Alan Richman's Manly Mish-Mash

Perhaps you read GQ magazine recently, and saw Alan Richman's article upon New Orleans' cuisine entitled, "Yes, We're Open".

No? In that case, perhaps you saw a mention online... here, here, here, here, here or here. Richman responds on his blog, and consents to an interview with Appetites .

Obviously, the man doesn't much care for New Orleans, be it the city, the folk or the food. His narrative is filled with interesting tidbits, such as:

• " I know we are supposed to salvage what’s left of the city, but what exactly is it that we’re trying to cherish and preserve?"
  
• "Of course, there’s the food. I’m not certain the cuisine was ever as good as its reputation, in part because the people who have consumed, evaluated, and admired it likely weren’t sober enough at the time of ingestion to know what they were eating."
  
• "New Orleans has always been about food and music, with parades added to the mix. (In the North, where I come from, we like to think we’re about jobs and education, with sports thrown in.) "
  
• "Residents could have responded to that miscalculation in any number of conscientious ways, but they chose endless revelry. "
  
• "Supposedly, Creoles can be found in and around New Orleans. I have never met one and suspect they are a faerie folk, like leprechauns, rather than an indigenous race. The myth is that once, long ago, Creoles existed."

I could go on pulling quotes, but there you have it. What was the point of this piece? That New Orleans, a town of crooks, indigents and alcoholics deserved what it got? And, oh yeah, the food sucks, too? Nice.

At any rate, here's a petition exhorting GQ to fire Mr. Richman for his poorly researched and appallingly hateful piece (via PZB). While I'm pretty sure that he won't be released as a correspondent, perhaps it will serve as an itty-bitty wake-up call to Mr. Richman and the editors at GQ.

Petty mud-slinging is just not appropriate.... especially at a city and its people who are still trying to find their way back home again.