Chefs Are The New Rock Stars And I'm Already Sort Of Wishing They Weren't

“[That] anti-establishment, sticking-it-to-the-man mentality. They’re the ones saying, ‘I’m going to butcher a whole pig and serve you its face, and if you don’t like it, too bad.’”
 — Lollapalooza culinary director Graham Elliot, on how celebrity chefs are the new rock stars. You know, for the most part, I am okay with the cultural ascendance of food in America. I like food and I like it to be good, and if silly fetishization and despicable words like “foodie” are the price to pay for an increase in the quality and availability of things for me to eat, fine. But this is all starting to feel like a Dan Cortese “Rock N’ Jock” softball game. (I will pay Darryl Hall A MILLION DOLLARS if he changes the words of “Maneater” to “She’s a ham eater,” after April Bloomfield is done butchering her 200-pound pig on the main stage at The Great GoogaMooga festival on Saturday in Prospect Park.)