Giles Coren - Food Critic and Professional Idiot.

A rather charming piece of vitriol has been written by food critic Giles Coren, you may know him for creating programmes advocating taxing fat, in The Times.

The essence of the piece is how bad the Great British fry-up is (Yes, I thought I’d manipulate your emotions by putting in the words ‘Great British’ and imply that Coren is in fact anti-Our Great Country, the swine), but he fills it with some astonishing vitriol and stereotypes not worthy of the raggiest of student rags.

He says that anyone with a degree would not be stupid enough to eat a fry-up, and in fact anyone with a 2:1 in humanities definitely would not be. At least a degree from an old university, not one of these new ones, which he implies are therefore all crap. He then goes on to say that working class people don’t do physical jobs like mining like they used to in the early industrial revolution so they don’t need the calories now that they used to, hence eating the same diet (I.E. A fry-up), will cause massive weight gain.

It’s an interesting argument, but then he completely ruins it by saying that todays working class won’t burn those calories by operating a fork-lift truck, working in argos or…fiddling benefits.

How patronising. As it happens, I’m working class, I have a degree, it’s a 2:1 in a humanities subject. And I cook fry-ups, and I’m not obese, or even overweight. I have a fry-up on a weekend, so once a week at most. In fact, I don’t know anyone with a degree, who doesn’t eat fry-ups.

Of course someone who has a fry-up every day will put on weight, it’s not difficult science. His example of how fry-ups are bad for you is pathetic and typical of someone who doesn’t really understand what it is to be working class except in broad stereotypes. He goes into a greasy spoon café where truckers go, and because they are all massively overweight and eat fry-ups he puts the two together as the single cause. So surprise surprise when one man swaps fry-ups for porridge he loses some weight. Does he think the working class are so stupid as to not be able to understand that fatty foods make it likely you will put on weight? Of course some people probably don’t make the causal connection between their diet and their weight and health, even if they know in general terms fatty foods are bad for you, but singling out the entire working class as uneducated idiots, or truckers in greasy spoons, or benefit cheats, is needlessly offensive.

The thing is, Coren seems to excel in this sort of article, to the point where I’d guess that he is purposely trying to wind people up. But I can find no evidence of a knowing wink or nod, and his TV work such as on taxing fat people, suggest he is, in fact, just a horrible man whose views are entirely based on him being an upper-middle class snob.

There’s nothing wrong with being upper-middle class, or indeed any class. But don’t pass judgements on other people based on their class, where they received their education or the fact they like fry-ups. The riposte from Ross Anderson says, he has his fry-up at the weekend, with proper butchers sausage, organic eggs, irish soda bread and a fresh tomato. Giles Coren seems to think all fry-ups are done with cheap meat and tinned everything - it reflects his assumptions about the working class and intelligence of people who like fry-ups rather than the reality.

PS One interesting thing he does say is how a fry-up doesn’t help a hangover, because it diverts blood from your brain to your stomach, and although you might feel better immediately afterwards you’ll feel worse in the long run. I found it interesting because at no point, ever, when having a hangover have I ever felt worse after having a fry-up. I always feel better for the rest of the day. I’ve always been under the impression it helps soak up excess alcohol in your system.

Source article is here

Update: Amusingly enough, someone else has written a very similar article to me about the same Giles Coren article!

Update: Coren’s assault on the working class continues, this time referring to people who go to McDonald’s as “weeny bike thieves and kitten-stabbers” and also “giant-arsed women and…bag-snatchers”. He also refers to people who work at McDonald’s as “spotty teenage losers”. It’s quite obvious now he basically just writes this drivel to get a rise at people, but I’m sure it’s a recent development. I don’t remember reading his articles a year or two back and finding them so needlessly offensive.

Triple Update Madness: I wrote another piece on Giles Coren, after finding out that he works for The Sun too.