In an increasingly food-obsessed culture, it’s easy to take sides — say, the embittered Mark Bittman/Michael Pollan side versus the I’ve-eaten-this-way-all-my-life-and-I’m-fine side — leading to rifts or, at the very least, bad feelings among friends, family members, and most certainly restaurant owners and manufacturers who stand astutely on one side of the line or the other. I have to admit, the inspiration for this post came from my shock at seeing a photo of Bittman in the latest issue of Everyday Food: he has his hands up in the air and is smiling, widely, which is not the usual image I conjure up of him in my head as I read his passionate articles and interviews. At least in terms of how he expresses his dissatisfaction with our nation’s current industrialized food system and garbage eating habits, he doesn’t exactly come across as a happy-go-lucky type…more like the lovechild of Anthony Bourdain and Marion Nestle — an all-black-wearing New Yorker who’s taken daddy’s bad attitude and softened it up with a bit of mommy’s extensive research, adding a dash of honest irony and patent disgust to the whole state of affairs.
