Anthony Bourdain Says Elite Yelpers Are ‘Bad for Restaurants’

Although some chefs, like Momofuku kingpin David Chang, embrace Elite Yelpers, others despise them. Anthony Bourdain definitely falls into the latter category. Tony hasn’t been affiliated with any restaurant in a while now, but he still sees how these online reviewers infuriate his chef pals. While promoting Wasted, his new food waste documentary with Danny Bowien, Bourdain tells Business Insider:

There’s really no worse, or lower human being than an elite Yelper. They’re universally loathed by chefs everywhere. They are the very picture of entitled, negative energy. They’re bad for chefs, they’re bad for restaurants. You know, you open a restaurant, you struggle for a year to put together the money, you work your heart out, and then 10 minutes after opening, some miserable b------ is tweeting or Yelping, “Worst. Dinner. Ever.”

Bourdain also notes that he’s “perfectly happy with Instagram and Twitter as a fully democratic bathroom wall that anyone can write on.” Bowien, the chef at Mission Chinese Food in Manhattan and San Francisco, is also a big believer in the power of Instagram and Facebook. Bowien explains:

I remember coming up as a cook, I used to have to go buy a cookbook if I wanted to know what a chef was doing. I couldn't just pull up my phone and see it instantly. And I think that was like a lot of what inspired me to do what I do, to make Chinese food and do Mission, it’s because there was this mystery around it. But no, now it’s all gone — Instagram’s got it.

In other Bowien/Bourdain news, the film that the two culinary superstars made together, Wasted, hits select theaters this weekend and it will also be available on iTunes, Amazon, and VOD starting tomorrow. Watch a clip for the new documentary here.

• 'They’re bad for chefs, they're bad for restaurants' — Anthony Bourdain goes on an epic rant against Yelp [BI]
• Watch: A Sneak Peek at Anthony Bourdain’s New Food Waste Documentary [E]
• Watch: The Trailer for Anthony Bourdain’s New Food Waste Documentary Is Here [E]