A Brief Look At The Complicated Relationship Between Chefs And Doughnuts

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A Brief Look At The Complicated Relationship Between Chefs And Doughnuts

by Tina Nguyen 4:21 pm, June 1st

It’s National Doughnut Day and do you know what we’ve discovered at The Braiser? Celebrity chefs really like gourmet-ifying other classic American staple desserts, like pies, cupcakes, and whoopee pies (which is basically the love child of pies and cupcakes). But few have tackled the doughnut.

In fact, most celebrity chefs have a publicly troubled relationship with the very American doughnut, choosing to call whatever deep-fried dough thing they put on their menu a beignet. (Beignets are a wonderful New Orleans pastry which are far more delicate and artisanal. Also, they’re French. So there.) Maybe the doughnut is associated with the worst, unhealthiest aspects of American cuisine?

Whatever it is, we’ve noticed that doughnuts and celebrity chefs never really mix. Here are four examples of this observation in action, and one prominent exception to the rule. Happy Doughnut Day! (Or, if you’re a hipster, “Happy Artisanal Beignet Day.”)

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1.Paula Deen's Donut Burger Causes Diabetes

<strong>Paula Deen</strong>'s Donut Burger Causes Diabetes

We love gratuitous fried eggs on our burgers, which we've sadly relegated to the Sometimes Food category. But Paula Deen likes to make horrible Frankensteins out of the items in our Sometimes Foods category, so she put that egg and that burger on two glazed doughnuts, and then added bacon. This was definitely one of the foods that everyone pointed to when she announced she had diabetes. I mean, look at that thing.

2.Rachael Ray Missteps With Dunkin' Donuts

<strong>Rachael Ray</strong> Missteps With <strong>Dunkin' Donuts</strong>

I personally love Dunkin' Donuts; heck, I grew up down the street from the first store. But Rachael Ray's endorsement of the chain back in 2008 raised plenty of hackles--and not just from the twitchy conservative pundits who leapt on her keffiyeh and screamed that she was a terror-loving socialist. Calling her "evil," Anthony Bourdain slammed her--hard--for endorsing a product he called "crack for kids."

3.Anthony Bourdain visits Voodoo Doughnuts

Anthony Bourdain visits <strong>Voodoo Doughnuts</strong>

This relationship with the pastries at Voodoo Doughnuts in Portland, OR is problematic in that Bourdain, who acted like a Doughnut Nazi in the last slide, is found in this video stuffing his face with the most fucked-up looking doughnuts known to man. A voodoo doll doughnut oozing strawberry blood. A doughnut slathered in peanut butter and bacon, which he completely devours without knowing it. And his eyes light up with both desire and horror at the shop's Jagermeister and NyQuil doughnuts (a doughnut doused in NyQuil, duh.) "I'm ashamed of myself for liking this," he admitted.

4.Wolfgang Puck Chucks A Hated Doughnut On Top Chef

<strong>Wolfgang Puck</strong> Chucks A Hated Doughnut On <em><strong>Top Chef</strong></em>

In the first episode of Season 6, cheftestant Laurine Wickett responds to the Vegas Vice challenge like everyone else who is a chef: with alcohol, bacon, and deep fried things. Her bacon doughnuts with chocolate and beer sauces were served to guest judge Wolfgang Puck, who promptly compared them to footballs. "You can take it and throw it at somebody," he said--and did just that.

5.Thomas Keller's Coffee And Doughnuts

<strong>Thomas Keller's</strong> Coffee And Doughnuts

Given how the poor doughnut can be maligned easily, it's near impossible to find a high-rated chef who will put doughnuts (and not beignets) on his menu, which is why Keller's take on the precinct cop late-night favorite is, by all accounts, utterly delightful. It's a cappuccino semifreddo with cinnamon-sugar doughnuts, and according to The French Laundry Cookbook, uses an actual yeast dough instead of the egg-based choux pastry needed for beignets, so this is the REAL DOUGHNUT DEAL. Oh, and it costs $295 as part of the tasting menu at The French Laundry or Per Se, so good luck getting this doughnut.