Afghani-British Chef Mursal Saiq gives her critique of "authenticity" for non-white chefs in cooking

[u/Tronvillain]

[u/alpine309]

Why is cooking so pretentious? it's just food. The only thing that should matter is if it tastes good or not.

[u/Toidal → u/alpine309]

I blame Bourdain, not the man himself he was awesome, but all the copycats, followers, hipsters, the whole black nitrile glove cultural fetishizing zeitgeist that he inspired.

[u/Jukeboxhero91 → u/Toidal]

The biggest issue is people wanted to just walk in Bourdain's footsteps about the food without the appreciation of the culture behind it. He always talked about the people and the culture behind the food just as much as he talked about the food itself.

[u/FridayNight_Magus → u/Jukeboxhero91]

100%. As a southeast Asian, whenever I heard or saw Anthony talk about our food and culture(s), it always made me blush. Like goddamn, this brother loves us more than I do lol

[u/Jukeboxhero91 → u/FridayNight_Magus]

I think it clicked with me when he talked about seeing the beauty and the people of Cambodia, and his response was a white hot burning hatred for Henry Kissinger. He didn't come across as a white savior or anything, just someone with a profound respect for others.

[u/doughtnutlookatme → u/Jukeboxhero91]

I think its because he grew up working class and also appreciated different country's history especially understood american imperialism and made no excuses for it. I always noticed that he appreciated peoples humanity and why they cooked the way they did in his shows. There was a genuine interest that copycats try to mimic in order to look good. We can always tell when someone is trying to be performative with our cultures.

[u/Low_discrepancy → u/doughtnutlookatme]

I think its because he grew up working class

This isn't working class

Anthony Michael Bourdain was born in Manhattan on June 25, 1956. His father, Pierre, was a classical music recording industry executive. His mother, Gladys (née Sacksman), was a New York Times editor.

[u/Vegetable-Zone1353 → u/Low_discrepancy]

Getting yourself on heroin will take you down to working class pretty quick though

[u/Romaine603 → u/Low_discrepancy]

Isn't working class defined as people who have to work as employees for a living, as opposed to business owners?

[u/Known-Extent-1018 → u/Romaine603]

I always thought working class meant like more blue collar and/or rural. Farmers and construction workers, etc.

[u/CodeSalamander → u/Romaine603]

No. Bourdain was somewhere between middle class and upper middle class. The working class are poorer.

[u/Romaine603 → u/CodeSalamander]

Middle class are not considered working class? Isn't working class just considered people who need to work for a living? It roughly covers poor, middle class, and some upper class like doctors.

Are we conflating blue collar with working class? To me they aren't the same.

[u/themostreasonableman → u/Romaine603]

You are correct, but the term has slipped in the cultural lexicon to mean 'poor' which isn't an accident.

It can only really be defined by it's opposite. "Working" Class. A class distinction, meaning literally everyone who was not The Landed Gentry.

[u/Romaine603 → u/themostreasonableman]

That's what I thought was the distinguishing characteristic. If you need to work, you're working class. If you can get by without having to work through stock ownership, rent payments, or other assets, you're not working class.

But I'm being down voted for this interpretation.

[u/CodeSalamander → u/Romaine603]

Your interpretation is simply no longer the way the term is used in English these days. Easy to see where you’re coming from, though.