Anthony Bourdain may have been among the first to skewer the vapidity of celebrity chef TV culture, but South Park has taken it to a whole new level with its recent “Creme Fraiche” episode. The animators eviscerated the Food Network and its many imitators, leaving no sacred cow with its entrails intact.
Not surprisingly, the episode has been a hit among cynical ink-stained (radiation-scorched?) wretches like me. Take a look at some recent commentary:
- Robert Sietsema of the Village Voice offers a giddy blow-by-blow.
- FNH says that South Park “somehow managed to cram almost every celebrity chef stereotype into a 22-minute episode.”
- Broward/Palm Beach New Times says the show “might just be the best episode of South Park in years.”
- Eater calls the episode a “story of modern-day suburban sexual frustration channeled into unhealthy food obsessions and celebrity worship.”
- Even the Chowhounds were delighted to watch their celebrity chefs take pot shots.