When Food Becomes Ego, Not Nourishment - A Wake-Up Call to Netflix's "Chef's Table: The Legends"
I cried watching Alice Waters. Not out of sadness - but because in her face, her food, her gentleness - I saw truth.
She doesn't just serve food. She grows it, teaches it, shares it. With farmers. With children. With young chefs. She doesn't shout. She listens.
That's real leadership.
And then I think of Thomas Keller, Gordon Ramsay, and the rest of the "chef gods" canonized on Chef's Table. Loud, rigid, obsessive. Celebrated not for feeding souls, but for controlling teams and perfecting "micro meals" on $300 plates. And we're told this is culinary excellence?
No. This is a hierarchy. A boys' club. A template where power and precision replace humility and heart.
Meanwhile, Alice quietly paid every member of her kitchen equally. She made kids feel food. She connected eating to the earth, not to ego. No stars needed.
So why do we keep glorifying ego-driven chefs when we should be uplifting the Alice Waters, the José Andrés, the Vikas Khannas - the ones who serve?
Netflix, do better. Food is meant to nurture, not intimidate.
HASHTAGS / TAGS:
#RealFoodCulture #AliceWaters #ChefstableCritique #FoodIsLoveNotEgo #CancelCulinaryElitism #ChezPanisse #FeedPeopleNotEgos #VikasKhanna #JoséAndrés #FoodJustice #EgoInFineDining #SlowFoodMovement #NetflixWakeUp #IMDBReviews #FoodForChange.
She doesn't just serve food. She grows it, teaches it, shares it. With farmers. With children. With young chefs. She doesn't shout. She listens.
That's real leadership.
And then I think of Thomas Keller, Gordon Ramsay, and the rest of the "chef gods" canonized on Chef's Table. Loud, rigid, obsessive. Celebrated not for feeding souls, but for controlling teams and perfecting "micro meals" on $300 plates. And we're told this is culinary excellence?
No. This is a hierarchy. A boys' club. A template where power and precision replace humility and heart.
Meanwhile, Alice quietly paid every member of her kitchen equally. She made kids feel food. She connected eating to the earth, not to ego. No stars needed.
So why do we keep glorifying ego-driven chefs when we should be uplifting the Alice Waters, the José Andrés, the Vikas Khannas - the ones who serve?
Netflix, do better. Food is meant to nurture, not intimidate.
HASHTAGS / TAGS:
#RealFoodCulture #AliceWaters #ChefstableCritique #FoodIsLoveNotEgo #CancelCulinaryElitism #ChezPanisse #FeedPeopleNotEgos #VikasKhanna #JoséAndrés #FoodJustice #EgoInFineDining #SlowFoodMovement #NetflixWakeUp #IMDBReviews #FoodForChange.
- martinuejacque
- May 25, 2025