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News Thu Apr 04 2013
Ebert on Food
Film critic Roger Ebert, who died earlier today at age 70 after a cancer recurrence, had his lower jaw removed in 2006 as part of his treatment, which meant that the writer was forced to take his meals through a feeding tube--a tragedy for someone who relished the art of the screen seemingly as much as he loved food, as exemplified by the following passage from a 2009 blog entry:
"A downstate Illinois boy loves the Steak 'n Shake as a Puerto Rican loves rice and beans, an Egyptian loves falafel, a Brit loves banger and mash, an Indian loves tikki ki chaat, a Swede loves herring, a Finn loves reindeer jerky, and a Canadian loves bran muffins," he wrote. "These matters do not involve taste. They involve a deep-seated conviction that a food is absolutely right, and always has been, and always will be."
Ebert wrote, of all things, a cookbook titled The Pot and How to Use It: The Mystery and Romance of the Rice Cooker in 2010. Fascinated by the appliance, he emphasized its versatility in areas other than the one simple thing it was meant to do. The irony is that he was writing about an activity he could no longer be part of, and rather than draw the curtains on the experience of eating, he became even more engaged, twisting it on its end. Admirable. If the afterlife exists, I hope it has a buffet ready for him. With a lot of apple pie (NSFW).