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Alice Waters on "The View"
With her new book out, Alice Waters has been all over the media lately (including a piece in the New York Times that mentioned parenthetically that “Ms. Waters is not in love, though she longs for ‘a good pal to be in the world with,’” prompting calls for foodie matchmaking). So far her most fish-out-of-water moment, says Adam Roberts at Amateur Gourmet, has been a spot on midmorning rumbling round-table The View.
[I]magine my surprise when I saw that the third guest—after Elmo and Tracy Morgan—was none other than the single most important living female food figure in the country (does anyone dispute that?) Alice Waters.
Roberts’s description of the show is hilarious. First of all, he says, the show’s announcer describes Waters as a “natural foods expert.” “That’d be like describing T.S. Eliot as a ‘word organizer,’” notes Roberts (and who uses the phrase natural foods anymore??). Finally, as Alice shows the “ballsy and brash” Joy Behar a roast chicken, Behar asks, “Can’t you shove a beer can in the chicken’s vagina and cook it that way?” Watching this, Roberts says,
I realized how far removed this whole food world is from the ‘real world.’ Obviously everyone’s sense of ‘the real world’ is different, but to me it’s a question of class, education, exposure: what Joy Behar represents, at least for me, is a working class mentality. Why go to a farmer’s market when you can get cauliflower at Publix? Why salt a chicken early when you can put a beer can in its vagina?
In her own way, Joy Behar was the perfect foil for Alice Waters: no coddling, no ring-kissing. Just crass reality in the face of lofty idealism. Between the two, the answer lies.
Yes, Alice Waters on The View is a sign of the times, agrees Eater. Bigger sign of the times? That she came after Elmo and Tracy Morgan.
Posted by | Monday, October 15, 2007 at 4:34pm | 4 comments
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I read the article about Alice Waters in the New York Times and had the distinct impression that the author didn't like her. The feeling communicated was that Ms. Waters was humorless and rather obsessive not to say somewhat arrogant. Subsequently, I watched Alice on the 'Today' show with Meredith. Meredith is a wonderful interviewer, at least in my opinion, but there was no doubt she had trouble with Ms. Waters incredible seriousness and, shall we say, lack of personality. Finally, Ms. Waters appeared on The View and confirmed that she may be the undisputed grand dame of all things natural and wonderfilled when it comes to food but, sadly, she's come to believe in her own press and takes herself far, far too seriously to be enjoyed - at least on television.
When she's used to getting the kind of reverential treatment she got in the Severson piece or in her bio:
http://thegurglingcod.typepad.com/the...
it amazes me she did not just implode. Even Martha, albeit a very different and more TV-oriented doyenne, can roll with it when Conan makes her drink Colt 45, or when Aretha Franklin dumps 2 liters of Vernor's on her ham.
Several years back I was at the New York Citymeals on Wheels "foodie" bash at Rockefeller Center. Alice Waters was surrounded, three deep, by fawning admirers while only about ten feet away sat Edna Lewis, alone, sipping a cup of tea. I was fortunate to spend some time speaking with Ms. Lewis. I doubt that the "foodies" had any idea that the real American chef was there, and her name isn't Alice.
i really didn't expect to come to a site and encounter so much hostility directed at a woman who clearly loves fresh food. didn't know she was public enemy number one. i thought country was faced with other issues. the view sounds like an incredibly charming show.