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Ketchup is more than a condiment; it’s an iconic food that goes deeper than just flavor and texture. It’s also chock-full of nostalgia for most people. One of the reasons meatloaf is topped with ketchup is to maintain the dish’s thrifty Depression-era roots. There’s something comforting about those simple flavors that stay unchanged over time, and ketchup is arguably one of the easiest ones to access. Of course, if you go back in history long enough, you will see the bizarre evolution of ketchup from fermented fish sauce to sprightly red tomato sauce. However, the late, great Anthony Bourdain rightly pointed out in an interview with Urban Daddy that the ketchup we all know and love doesn’t need further fixing. “How good do you want ketchup to be? I think the industrial product, in this case, has powerful emotional connections that cannot be replicated, or bettered,” quipped the prolific chef-turned-writer.
While prefixes like “fancy” and “gourmet” are added by ketchup brands to try and set them apart, the USDA actually has a grading method for the condiment. Grade A ketchup, the best kind, is typically called fancy ketchup. If you look closely, even the regular Heinz variety and what you find at McDonald’s is technically “fancy” ketchup.
However, the “fancy” ketchups Bourdain is referring to are the ones that may have been elevated with fine ingredients like Italian tomatoes and authentic balsamic vinegar. The late chef also wasn’t impressed by the concept of house-made ketchup. In “Appetites, A Cookbook,” he wrote, “Let ketchup do its job. And don’t make ‘house-made ketchup’ either. Why would you do that? If it’s not broken, as they say, why the f*** would you fix it?” We (politely) agree.
Anthony Bourdain had strong opinions on ketchup, and for good reason
Anthony Bourdain’s disdain for elevating ketchup wasn’t rooted in any aversion to food experimentation. In fact, anyone who watched his iconic food and travel show “Parts Unknown” would know his whole philosophy on eating was to try everything. Instead, he wasn’t impressed with the idea of trying to fix a condiment that was already so well-established in our palates. It’s like trying to make an even more elevated version of mac and cheese. It might be delicious, but sometimes all one craves is good old mac and cheese.
For Bourdain, ketchup was a specific condiment that had its place in the culinary landscape. This could be because ketchup itself has a very dominant flavor and will smother most other notes in a dish. While people may enjoy dousing food in the condiment, it’s worth remembering that they’re losing out on many of the flavors that a chef has worked hard to develop. Thus, even when it came to hot dogs, Bourdain was having none of it. “Ketchup on a hot dog — personally, I find it deeply, deeply offensive … I think there’s a time and a place for ketchup, and I don’t think a hot dog is one of them. That’s my opinion,” he said in an interview with The Splendid Table. In fact, he went so far as to reveal that his no-ketchup-on-hot-dogs policy got the presidential approval. Even former President Barack Obama, as a Chicago native, said no to ketchup on hotdogs.
