🚀 go-pugleaf

Don't know how many of you have ever watched Rick Bayless's TV cooking 
show.  He concentrates on traditional Mexican food, and from points 
further south.  He started shilling for Burger King, which I suppose 
would raise cries of "Sellout!" from the foodie crowd.  In an 
announcement on his website trying to justify his decision, I had 
trouble keeping my jaw out of my lap while reading it.

I don't argue with his underlying message, and I suppose very few 
fast-food habitu�s will be perusing his website, but I found the tone 
incredibly arrogant.

Just my $0.02.  Judge for yourself.




http://www.fronterakitchens.com/rickbayless/whatsupwbk/


Dear friends, colleagues and co-workers: 

Many of you have asked me why I chose to do that ad for Burger King.  It 
was very seriously thought-through, and here is my reasoning in a 
nutshell:  I decided that it�s time for those of us in the healthy 
food/sustainable food movement to applaud any positive steps we see in 
the behemoth quick-service restaurant chains. Seventy-five percent of 
our fellow Americans nourish themselves in their restaurants at least 
once a week  (an even more serious statistic is that almost 20 percent 
eat fast food three or more time a week). I can no longer ignore these 
statistics, and I ask you not to either. 

I can�t take responsibility for feeding all those fast food customers in 
my restaurant.  Besides, most of them couldn�t even afford my 
restaurant.  And since our culture has made a wrong turn, several 
generations now haven�t even learned to cook.   So my (or other�s) 
cooking shows and cookbooks don�t hit their radar screens.  These are 
people who know little beyond processed food flavors. Helping them take 
steps toward honest, seasonal, natural flavors, means starting with them 
(accepting them) where they are. 

These folks aren�t going to change over night.  And the fast food 
franchises aren�t going to go away.  But if my BK ad encourages a few 
hundred thousand people to experience a tasty, less-processed sandwich 
of crusty bread with grilled chicken, a sauce made from roasted tomatoes 
and poblano chiles, plus a topping of grilled fresh bell peppers and 
onions�that�s huge. What realistic justification could one have for NOT 
promoting that? 

So I choose to work on both ends of the spectrum. At 
Frontera/Topolobampo, we�ve developed an amazing team of talented chefs 
a who purchased just under half-million dollars from local, sustainable 
family farms last year. This year our Frontera Farmer Foundation has 
raised nearly $300,000 to distribute to small family farms in the form 
of capital improvement grants. Clearly, we�re committed to promoting 
local, seasonal, sustainably raised products in the hand-crafted dishes 
at our fine-dining restaurants. But I refuse to limit myself to just 
this small-but-fast-growing segment, dismissing millions of Americans 
who are light-years from knowing the wonders of local organic produce. I 
want to help them along, too. Starting right where they are. 

I know this bridging of categories makes some people uncomfortable. But 
that�s honestly who I am. I�m both eco-chef and fast-food supporter, if 
I�m given a voice for positive change in both those camps. And I�m 
ethnic chef, bringing respect to a little-appreciated cuisine through 
restaurants, books and television shows. I�m co-author with my teenage 
daughter of a book out next fall exploring how cooking with folks in 
other countries develops a unique language of friendship and family. I�m 
a health writer, encouraging people to embrace the realistic role of 
fabulous food in healthy living. For me it is unconscionable to limit 
myself to one camp, since food touches our lives in so many ways. 

Most people think I did the BK ad for the money.  Well, that�s not 
me�never has been. Besides, all the money is going to our Foundation to 
support small, sustainable family farms around Chicago.  The Frontera 
Farmer Foundation is going to have a much bigger impact.  And, I also 
believe, these new offerings at Burger King are, too. 

Sincerely, 


Rick Bayless