The Future of Gastroporn

A photo of Anthony Bourdain in his altogether has us wondering about a new media niche: Chef porn

By ELIZABETH BOUGEROL

Updated 12:15 PM EST, Fri, Jan 9, 2009

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We've long maintained that you can keep your Brad Pitts and your Orlando Blooms. Give us some rugged men who are smart, well-lived, and know what to do with a side of beef or a particularly meaty lamb shank. If they can roast us some marrow, our napkin is officially tucked.

So when we came across a tip-off that some Top Chef followers over on Fafarazzi were getting all hot under the toque about some "NSFW Anthony Bourdain photo," we clicked so fast and hard we might have sprained something. [Note: Vegans should probably refrain from clicking on the above link.] And while the photo's frankly tame (and lends itself more to a buffet of puns -- a la "big boned," etc. -- than any kind of illicit behavior), it did put us in a reverie whereby we thought, gee, when somebody goes and starts a skin mag that's nothing but hot foodie types in various states of undress, we bet there'll be a market for it. After all, we'd like to see a lot more (read: all) photos in this Bourdain series, and it would be the logical next step to things like Eater's Hottest Chef competition -- and besides, we remember when this NSFW Rachael Ray shot from Maxim (or was it FHM?) was all anyone could talk about. So come on, brainy entrepreneurs. We all know porn is the lone recession-proof patch on the media landscape. Get to it.