal, Ruth Bourdain’s Guide to Gastronomy in which I shared PONTIFICATE, the simple mnemonic device that is used by all restaurant critics when writing reviews.
New York Times restaurant critic Pete Wells has just published a wonderful review of the venerable “21” Club. Let’s see how PONTIFICATE works in practice...
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Exclusive Excerpt: "The Dish: The Language of...
Food is not just food. It’s a repository for the food critic’s deepest desires, subconscious dreams, secret fears, and eternal longings. The responsibility of the food critic is to tease out those hidden meanings, reflect on past relationships, and explore the very meaning of life. Even if the critic is presented with a simple bowl of macaroni and cheese, never underestimate the opportunity for...
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Interview: On the Menu Radio →
Me talk pretty one day. I talked (in a modulated voice that will give children nightmares) with On the Menu Radio about Comfort Me with Offal.
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Exclusive Excerpt: "A Zest for Life"
Throughout Comfort Me with Offal, I have included some memorable stories from my own personal history in the world of food and wine. Here is an exclusive excerpt from the book in which I recount the unforgettable night I got gastrostoned with chef Mario Batali and learned the mind-bending pleasures of smoking tangerine zest for the very first time.
May 1999
NEW YORK, New York
“Have you ever...
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Food52: 5 Questions with Ruth Bourdain + Giveaway! →
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Press Democrat: "Wave of Cookbooks for Autumn" →
“Some of the best of the 2012 season,” including Comfort Me with Offal.
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“And it’s not only chefs. Ruth Bourdain skewers critics, consumers, and...”
– Appetite for Books
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Gayot.com: "Tickle Your Foodie Funny Bone" →
Comfort Me with Offal is a quick, fun read sure to entertain Ruth Bourdain’s more than 58,000 Twitter followers, as well as the rest of the culinary cognoscenti, provided they can take a joke, of course.
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Ruth Bourdain Disses and Dishes with Zester →
Learn about my favorite breakfast, my salad philosophy, and my favorite kitchen tool at Zester Daily (and enter to win a free copy of Comfort Me with Offal).
September 2012
9 posts
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When I'm reading Ruth Bourdain's Comfort Me With...
wtfoodies:
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Zagat: Fall Cookbook Guide →
Comfort Me with Offal is one of “fall’s 10 hottest new cookbooks,” according to Zagat.
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“She tells it like it is. I wish more people spoke as honestly as Ruth does.”
– Tony Maws, Chef-Owner of Craigie on Main
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Boston Phoenix: "Offally Good" →
Appearing to us like a backlit god in a ravaged culinary landscape, rife with the smell of Batali’s Crocs and pretentious baristas, Ruth Bourdain arose from the Interwebz two years ago as an amalgam of former Gourmet editor (and flowery tweeter) Ruth Reichl and chef-cum-travel guide with a fondness for a well-placed cuss Anthony Bourdain. A James Beard Award for humor writing and more than...
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Ruth Bourdain Remains at Large →
The identity of the anonymous Twitterer who concocted a witty literary amalgam of Ruth Reichl and Anthony Bourdain is at issue again.
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Ruth Bourdain's Comfort Me With Offal: From... →
There is much to love here, especially if you read the book as you would a self-help guide (this is one, if you think about it) or that super crammed page of trivia towards the front of the new-look New York Times Magazine. Read the highly amusing bits and pieces here and there, while you stir the risotto or watch a college football game or have a pee.
August 2012
2 posts
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Talking to the Real Ruth Bourdain [Wall Street... →
For more than two years, those in the navel-gazing food community have pondered who could be the mastermind behind the anonymous “Ruth Bourdain” Twitter handle.
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Comfort Me with Offal: The Definitive Manual for...
Carniwhores (Homo mediumrareus) from Comfort Me with Offal’s “Field Guide to the Modern Foodie.”
For some time, I’ve been thinking about how I can leave a lasting legacy and teach the world what I’ve learned from a lifetime devoted to all things food (except tempeh, of course).
After many long hours spent distilling this knowledge into (200 proof) book form, I...
November 2011
1 post
October 2011
1 post
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Cooking in Everyday English: Rejected Book Titles
Chef Todd English’s new book, Cooking in Everyday English, is out today.
According to an internal memo we obtained, the following alternate titles were rejected by the publisher:
English Only
Se Habla Inglés
English Lessons
English for Dummies
Introduction to English
Olde English
Broken English
The Idiot’s Guide to English
English Class
Spanglish
September 2011
2 posts
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5 Ways to Improve "The Chew"
Here are five simple ways that ABC can quickly turn around the disaster that is “The Chew”:
1. Shackle Mario Batali to the kitchen counter so he can’t escape to go golfing.
2. Get rid of Daphne Oz and bring in Frank Oz, who can do the voice of Animal from the Muppet Show.
3. Less Ester C. More Special K.
4. Bring back Michael Symon’s soul patch. The show is soulless...
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Mein Fanf
Although a bit douchey, Alton Brown has done an impressive thing by publishing his “Fanifesto” detailing exactly how fans should deal with him on his book tour. I thought I would expand on it with “Mein Fanf,” some rules for how fans should treat all celebrity chefs.
• Please don’t ask a celebrity chef to talk to someone on the phone. Unless, that is, you have Ferran Adria...
August 2011
1 post
Is Frank Bruni Biased Toward Paula Deen?
I noticed something odd about Frank Bruni’s headshot when reading his latest op-ed column.
I’m not saying he’s definitely under Paula Deen’s influence, but look what happens when you zoom in on his collar. Isn’t that sort of strange?
July 2011
2 posts
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June 2011
3 posts
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There. That Looks Better.
May 2011
3 posts
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Anthony Bourdain on Ruth Bourdain →
I think I know, and it ain’t that hard to figure out, but I really don’t want to know. I’m pushing it out of my brain. I hope he/she has a long and glorious career doing exactly what he/she is doing. Just the repartee between Ruth Bourdain and Tom Colicchio makes it all worthwhile. So, I don’t want to know. I’ve expunged it. Anyone who tells me who it is or who they think it is, I’ve...
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Welcome to Guilt Taste
Welcome to the beta launch of Guilt Taste, the ultimate online destination for your guiltiest food pleasures.
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Whoever he or she is, Ruth Bourdain wins a Beard →
Ruth Bourdain: acerbic, androgynous, foul-mouthed, totally fictitious and now…? James Beard Foundation winner.
On Friday, the so-called Oscars of the food world honored Ruth Bourdain — the made-up online mash-up of culinary icons Ruth Reichl and Anthony Bourdain — with its first ever award for humor writing.
In some ways the award was a nod not just to the still anonymous man or woman...
April 2011
2 posts
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Bravo: "Who is @RuthBourdain?" →
“Oh, I just love the fact that RuthBourdain has been nominated for a Beard Award,” Reichl squealed.
Reichl said she was glad the handle could bring a little levity to the awards show, and is really pulling for the mysterious tweeter to win, not only because she loves the Tweets, but to figure the true identity.
“I’m really hoping that he/she will win and will come...
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March 2011
9 posts
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LA Weekly: Ruth Reichl on Ruth Bourdain →
Not only does she enjoy the mystery tweeter who mashes up her tweets with those of Anthony Bourdain, Reichl is pulling for the handle to win the James Beard Award for humor. Who does Reichl think is behind the spoof? She claims to not know, but says she has a suspicion it’s actually someone who serves as a guest judge this season.
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Ruth on Ruth →
ELAINE: What do you think of Ruth Bourdain getting nominated for a James Beard Award this year for Humor?
RUTH: I think it’s great! I agree with Tony Bourdain! If we can’t have fun with food, what are we gonna have fun with? I hope he/she wins so they’ll have to get up and accept the award!
But I actually think it’s a “he,” and I don’t think it’s any of the people that have been talked...
