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Coronavirus-inspired dish at Alinea draws backlash. Chef Grant Achatz explains his intent.
Chicago Tribune ^ | July 9, 2020 | Grace Wong

Posted on 07/09/2020 6:55:20 PM PDT by DoodleBob

The 3D rendering of the novel coronavirus — with its gray exterior and bright red spikes — has inspired incarnations as breads, cakes, burgers, beers and plushies around the world, a reaction that uses grim humor to help us cope with a horrible threat. But the products have received mixed reactions.

Some people find them humorous, a source of levity during a bleak situation, while others have decried the practice, saying the products are tasteless and insensitive, considering the virus has already killed more than half a million people worldwide and 134,000 people in the United States.

Alinea, the renowned Chicago restaurant, found itself among the ranks of food and drink purveyors under fire after a photo of an amuse-bouche inspired by the virus surfaced online.

Served at the restaurant’s new rooftop pop-up AIR: Alinea in Residence, the dish visually resembles a computer rendering from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of the novel coronavirus, complete with a gray viral envelope, colored by coconut ash, and red spike proteins, made from freeze-dried raspberries. Those who saw the dish online criticized it for being insensitive and tone-deaf.

Grant Achatz, chef and co-owner, said while people who dined at the pop-up enjoyed the dish, the public impact didn’t match the intention behind his creation, and he regrets not speaking out about it sooner.

The backlash on Instagram began earlier this week. David Baker posted a screenshot of a tweet on Instagram that included a photo ...calling it “shameful.” ... The post now has hundreds of likes and comments.

“Considering the current state of the country and the restaurant industry as a whole, I think it’s incredibly disrespectful to the victims, their families, their diners and the restaurant industry,”

(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...


TOPICS: Chit/Chat; Food
KEYWORDS: coronavirus; nosenseofhumor

Or they could go with the original...


1 posted on 07/09/2020 6:55:20 PM PDT by DoodleBob
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To: DoodleBob
Those who saw the dish online criticized it for being insensitive and tone-deaf.

The best humor usually is

2 posted on 07/09/2020 7:05:26 PM PDT by Pontiac (The welfare state must fail because it is contrary to human nature and diminishes the human spirit)
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To: DoodleBob

It used to be that this sort of humor was applauded in a won’t-get-me-down or this-too-will-pass kind of way. The rona is currently on a path to be as deadly as the Hong Kong Flu outbreak of 1970 (IIRC). Shutting down and masking up was the last thing on anyone’s mind. People have lost their sense of humor.


3 posted on 07/09/2020 7:06:44 PM PDT by BradyLS (DO NOT FEED THE BEARS!)
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To: DoodleBob

I would go for something like a pinata-style cake or ice cream cake. If it was really elaborate, a baked Alaska cake, with a hard frozen ice cream ball center, then a cake exterior, and finally a meringue icing with edible corona bits plugged in, all hanging from a wench device on a tripod.


4 posted on 07/09/2020 7:23:50 PM PDT by yefragetuwrabrumuy ("All men and women were created by the, you know, you know, the thing.” -- Joe Biden 3/3/20)
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To: DoodleBob

5 posted on 07/09/2020 7:39:50 PM PDT by martin_fierro (< |:)~)
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To: yefragetuwrabrumuy

HaHa, we’ll, considering this restaurant matriculates in molecular gastronomy, I’d say you’re on the right track.


6 posted on 07/09/2020 7:46:01 PM PDT by crosdaddy
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To: DoodleBob

DR. BARRETT FOUND THE SILVER BULLET FOR COVID RIGHT UNDER OUR NOSES!
Some folk died needlessly? BIG DEAL! Can’t make an omelet without breaking a few (score thousand) eggs, right?
If what you learn in the next half hour fails to make you very, very angry, see if you can fog a mirror. And, if you’re a Democrat, when you’re done, you’re STILL a Democrat, get a CAT scan of your head. See that tiny little BB thing on the monitor? Your brain!
Please share the “good news” far and wide!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDSDdwN2Xcg&feature=youtu.be


7 posted on 07/09/2020 8:46:07 PM PDT by Dick Bachert (THE DEEP STATE HATES YOU!)
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To: DoodleBob

I once sat next to a Nazi supporter at a rally in Brentwood, Md. ( I was undercover.It’s sponsor was an avowed American Nazi and he had someone in a beautiful Emerald Green cloak and Lavender Hood, or vice versa, as his co-sponsor speaker. It was a rerun of a 1930’s German Nazi rally).

The guy I sat next to was about 6’6”, dressed in black motorcycle leather with studs and chains, who kept asking me about the chant “kill the Jews”. Being both Jewish and smart, I said, “Yes, anything you say”. Couldn’t take a chance on him having some communicable disease because his face looked like this dessert, as well as the Wash. Post group-goosestepping description of the virus as “the novel coronavirus, then NCV epidemic or NCV pandemic”.

As for the bat soup, it should be called “Wuhan Bat Flu Over the Chef’s Pot soup”. You want chopsticks with that?


8 posted on 07/09/2020 9:18:09 PM PDT by MadMax, the Grinning Reaper
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To: Dick Bachert

Yes ! It’s silver itself ! Colloidal silver.


9 posted on 07/09/2020 9:53:56 PM PDT by Truthoverpower (The guv-mint you get is the Trump winning express ! Yea haw ! Trump pence II!)
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To: DoodleBob

10 posted on 07/10/2020 4:59:31 AM PDT by rfp1234 (Caveat Emperor)
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