Photo: Ruth Bourdain
The hilarious persona is a mash-up of Ruth Reichl and Anthony Bourdain who quickly gained attention by reworking Reichl's zen 140-character tweets into raunchy Bourdain-like missives. But before this nomination, the persona was little more than a lark. Now Ruth Bourdain shares the same James Beard ballot as L.A. food critic Jonathan Gold and renowned chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten. The nomination is shaking up food circles, with some foodies saying it undermines serious food journalism, while others, like Saveur's Gabriella Gershenson, think it's all in good fun. (She gave the nod a "Bravo! (Brava?)" on her twitter account.)






