After reading your comments on Kimball, I conclude you’re a terrific judge of human nature.
So about the Frugal Gourmet——the PTB took him off the air fast b/c his young assistant complained that the F/G made passes at him.
I was on the entertainment committee of a private club and instituted a series of talks. I had Oliver Sachs, Fran Lebowitz, Martha Stewart, Camille Paglia, Dominic Dunne (yuck!), Eric Briendel, and yes, the Frugal Gourmet,Jeff Smith.
A dinner always proceeded the talk. Unfortunately, it was the first day of a new chef and he was in a panic because he had to feed this guy. Because he was British, I guess, he decided to serve Trifle for dessert. After Smith insulted a friend of mine who attempted to speak about restaurant food over our meal (”I don’t talk about restaurant food,” Smith sneered, “I am a chef who only speaks about home cookery.”) the Trifle was served. We all innocently dug into it whereupon Smith threw down his spoon.
“I don’t eat JELLY in my Trifle,” he screamed. “There is no place for JELLY in Trifle!” And, indeed, there was some sort of jelly mixed into the dessert. As we sat there in embarrassed silence, a board member ran into the kitchen to make sure the new chef hadn’t overheard. He had!
Well, Smith got up and gave his little speech about spirituality and food and was the soul of hypocritical reverence for food and God. Later on, he bought his two sons memberships but I don’t think they ever showed up.
After he was arrested, my very gay friend who loved restaurant food, laughed and laughed!