Rants

Bourdain and Batali Rag on Cupcakes, Food Network, and Just About Everything Else

A reader tipped us off to the fact that Anthony Bourdain and Mario Batali spoke at Seattle’s Paramount Theatre this weekend. Before you read the account, check out some nuggets Tony Tone served up to the Seattle Times. On the subject of cupcakes: “Enough.” Amen, brother. And now, our reader’s report.

-Sandra Lee (we all know that Tone can’t go a day without talking about her) mentioned to look up her recipe for “traditional Kwanzaa cake”

-How much Tony hates On the Road … Again and his travel companions (but said Claudia Bassols was lovely), and Mario jumping to his show’s defense saying that traveling with someone who doesn’t eat pork just means more for him

-Their respect for Bobby Flay and his shitty treatment by the Food Network, basically that he was seen as an arrogant prick, so they developed Throwdown so he would win 30 percent of the time and thus get sympathy from viewers

-Speaking of Food Network, Batali totally threw the gauntlet, not-so-subtly suggesting that Discovery is a better network

-Tony also talked about his showdown with Dame Waters, including the train hot-dog discussion, and appropriately dropped the F-bomb about five times in that anecdote

-When asked about them actually working the line in the future, Tony also said “like Alice Waters–style, floating about in the kitchen?”

-The host asked Batali’s dad about Mario’s best meal, which was a Christmas dinner in ‘87 including a sweetbreads quesadilla

-Tony also talked about his love for atomic-orange macaroni and cheese from the Colonel (nothing new but funny to hear nonetheless), but what he hasn’t said before publicly was that he liked consuming it while watching The Real Housewives of New York City, and asked the audience if Bethenny was ever gonna find a man

-Batals said he hoped to buy a restaurant in Italy in the next couple of years and work in the kitchen while his kids bus the tables for a year or two

-Was asked three separate times where they were going to drink after the show, politely declined being shown or taken to any type of establishment

-The last person who asked a question was quite possibly the bravest, happened to be a vegetarian and mentioned it. Then was promptly chewed out by Tony in a fantastic diatribe, closing the show on an exuberant note

And if all that isn’t enough for you (which it obviously isn’t), check out Wasabi Prime’s report. There are also a couple of short clips on YouTube — somebody, please let us know when you’ve posted the rest!

Bourdain and Batali Rag on Cupcakes, Food Network, and Just About Everything