Chef Matt Blondin (soon to be running one of the kitchens at the forthcoming trio of Momofuku restaurants) has lashed out against commenters on a Toronto Life blog for smack-talking The Grove’s black pudding. Commenters called the dish “gross” and accused The Grove’s chef, Ben Heaton, of copying the food of other Toronto restaurants.
On Thursday, Aug. 16, Blondin reacted to the comments on Twitter, writing: “This is why @torontolife should disable comments from their website.”
Blondin linked to the article, which now has a particularly prickly series of comments defending Heaton, with one especially colourful post by “Matt B,” stating:
“All you haters need to get a life and shut the fuck up. You have no respect what do ever. I’d love to see any of you fucktards spend one day in the shoes of a chef! You’d shit your pants and go home crying to your computer screen, in hopes of someone reading your pathetic comments. Do us all a favour and drop off the face of this earth. Stop eating in restaurants, stop going out, stop even browsing through the pages of Toronto Life and other magazines. No one here, or in this industry gives a fuck about you, or your sad attempts at ridiculing the hard working people that go out of their way to give YOU a meal at their restaurants. You guys are truly the scum of the earth. Go back to Boston Pizza where you belong. All the power to you Ben, and all the other chefs who have been attacked by anonymous idiots on this hate forum! Keep doing what you do best, and remember all the positive people you have pleased in your establishment!”
You can come to your own conclusion as to whether Matt B and Matt Blondin are the same person. However, the incident does raise an interesting question about how much power commenters do (and should) have.—Jacob Rutka
