Cilantro Lovers are Morons (Part II), with an Agenda

Rick Bayless, admired in the food world for bringing authentic but modern regional Mexican cooking to the palates of the Midwestern dining mainstream and foodie elite at Chicago restaurants Frontera Grill and Topolobampo, respectively, has also withstood (if not instigated) his own share of controversy in the same community.

Trouble came when Bayless was percevied to have 'sold-out' by starring in a Burger King commercial where he would seem to be enjoying a low-fat Santa Fe something or other chicken sandwich 'served' on a baguette. My opinion on the matter is it's basically much ado about nothing -- when it comes to calling people sell-outs, especially in the cheffing community, most people should, you know, move out of their glass houses or quit throwing rocks.

But, Bayless has now put his name on something far worse than a $2.99 tasteless factory farm raised chicken sandwich -- he's put his name on the "Avocado Peeler" in Cilantro. I'll leave the critique of the object's functionality to whomever is running the "things_you_could_do_easier_with_a_spoon_than_a_twelve_dollar_object_you'll_never_
use_you_stupid_moron" blog. What concerns me is something else entirely.

Most obviously and importantly, the scooper color is not cilantro ((when did cilantro become a color -- we're in real trouble?!) unless it were dried-out near dead cilantro, and, while I like the idea that that's what was intended in naming the color cilantro, something tells me it wasn't); the color could go by lime green (although come to think of it, limes really aren't the color lime green -- we have a crisis of color nomenclature on our hands here; when was the last time you saw someone puke in puke green?) or more accurately, Ecto Cooler green.

The color's name is a lie, and so one must ask, "why the lie?" A couple answers come to mind. 1) Cilantro lovers are morons, so they won't notice the color naming is wrong but rather be attracted to the device's name without questioning its veracity (they no doubt will want to get their hands on the peeler as soon as possible in order to make cilantro-laden 'guacamole'); Bayless & Co. are just going after their stupid target audience. Or 2) Bayless has himself become a moron by virtue of his intense cilantro love and has become so clouded he can't even tell the color is not cilantro -- he just sees it everywhere (by Bayless I mean the marketers and product developers who made this whole abomination happen -- in reality he must have had nearly nothing to do with the whole endeavor -- let's hope). 3) This is a subliminal message meant to drive home the cilantro name to any moron willing to buy this product for any reason -- they want more of their kind.

They want it so badly, they've gone so far as to not offer the product, or many of their other products in any color other than cilantro. If you want an avocado peeler, you'll have it in cilantro, dammit. They're forcing cilantro - the idea - on anyone who might be dumb enough to want to buy this gadget. It's not enough that cilantro lovers are all morons, they're trying to turn all morons into cilantro lovers too: "Well, no Suzy, you know, I don't really like cilantro, but I just love the color cilantro, you know, the color of my new favorite avocado peeler by Rick Bayless, that guy from the Food Network." Morons.

However you weigh in on it, you can't argue, the morons have an agenda to attract more morons. And if we've learned anything from this presidency we ought to have learned that the only thing worse than a moron in a place of power is a moron in a place of power with an agenda. Boycott the Avocado Peeler in Cilantro.