Korean-American celebrity chef David Chang has ignited a huge on-line debate after dismissing “craft-beer aficionados and their triple-hopped IPAs and cocoa-flavoured English milk stouts,” instead confessing his dark secret – a “love of cheap, watery swill” which he considers the “champagne of beers.”
Writing in GQ, Chang says “I have a tenuous relationship with the epicurean snob sets. Cheese snobs are okay, except for the delusional ones who proclaim America’s artisanal cheeses are as good as Europe’s. Wine snobs are pretty great, because they give me delicious wine. Sometimes they get worried when I want ice in my white wine, but what are you gonna do? I tell them I am a large man and I overheat. Coffee snobbery is just foreign to me; I don’t drink much coffee, because there is this great stuff called Diet Coke that has plenty of caffeine. It’s really refreshing, and I don’t need any tattoos to make it or fake Italian words to order it.”
He saves his most vicious barbs for beer, saying “beer snobs are the worst of the bunch… See, when a waiter asks me what I want to drink, I respond, ‘what is your lightest, crappiest beer?’ I’m very direct about my preference… This is something that I genuinely feel: I do not want a tasty beer.” Chang confirms “there’s no beverage that I’ve drunk more of in my life than Bud Light” and then (correctly) clarifies “except water, but what’s the difference?”
Canadian beer writer Stephen Beaumont took to social media to point the obvious flaw in Chang’s argument in less than 140 characters. Beaumont tweeted “famous chef says flavour doesn’t matter! This from a guy who offers a US$150 [NZ$190] tasting menu!”
