It's no surprise that Anthony Bourdain is a top-notch writer whose talent for snarky juxtapositions seems tailor-made for the Web, but his weekly write-ups for Bravo TV's "Top Chef" (of which he's a participant as a guest judge from time to time) is a wonderful reminder that sharp, smart writing continues to be the driving force behind great blogs.
Take this passage from his most recent entry, in which he bemoans his status as resident ogre on his appearances so far on the program:
So far this year, I've had the dubious honor of helping to boot off the show an extremely likeable, open-hearted orphan with a lilting Southern accent, and now, last night, I got to be part of the hunting party who smashed the hopes and dreams of a cancer survivor. Short of biting the heads off kittens while dressed up as a storm trooper, I don't think I could look any less sympathetic.
Later, he blends insights gleaned from his own experiences in professional kitchens ("When not cooking or staging on familiar ground, you don't know what the ovens and refrigeration and food holding facilities or the space is going to be like -- and you have to assume the worst.") with flat-out funny lines describing the ugliness of one contestant's broccoli dish ("I believe I said something like, 'This looks like something you'd find in Bob Marley's closet.' I meant NOW -- like years and years after the great man's death").
In short, no only does he entertain, he adds insight and depth to what's a good, if not particularly great, television show.
He also proves you can, indeed, write long in your blog entries ... provided you're good at it.
(Although I must complain about Bravo's decision to "slice up" the blog into multiple pages. Annoying. Very annoying.)
1 comment:
I love that show, and I love Bourdain. On the show, he said somebody's dish (Malarkey's?) tasted like "doll's head." His grasp of the metaphor makes me laugh.
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