I am the creator of “Ruth Bourdain” (@ruthbourdain), a satirical Twitter account mashing up the uber-“bad boy chef” Anthony Bourdain with author, restaurant critic, and Gourmet magazine editor Ruth Reichl.
Dubbed “the Banksy of the food world,” this Frankenstein monster blended two extreme poles of gastronomy: the hedonistic and the holier-than-thou, the crass and the couth, the plastered and the poetic. Joining these opposite forces together into one satirical character became the perfect vehicle for lampooning all corners of the food world, from celebrity chefs to food media cliches.
I won a James Beard Award for Ruth Bourdain’s social media shenanigans—the first the James Beard Foundation ever gave for humor. After three years and nearly 3,000 tweets, I finally decided it was time to “come out of the pantry” and reveal Ruth Bourdain’s identity in a front page article in the The New York Times.