THERE ARE RATS UNDER THE HATS?!!!

Look if you can think of a better way to hide them from the food safety inspectors I'd like to hear it.

I grew up snorkeling and the dynamics of how seagrass moved in Finding Nemo was uncanny, told my wife “must have been at least one snorkeler or scuba diver on the team”. Years later watched a making of, the entire team had gotten scuba certified.

That's great, and it reminds me of a higher-effort version of Miyazaki insisting that his animators go out and sketch nature to understand how things really work/move.

I believe that’s partly due to Thomas Keller (of French Laundry fame) was a consultant so they could get it right.

Bourdain too I think.

IIRC there was a double dip with a tasting spoon at one point, but other than that it was legit.

my friend Tamar who trained at the CIA agrees, and I got her a magnetic shoulder Remy when I went to Disney

this was very confusing until I remembered the other CIA

YOU try going undercover as a rat in a kitchen without agency training!

In Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential, there’s a chapter titled something like “My days at the CIA” and wow did that contrast with my idea of who Bourdain was. It was the culinary one.

Rats involved in both it seems

Don't be too hard on yourself. I only know about it from attending Vassar, a nearby college (which is wholly unaffiliated with either institution).

Oh, Cal Arts?

Culinary Institute of America

Got it

*infiltrating the upper echelons of Al-Qaeda by dazzling them with a killer kabuli*

How many accountants does the CIA need, anyway?

Who else but a network of highly-trained private chefs embedded across world leadership?

They both spend lots of time on knife skills, to be fair

There used to be a show called “Cooking Secrets of the CIA”. I was very disappointed the first time I tuned in

I probably should have spelled it out

Not as funny that way though.

Nah. It's funny to imagine trainees going from the shooting range to learning how to properly make a dark roux

Oh she meant the Culinary Institute, man I was fucking wildin about the Central Intelligence Agency training chefs.

They get them from the other CIA (maybe). www.washingtonpost.com/food/2025/02...

YOU NEVER KNOW but pretty sure Tamar never went to Langley