His family had been forced to evacuate to the hotel, where he lived for eight years and spent time wandering, often finding himself in the kitchen. It was here, barricaded inside, that Chef Philippe fell in love with cooking, and the cuisine of Lebanon. After death threats and stray bullets became too intense, Mr. Massoud’s parents decided to send him to visit his relatives in Scarsdale, New York. It was only when he had arrived stateside that he was told he was never going back. “It was like coming from a land of chaos to the civilized world,” he says. He was enrolled in high school, and well on his way to becoming a normal American teenager, when one year into his high school experience, he was told that his father had been assassinated.

Philippe continued with his education, even carrying on the family tradition by entering the Hospitality program at Cornell. However, with disagreements on campus, steady news of the chaos surrounding his friends and family, and the loss of his family’s hotel (“my second father,” as he refers to it), he quickly finished up his degree at the Rochester Institute of Technology and left to seek his culinary fortune. He first struck out for New York, where several restaurants were offered to him, only to have the deals collapse one by one. Then he was off to Lebanon, where he trained under the country’s top chefs, most of them former employees of his father. He returned to America in 1999, and soon after opened up Neyla in Washington, D.C., where his signature version of Lebanese cuisine first took root. In 2006, he left Neyla and Washington to launch his full-scale attempt to bring high-fashion Lebanese food to the savvy New York public, resulting in the cult phenomenon Ilili, which is a phrase that is whispered in a woman’s ear, meaning “Tell me…” Thanks to word of mouth and Chef Massoud’s obsession with quality, Ilili has become a New York culinary hot spot.

NYO sat down with Chef Massoud over a smattering of mezza, the Middle Eastern equivalent of tapas, to gain a better understanding of the long road he has traveled to get to where he is, and where he sees the future leading.

Q: How would you describe your restaurant experience so far?

A: The restaurant world has taught me how strong a man’s body is. As a kid, I never got the dose of reality that I did after the first year of employment. It wasn’t until I opened a restaurant that I realized there was another level of energy. Restaurants are made for people crafted out of steel, and they’re not for the faint of heart. It’s perfection, 24/7. The seat you don’t sell today can’t be sold tomorrow, and your product must be reinvented daily. I will always hire a restaurateur to go into other industries, but I will not hire anyone from the outside to be a restaurateur. It takes a special breed.

Q: Tell me more about your childhood.

A: It was magical, adventurous, tragic and horrific, all at the same time. That was what living in Lebanon was all about when you were growing up in a conflict zone. There’s never really time to be a child; you’re an adult as soon as you can stand, in essence. When I compare my childhood with my colleagues’, I realize there is a child penned up in me, looking to have fun and just be a kid.

Q: What’s your favorite thing to make for your family?

A: I keep family meals simple. Perfectly roasted chicken, whole roasted fish with farm market vegetables; the simpler the better.

Q: What restaurants inspired Ilili?

A: None, it has been in my brain since 1989. It is a very personal story of perseverance, of the American dream. Take a guy out of a war zone, give him the opportunity to have a normal life, tell him that he has his rights and see what he can do. It comes from the line between survival and creativity.

Q: What is your favorite dish at Ilili?

A: Ugh, that’s a tough choice … The steak tartare.

Q: You’ve worked for many years as a restaurant consultant. Are there any keys to making a great restaurant?

A: First of all, there is no magical equation to a success. I’d say bring something missing to the market; if it’s already on the market, it better be the best goddamn thing out there! If you’re not opening to be the best, don’t open at all.

Q: How do you balance formal dining with the intimacy of Lebanese cuisine at Ilili?

A: I think, first of all, fine dining is actually eating mezza because if you look at the portions, you’re in essence eating small pieces. The only difference is a linear versus social mezza. The whole point is that it breaks the ice and brings out the community in a group, and that can work in a refined or a casual setting. The menu is vast enough that our guest can steer their meal towards a formal or a social affair, each table is like a mini restaurant, and they decide how they want their restaurant experience to go. I’ve had U.S. presidents dine here, and bachelorette parties that would be censored in any normal circumstances. It really is a restaurant for all occasions. 

Q: What are your thoughts on the Mediterranean diet that has been getting such good press these days, like the recent New York Times piece calling the Mediterranean diet the new hot health buff’s obsession?

A: I think calling it the Mediterranean diet is misleading because that sounds like it’s an exercise in doing things we don’t want to do. Eating the Mediterranean way should come naturally to us, like it does to the rest of the world. Different ingredients can supply the same culinary experience giving you a tenth of the daily fats. When you’re out drinking in the Mediterranean, they have nuts out and people always end up eating a handful while they’re out socializing. Tabbouleh will give you 300 percent of your vitamin C, 130 percent of vitamin A, 50 percent of your fiber and iron, so you’ve already fulfilled half of your needs for nutrition for the whole day. Add some meat and a vegetable, and your body is completely fueled. We’ve seen diets come and go and there’s already diet fatigue in the market, but it is proven eating a balanced diet will help. Your mood will improve, your sleep will be better, and the rest will follow.

Q: Will the Mediterranean diet elevate Lebanese cuisine to the level of Spanish, Chinese or Nordic cuisine?

A: I do believe that what we’re doing in regards to Mediterranean is the beginning of the journey. The cuisine has been dormant for quite some time, but it is a cuisine with an amazing level of fusion thanks to the Silk Road. We have 200 years of culture mixing with each other, which has created an amazing encyclopedia of food treasures yet to be reproduced. Should that interest remain, it will help Ilili further push their message. I’d say it’s a wind that’s blowing in our sail; if it’s a wind that will sustain has yet to be determined.

Q: You’re known for reintroducing Lebanese classics, as well as putting inventive new spins on the cuisine. How far can you take Lebanese before it loses authenticity?

A: You have to realize, the restaurant opened to say: Now that I am in a country that has peace and I don’t have to worry about whether I’m going to live or die tomorrow, how do I see my cuisine evolving? The same way it has evolved in France, in Japan, in Spain, there is no such thing as not being able to keep it Lebanese because that means we’ve stopped evolving. The cuisine is, in my opinion, a barely walking toddler, because there was a hijacking of the evolution of the arts within all the conflict. The only reason I’m getting a lot of credit these days is I was able to dream because I didn’t have to worry about a bomb falling on the head. If everyone had the same advantages I had, I’m sure these culinary arts would have progressed the way we try to do it at Ilili. Tradition is a foundation, and creation is an evolution. If I want to inject a Japanese technique into a Lebanese dish, that’s my creative right; that’s what being creative is all about.

Q: What do you say to people wary of Lebanese food?

A: Satisfaction guaranteed or your money back. The number one comment we hear is, “Oh, my! I did not know Lebanese could be this much fun!” Unfortunately, that’s because there are not enough of us doing what Ilili is doing on the market, and I’m hoping that will change over time.

Q: What is the future of Middle Eastern cuisine, and cuisine in the Middle East?

A: I think Middle Eastern cuisine is tied to the evolution of the region, and because of social media and the Internet, things are moving faster in a more fluid direction. However, we’re not anywhere near what the potential will be in five or 10 years. I believe it will be the next to cross the ethnic divide and make its way up to fine dining. As for the Middle East, I think the evolution of the cuisine in its own soil is tied into the security of the region. Aleppo, which is one of the most amazing culinary capitals of the world, is decimated, and a lot of history has been eradicated. The cuisine of the Middle East is in critical condition as long as the region suffers. However, on the artisanal level, there is a powerful movement for slow food and women showing their craft in pop-up restaurants. You have chefs taking pride in the fact that they work as chefs. It’s an uphill battle over there.

A real bunny boiler for Easter.

Tired of the same old Easter Egg hunt? Kind of hate the Easter Bunny? This holiday, depraved diners can finally find out if rabbits have anything in common with Jesus by visiting their favorite restaurants and watching for any signs of resurrection during digestion.

As DNA Info points out, three restaurants in the city will be offering Easter specials involving little fluffy cottontails, including Lincoln, Red Gravy and Gentleman Farmer. And that doesn't include all the gourmet chefs who already have rabbit on the menu. I Sodi, Zero Otto Nove, Maialino at Gramercy Park, SHO Shaun Hergatt, Marlow and Son's, Lucien, The Breslin Bar & Dining Room, Wallse ... all guaranteed to make sure your children are so scarred by images of a braised bunny that for the rest of their lives, the mere mention of "chocolate eggs" will have them reaching for their therapist's number.

Mr. Deen.

Turns out that James Deen has his finger in many pies—and not just in the gross sexual way that you were thinking.

The it-boy porn star, whose claims to fame include a hefty endowment and a co-starring role in The Canyons with Lindsay Lohan, is branching out yet again, with the release a new video food blog called "James Deen Loves Food."

The blog, which is featured on the porn site WoodRocket.com, is surprisingly safe for work, and features a fully-clothed Mr. Deen engaged in various quirky dining stunts, which include ordering everything on the Burger King Menu and making ice-cream with liquid nitrogen. We just hope he washed his hands.

Don’t worry, this new venture doesn’t mean the habitually filthy Mr. Deen is cleaning up his act, and the blog itself has a sufficient dose of sheer creepiness to disqualify him from becoming the next mainstream foodie sensation. (Although, frankly, we aren’t ruling it out. Diners, Drive-ins and Dicks, anyone?)

You see, Mr. Deen is apparently obsessed with serial killers, and the blog features various allusions to some of his fave mass murderers, including segments in which he samples the death row meals of infamous inmates like John Wayne Gacy, Ted Bundy and Gary Leon Brown. Creeeeepy.

Let’s just hope that Mr. Deen’s interest is purely academic, because the porn industry simply won’t survive another scandal.

That being said, it’s hardly the weirdest thing on WoodRocket. The site bills itself as "the future of porn!" and features avant garde productions like the scientifically-probing “What fits down her throat?,” the literary “Topless Girls Reading Books,” along with something called “Spongeknob squarenuts XXX.” Something for everyone!

So yeah, lest the New York Times article failed to convince you—James Deen is NOT your average porn star. He’s just your average serial-killer-obsessed porn star turned Hollywood actor with a food blog. Are you getting all this?

Like most things in Men in Black, this restaurant does not exist.

If you ever watched a Men in Black, The Fisher King or that episode of Seinfeld, you may have a certain idea of how a Chinese restaurant in New York should look. Red walls? Big golden statues? A wall that's a fish tank? Well, of course, there's always Congee Village, but for the most part, New York's finest Asian eateries look nothing like their Hollywood counterparts, according to ScoutingNY.com.

The post really has a problem with tourists who specifically want to eat at a restaurant like the one from Men in Black:

But I really wish they’d realize that the reason they think New York is filled with MIB-style Chinese restaurants is not because of reality, but because of what they’ve seen in the movies and on TV. For a city that has nearly everything, there’s a LOT of alternatives to choose from, and I really hate having to fake the few things it doesn’t have just to do the same cliche over and over and over and over …

We've never encountered that exact complaint before from visiting friends or relatives, as they are usually more worried about other issues. "What's that sign mean, 'Grade Pending?'" or "These aren't real frog legs on the menu, right?" But then again, we don't run into a lot of people whose suspension of disbelief in films goes so far that it becomes a sort of guide to the real world. If you do happen to see one of these folks, kindly direct them to the nearest sound stage and tell them to enjoy the craft services.

While New Yorkers have created a lot of great holiday meal traditions--that whole "Chinese food on Christmas Eve" thing was totally ours--Thanksgiving has always been sort of a hodgepodge. If New York is a melting pot of culture, we might need a little more salt when it comes to figuring out how to take the Thanksgiving meal from home and transport it here.

Or we can just give up and order a turkey from Trader Joe's.

Either way, the whole Middle Eastern-fusion TexMex Chesapeake Vegan Thanksgiving thing isn't going to cut the cranberry sauce this year. Meditate on some of these New York-inspired (or -created, or whatever) dishes and think about how you ... well, how all of us could be putting a little more effort into this whole holiday instead of annually fleeing the city and going home to mommy.

Let's eat. (EPA)

Just before Hurricane Sandy hit, everyone was busy stocking up provisions to weather the maelstrom. Following the storm, there was a scramble to to find more to eat as stores were empty and restaurants closed. This is a city of gourmands, after all. For the city officials who were responsible for guiding the city through the disaster, this was no exception.

While we were compiling our oral history of Hurricane Sandy, Joe Lhota mentioned that even in the worst of the storm, he had managed to keep his daily dietary regimen intact. This got us wondering: what was everybody eating while they scrambled around getting the city ready and helping it recover? Here is what the protectors and providers of the city had on their plates and in their pockets.

Joe Lhota, chairman and CEO, MTA: Even in the middle of the storm, I had what I always have—an omelet with two sausage patties. It's what I eat every morning. Would that be a cheese omelet? Is there any other kind? I don't put shit in them. Who needs onions in the morning? It's all protein, no carbs for breakfast, and that's the only thing I eat until dinner time.

Ray Kelly, commissioner, NYPD: He eats two patties a day, huh? Jeeze! He eats that stuff? I'm trying to eat egg whites. I had those Dunkin' Donuts egg white things, the sandwiches. I've had several of those. But I won't have anymore for a while.

It's funny because you take food for granted. I'm out riding around, and a place is closed, lots of places to eat are closed down. When the subways are closed, the restaurants are closed because they can't get their workers in there. It's something that is driven home sort of dramatically when you drive down Columbus Avenue, you think, "Hey there's no flooding here." Yeah, but they can't get their workers to work. Food suddenly became much more of an issue.

Sal Cassano, commissioner, FDNY: I think I ate a granola bar for dinner the night of the storm, and that was it.

Janette Sadik-Khan, commissioner, NYC DOT: I’ve been eating a lot of granola bars, a lot of granola bars. And they serve peanut butter sandwiches at every relief station, so between the granola bars and peanut butter and jelly, that’s it. Fortunately I walk up and down the stairs at home and work, and when you’re out all day in the field, I hope it won’t be too damaging.

Josh Vlasto, communications director, Cuomo administration: I don't want to sound complain-y, but when you're on the road, we haven't been eating that much. On the days when you're doing four or five stops, you leave at 10 in the morning and your don't get back to the office till 4 in the morning. It's a lot of granola bars and bottled water that you pick up. But people have been ordering pizza. But nothing has been open. Lots of granola bars, lets put it that way. It's a lot of throwing granola bars into the jacket and munching along the way.

Joe Bruno, commissioner, NYC OEM: Well I didn't eat that much. I mean, we do feed people here, so I'm a big salad person. If I can get fish I'm very happy, but we didn't get much of that. Mainly salads, a little bit of rice and little bit of bread. But I'm a skinny guy. I don't eat that much. There was pizza. I don't eat that stuff, but some of them do, unfortunately.

Cas Holloway, deputy mayor for operations: I was at OEM, and my hurricane diet was coffee. And I had a trail mix that I had that I actually had brought. Store-bought? No, no, I made it, I make my own. I go to this place called Nut Box and I make my own mix, and I had it in a big jar, and I was eating it by the fistful. Will you share your secret recipe? Almonds, cashews and dried apricots, dried cherries. And a little bit of coconut flaked shavings. It’s quite good.

Howard Glaser, director of state operations, Cuomo administration: Coffee, Coke, bagels.

John Rhea, chairman, NYCHA: I had a couple boxes of Ritz crackers that I was running around with, a bunch of bottles of water, and I had some spaghetti that I made with a little sauce. That tasted just as good cold, but it was even better if it was room temperature.

Robert LiMandri, commissioner, DOB: I didn’t eat very much all week. I remember having chicken soup on Monday, and that was probably the last time I ate for two and a half days. I didn’t have an appetite, standing down there, watching that crane.

Top Chef Kitchen (Bravo)

Bravo has always prided itself on its ability to foster a community for its fans. Unlike traditional television, a one-way medium, Bravo openly encourages viewers to become engaged, and it's most obvious in its mascotting of Andy Cohen (an executive who turned talent after his blog about the shows he was producing became popular and he was asked to host the first Housewives reunion) as the anti-Seacrest.

But there are other ways Bravo interacts with its fans: it has online forums and live chats with the stars of its shows, and unlike other reality programming--in which characters appear on the screen and nowhere else--Bravo essentially forces its reality stars to mingle with actual people. And it was with this concept that the Top Chef Kitchen was born.

On Tuesday evening, The Observer raced downtown, already late for our dinner at Bravo's pop-up restaurant on West Broadway. From mid-October to mid-November, the restaurant will rotate two Top Chef winners every week to design a menu for which anyone can book a reservation for a standard, four-course meal. It's $95, and that's without wine pairings. Or, as the website for the restaurant mentions, "for a super-foodie experience, there will also be a Chef's Table, which will boast an eight-course tasting menu with wine pairings and the chance to be up close and personal with the Chef’testants." (The network also tries to distinguish its stars from reality-show stereotypes by branding them with awkward titles like "Bravolebrities," "Chef-testants," and "Housewives.")

Entering into the red, glowing leviathan of the Tribeca restaurant, we couldn't help noting that the space has a TV history already--its last incarnation was Iron Chef Aarón Sanchez's Mexican eatery, Centrico.

"Oh, we had to totally gut the place, " one of Bravo's extremely BFF-friendly PR ladies told us, crinkling up her nose slighty at the thought. "It was a mess when we got it. We had to totally rip everything out, add new lighting, furniture, redecorate, redo the plumbing, the floors ... everything."

"So it cost a lot to redo the place as a Top Chef kichen?" we asked.

"Ha, you wouldn't believe."

"But the restaurant will only be open for four more weeks? And then what?"

She wasn't sure, but she had to go say hi to someone else now.

Every table occupied by the press (some regular people had made reservations as well) had a little Bravolebrity of its own. Our group, which consisted of a Page Six reporter, a writer for Mashable and his female friend, was headed up by Ben Huh, the creator of I Can Has Cheezeburger and its various meme sites, which raised $30 million in venture funding last April. He is the latest Bravolebrity, with a show about the Cheezeburger offices in Seattle, LOLWORK, premiering November 7.

"I was the first person to use the term 'internet culture,'" he told us.

"But mainly you make macro images of FAILS and cats," we said. "How do you make a show around that?"

Apparently the answer was that it would be a drama-free reality show, which makes about as much sense as pouring money into a restaurant whose purpose was to serve as a five-week synergistic branding of a popular TV series.

Our chefs that evening were Tiffany Derry and Paul Qui, who both came by the table to say hi, along with Mr. Bravo himself, Andy Cohen. Another PR rep had to explain to us that Mr. Qui, who had won Top Chef: Texas, wasn't a top chef of just Texas, but that the "cycles" moved from city to city.

"Like Real World?" we asked.

"Yeah, like Real World."

Except, of course, that Top Chef is a reality meritocracy, which means that it is ostensibly more highbrow than Housewives or Miss Advised or Gallery Girls, because the people involved are talented in some arena. And even though there were no cameras filming in the restaurant ("We considered it," our first PR bestie told us,) the chefs were still keeping "score" by tallying up how of their dishes were ordered throughout the evening:
(Click to enlarge)
Although we were allowed to mix-and-match our courses from both chefs, our waitress timidly informed us that Mr. Qui really thought it would be best that if you picked his menu, you ordered everything off of it, since every course represented another stage in the life of chicken soup, or something.

Since no one really wanted to do that at our table, we started with Mr. Qui's onions, then moved to Ms. Derry's snapper, then her pork belly dish and her banana pudding. Everything was very good (especially the onions and the pudding): A++ dining, would eat there again.

But unless we hustle, we might not have a chance to.

Sirio Maccioni, Susan Bennett and Tony Bennett (Photo - Dustin Wayne Harris/Patrick McMullan)

A restaurant opening in the chandeliered halls of The Pierre, flagship of Taj hotels, held much promise for some unrepentant gorging, but we were tragically left empty mouthed at Sirio’s grand unveiling on Wednesday evening, with not a crumb going spare.

“We have a lot of dear friends, and a lot of people who love us,” revealed handsome and ever-so-modest director of Le Cirque Mauro Maccioni, one quarter of the Italian-American epicurean dynasty.

Flanked by the new restaurant’s namesake, his father Sirio, and restaurateur brothers Mario and Marco, the quad were undeniably the toast of the food-less feast, palpably excited about the newest extension of their empire. With the patriarch first working in The Pierre’s La Foray some 50 years ago, there was much to celebrate, with celebrities and the nipped and tucked of New York popping in to offer their cheeks for much congratulatory air kissing.

Mayor Bloomberg generously graced the party with his presence for a fraction of a second before making a quick exit, apparently having to dash to the scene of a shooting in the Bronx. Fitting so many events into one evening can be such hard work. But at least his fleeting visit actually took place within the event’s scheduled timeframe, which is more than can be said for tardy Martha Stewart. America’s favorite foodie and home perfectionist eventually arrived to lend her support to Sirio, and reveal her excitement to The Observer about her upcoming Halloween celebrations.

“I’m looking forward to Bette Midler’s annual Hulaween, of course, and am dressing up as an organic sea.”

No, we’re not too sure either. In fact, we're not even sure she remembered to invite us!

Ms. Stewart was full of praise for the Maccioni family’s restaurant kingdom, particularly given some of her own culinary misadventures. “The worst food I’ve ever eaten was fried worms,” she revealed, although this unpleasant dish was served up to her in Mexico, and not prison, as we first thought.

Leading the parade of air kissers out of the door was Ivana Trump, who was hanging languidly on the arm of her perma-tanned boy toy throughout the evening.

“I know Sirio many years,” she drawled, having forced us into a secluded corner of the room to impart these words of wisdom.

The man of the hour, the elder Maccioni, clearly had quite the selection of groupies, although repeatedly forcing him out of his seat and into photos at times felt like a little bit too much. But the octogenarian remained reasonably upbeat throughout the evening, more so than we managed, although we might have fared better had we actually been given something to eat. Instead, we gobbled up all the people watching moments, which with the likes of Tony Bennett, Jean Shaffirof, Amy Fine Collins,  Somers Farkas, Sophie Theallet and Amy Sacco, left us pretty full anyhow.

An image from BuzzFeed Food. (Photo: BuzzFeed).

BuzzFeed Food is ready for your viewing pleasure. The new vertical, which launched today, is designed to appeal to people who cook food, eat food and/or like looking at pictures of food.

It's safe to say that they have their bases covered.

As we reported last week, BuzzFeed Food is headed up by  former Bon Appetit editor Emily Fleischaker. Rachel Sanders, former assistant to Bon Appetit's EIC Adam Rapoport, is the vertical's associate editor.

So far, the vertical features useful things like instructional guide's to onion cutting, pictures of food, pictures of beverages and pictures of kitchens and kitchen tools. Oh yes, and videos of cats and mice, eating (word to the wise: turn off the sound before playing on your office computer).

What else? From BuzzFeed's announcement:

On the menu:
-Instructional videos and GIFs on everything from how to chop an onion to how to make seasonal Jell-o shots
-Tips for being the coolest party host with the best cocktails
-How to prep for the holidays (without losing your mind)
-A mixture of classic cooking techniques mixed with mind-blowing hacks
-Time and money saving tips for the frugal chef
-Appreciation for your favorite foods (hamburgers) and maybe your not-so-favorite (brains!)
-Frequently updated content sure to make your eyes happy and your stomach grumble.

We would be hungry, but we are busy feasting with our eyes.

In a sidebar in this week's New York Magazine front-of-book Intelligencer section, Eater noted a preview for the forthcoming "Ruth Bourdain" authored book, Comfort Me With Offal, which was attributed to:

"Ruth Bourdain (aka Voice writer Robert Sietsema)."

The problem? Village Voice dining critic Robert Sietsema already denied being the person behind Ruth Bourdain last October after a Star-Tribune writer came up with a theory that ostensibly outed Sietsema as the mastermind behind the Tweets, which prompted Eater to ask:

 Does someone at New York magazine have insider info, or are they just messing with everyone?

In a phone call with The Observer this afternoon, Mr. Sietsema again denied involvement with Ruth Bourdain. So how did his name end up in the magazine? "The only conclusion that I can come to," he explained,  "is that Ruth Bourdain says he’s me in the text [of the book], which I have not seen. It looks like they’ve seen a copy of the book."

"I can’t imagine they’d be so stupid to say that without having any evidence that it’s me."  As he tells it, nobody at New York called him to verify his identity as the person behind the account, "and they are a fact-checking group," he noted, referring to New York's research department. "So I can’t help but think there must be something in the pages.

"As part of the humorous shtick, I can imagine Ruth Bourdain writing in the book, 'Well, I’m Robert Sietsema, of course.' It's in his or her best interests to have me as the cowcatcher on the front of the locomotive. "

When asked what New York thought of Sietsema's denial, The Observer received a terse email from a magazine spokesperson explaining: "This was an editing error." While they did not respond to further questions about how the error came to be, they did note that the mistake would be corrected in the next issue.

"It’s amazing that she’s been able to keep her anonymity for this long," marveled Sietsema.

Indeed, it is: Not only does Ruth Bourdain operate in a relatively small world (the food journalism subculture), but also, has a book coming out, has done press for it, and was even recently handed a James Beard Award for accomplishments in humor. Sietsema also pointed out that Regina Schrambling of Gastropoda has been suspected of being behind the account.

Before him, Eater co-founder Ben Leventhal (who called Ruth Bourdain's identity "perhaps the best kept secret in all of food") once pointed to both food blogger Josh Friedland and Adam Robb—the creator of a fake Twitter for 'Resturant Girl' (aka former Daily News food critic Danyelle Freeman)—of collectively perpetrating Ruth Bourdain on the world. As for whether or not Sietsema would seek any royalties if falsely identified as the identity behind Ruth Bourdain in the book, he explained: that kind of thing just isn't his style.

"It’d be much easier to just step in front of a car."

For the time being, the identity of "Ruth" remains at-large.

fkamer@observer.com | @weareyourfek