This week I columnized about Anthony Bourdain’s visit to Israel, which aired as an episode of his “Parts Unknown” series on CNN.
Two years ago I wrote a column in the Jewish Journal urging Bourdain, the most articulate of all the food personalities on TV, to include Israel as part of his then-popular show, “No Reservations.”
I began the piece with some heartfelt buttering up:
Television is littered with lousy food shows. I know I risk sounding like some grumpy old coot wondering whatever happened to Jack Paar, but I do wonder what the spirit of the great Julia Child would make of the utter mediocrity, the sheer lack of aspiration, the game show approach and personality-driven fluff that has become the norm in food TV.
Thank God for Anthony Bourdain.
Then I made my ask:
One place Bourdain hasn’t been in the Middle East since 2006, or ever, is Israel. He did an episode in Dubai, in which he focused on the plight of the maltreated, deracinated imported laborers, and in Saudi Arabia, where he humanized a culture that exists mostly in monochromatic stereotype, while falling short of giving it a ringing endorsement.
But why not Israel? The comments section of Bourdain-related blogs is peppered with unanswered pleas for an Israel episode.
The country has undergone a food revolution; it is, and has long been, at the crossroads of Middle Eastern cuisine. Israel is home to great chefs, innovative producers, and there’s no lack of moving stories. If you want to examine how food and culture interact, Israel is one of the world’s perfect laboratories.
I assumed Bourdain was keeping his distance out of pique. With a bit of bad luck, he could have been killed in 2006 courtesy of the Israelis. I e-mailed Diane Schutz, the show’s producer, at Zero Point Zero Productions and asked flat out, “Will Tony go to Israel?”
I expected no answer. But very quickly, by return e-mail, came a yes. Yes, she e-mailed me, it is something they are very much interested in. Not this season, which is in the can, but soon.
Now that will be a food show. Stay tuned.
We (me, our Web Team) launched a Facebook page, “Send Anthony Bourdain to Israel.” It got a full TWO HUNDRED “Likes.” Clearly I had tapped into the gestalt.
That was over two years ago. But finally– with a different show, different network, different approach– Bourdain went. Parts Unknown filed an Israel episode.
And when he returned, he got slammed.
The watchdog organization CAMERA accused him of pushing pro-Palestinian propaganda. The Forward newspaper– 180 degrees the opposite of CAMERA– called the trip a “big disappointment.”
“He barely scratches the surface and spends scant time discussing food with Ottolenghi, who is arguably the most significant Israeli chef in the world,” writes Devra Ferst.
Ha’aretz enumarates all the restaurants he should have gone to but didn’t. But the writer misunderstands what this particular series is about– not restaurants and food per se, but people and their predicaments, with food as a lens.
To be fair, Bourdain scored a few more points with Palestinians. At the Daily Beast, comedian, foodie, and all-around remarkable person Maysoon Zayid gushes over his humanizing of Gazans– and notes that for her, he also went a way toward humanizing settlers.
And at the blog Barefoot in Ramallah, Bourdain gets a backhanded not bad, though they call the Israel episode (and the whole program) “a little odd and simplistic.”
So, welcome to Israel, Tony– where, as you noted at the outset of your show, you are bound to upset everyone. And welcome to the Jewish people, Tony, where pretty much the same holds true.
My bottom line take on the show is this:
…given the limitations of the medium, Bourdain did the right thing. He gathered narratives, tested them against one another and against his own sense of what’s right and wrong. He sat down at tables and let people tell their stories. And only after he had listened, and eaten, with all of them — Israeli and Palestinian — did he venture a conclusion…
Like I said in my piece (the whole thing’s below), it was worth the wait. I’m thinking Bourdain appreciated my sentiments, since he Tweeted the column.
Grateful for this! http://t.co/dFr6vx3QzJ
— Anthony Bourdain (@Bourdain) September 24, 2013
The question is, when is he going back?
Parts Unknown
by Rob Eshman
