Thursday, February 18, 2010

Beppe Bigazzi: ‘Garfield is on My Fork’

The 2010 season of Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern is scheduled to start on Monday, April 26th. Andrew is the famous food writer and TV personality, who can scoff down scorpions, sushi, and cockroaches better than your cat.

The show has received rave reviews from major publications like The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA TODAY, Outside Magazine and others. He has made guest appearances on NBC’s Today Show, The Tonight Show, and the Food Network’s Best Of. They don’t care if he dines on wild goat and raw fish.

Yesterday, Bizarre Foods producers got a resume from Beppe Bigazzi, the host of an Italian cooking show called La Prova del cuoco (the test of the chef).

Beppe is 77 years old and just got suspended for saying that ”cat stew is a Tuscan delicacy” that he has cooked and enjoyed many times. They don’t have First Amendment rights in Italy.

"Who's not fat, kills the cat," he said during a broadcast with co-host, Elisa Isoardi, touting the dish’s nourishing qualities. He said that many people enjoyed the delicacy in the area where he grew up near the Arno River Valley.

"Cat, soaked for three days in the running water of a Tuscan stream, comes out with its meat white.” He said. "Why, people maybe don't eat rabbit, chicken, pigeon?"

Italian Health Ministry Undersecretary Francesca Martini, didn’t see it that way, stating that the idea of eating cat stew "hurts sensibility, which is fortunately steadily growing, of citizens toward animals."

The Italian broadcasting network agreed and skewered Beppe. Then, he discovered that Zimmern has a palate for weird things such as raw horse mane, saying it tastes "like bacon fat."

I’m not sure, but I suspect that Zimmern is not above trying cat stew. In the second video below, he tackles pig’s windpipe and some other gross delicacies.

How would you like to see Andrew and Beppe with a cat in the kettle at the Peiking Moon?


1 comment:

joanne lee said...

Rose, That was great! Anytime someone says that they're a cat lover my husband says, "Me too! They're great on a Ritz with a little horseradish!"