Food world’s best-kept secret is out

For three years and 2,700 tweets,an anonymous wit has used @RuthBourdain—a Twitter avatar conceived as an unholy mash-up of the former Gourmet editor Ruth Reichl and the bad-boy TV food host Anthony Bourdain—to poke fun at the pretensions of the culinary elite. The dispatches have taken potshots at celebrity chefs,including Mario Batali,Tom Colicchio and Thomas Keller.

In response,attempts to ferret out the identity of Bourdain’s creator have burned up the blogosphere. Accusations have been levelled. Guesses have been flung. Perhaps in an effort to flush out the truth,a new James Beard journalism prize for humour was invented and awarded to @RuthBourdain. No one showed up to accept it.

But now the perpetrator has decided to come in from the cold. In a message to The New York Times last week,@RuthBourdain offered an “exclusive reveal”,adding,“It’s going to be you or asylum in Venezuela.” Ruth Bourdain,it turns out,is Josh Friedland,a mild-mannered freelance writer from Maplewood,New Jersey,who produces The Food Section,one of the longest-running culinary blogs on the Web. “I never thought the joke would go on so long,” says Friedland,who will continue the tweets. “But the food world has become ripe for satire.”

Few arenas of 21st-century life have so quickly become the focus of aspiration and outright obsession: the byzantine tasting menus,the competition to discover the Next Great Place,the melodramatic top-chef reality shows. And while most celebrities are subjected to satire these days,few are mocked more gleefully than the legion of chefs who can claim some level of fame,from international brand names like Gordon Ramsay to local upstarts in every city,each with an online following and a pork-butchery diagram tattooed on a forearm.

To Friedland and other parodists,these cooks and their culture offer a delicious opportunity to remind devotees that for all their passion about cooking and eating,it is all,finally,just food.

Friedland,43,has sent Twitter messages almost daily since March 2010,when Reichl,a former Times restaurant critic,began posting a flowery,haiku-like description of her breakfast nearly every morning. Anthony Bourdain,famously combative,began reading them aloud on his Sirius radio show. “It wasn’t a huge leap to combine their voices in a funny way,” says Friedland. “They are pretty much the polar opposites of culinary experience.” Here is the real Reichl writing on Twitter: “Still. Gray. Cicadas screeching. Such a mournful sound. Fragrant strawberries,just picked. Rivers of yellow cream. Color for a muted day.” And here is Ruth Bourdain,who is frequently profane,libidinous or under the influence of hallucinogens: “Foggy. Stormy. Lightning in the night. Is that asparagus tucked into your softly stirred eggs or are you happy to see me? Brown butter me.”

Over time,this slim premise drew more than 66,000 followers. A few people accurately guessed Ruth Bourdain’s identity,but Friedland managed to deflect them,often changing his cellphone number,using voice-cloaking software to do radio interviews in character,and compelling editors and some reporters to sign non-disclosure agreements.

Friedland says at first he enjoyed using the Twitter handle to poke fun. But the need to conceal his alter ego has become exhausting,he said; being unable to take credit for the work has become a hindrance. “It was a good choice for the character not to attend the Beard awards,” he says,“but would I like to have been there,getting a medal? Of course.”