• Light/Dark
  • Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.

MasterChef contestant faces backlash for calling Asian food 'dirty'

Richiek

Richiek

Member
Nov 2, 2017
12,063
www.today.com

'MasterChef' contestant faces backlash for calling Asian food 'dirty'

In her Instagram bio, Philli Armitage-Mattin described herself as an "Asian specialist" and her cooking as "dirty food refined."
www.today.com www.today.com

"Masterchef: The Professionals" contestant Philli Armitage-Mattin is facing backlash for referring to Asian cuisines as "dirty" and issuing an apology that critics say does not acknowledge the historical stigmatization of such foods.

The controversy started with Armitage-Mattin's Instagram bio, which has since been changed. A screenshot of it includes the hashtag #prettydirtyfood and the tagline "Dirty food refined."

Clarence Kwan, creator of "Chinese Protest Recipes," a cooking zine about antiracism and Chinese food, posted a screenshot of the bio to his Instagram Stories, where he expressed his dismay.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

master-chef-asian-food-kb-inline-201201-2_721a7c3eb9e49663d19027282476284f.fit-1120w.jpg


She has since apologized.



What a bunch of crap. Vilifying Asians and their cuisine for being "dirty" is especially dangerous considering the racist attacks they've endured accusing them of spreading COVID.
 
Spring-Loaded

Spring-Loaded

Member
Oct 27, 2017
19,904
I know it's all just racist nonsense not beholden to reason, but what gets me about this rhetoric is that it implies western food somehow isn't dirty. UK and US cuisine is disgusting, but these scum wouldn't consider it "dirty"
 
zombiejames

zombiejames

Member
Oct 25, 2017
11,916
"The way I mean food to be 'dirty' is indulgent street food; food that comforts you as in 'going out for a dirty burger'."

Never in my life have I heard of this.
 

ParanormalFupa

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
6,141
Idk her explanation seems somewhat reasonable, but I still understand why you wouldn't want your food and culture associated with the word dirty.

I have seen dirty burgers. I have heard dirty used in a non-literal way like nasty or crunchy.
 
Threadkular

Threadkular

Member
Dec 29, 2017
2,414
Her explanation doesn't make much sense to me and it a lot of it just seems incredibly naive.

That said, it looks like she removed it and I'm trying to give people the benefit of the doubt these days. This is a personal thing I'm working on.

Edit: glad I'm working on this cause it looks like I'm a bit naive to some slang myself
 
Last edited:

MaffewE

Member
Feb 15, 2018
933
Maybe it's a British thing, but I have heard of people going for a 'dirty burger', or 'dirty takeaway', or 'dirty kebab'. So I have a small amount of sympathy, as it does get said here in the UK sometimes.

However, the connotations are still ugly, and I am never a fan of the 'sorry you got offended' apology.
 
IamError

IamError

Member
Aug 22, 2020
154
Dirty is a cooking term. like "Make it dirty". Usually includes putting queso or something messy on a food.
 
entremet

entremet

You wouldn't toast a NES cartridge
Member
Oct 26, 2017
59,940
Nall said:
"I'm going out for a dirty burger."

Who the fuck says that?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Read the thread?

This is a tricky thing since the internet is basically global. China has its own thing going on due to their firewall. But this misses a lot of regionalism, especially in English speaking countries.
 
Bane

Bane

The Fallen
Oct 27, 2017
5,904
"I find the reaction very upsetting."

"It has never occurred to me to..."

"I'm sorry you are offended."

Hey! I got apology bingo!!
 

MaffewE

Member
Feb 15, 2018
933
www.standard.co.uk

Peak filth: why Londoners have had their fill of dirty burgers and

We’ve guzzled dirty burgers and met the chilli chips challenge. London is well-oiled, says Richard Godwin but now we’re full up
www.standard.co.uk www.standard.co.uk

See, it is used in the UK.

The terms "Dirty" and "Filthy" began to appear with ever more regularity on London menus, reclaimed by a new kind of restaurateur. They didn't simply offer comfort food, reheated childhood pleasures. They offered aggressive food— transgressive food — slathered in processed cheese, chilli beef and deep-fried pickles, rendered just about acceptable because the meat (the endless meat) was sourced in a vaguely ethical way. Like a bunch of Frank Zappas in skinny jeans, the chefs all wanted to give us their dirty love.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
 
El_TigroX

El_TigroX

Member
Oct 27, 2017
4,207
New York, NY
I'll throw this into the bag of weird terms like "greasy spoon" ... but the positioning of her food as "saving" dirty food is a bit off.
 
BlackGoku03

BlackGoku03

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,271
Her explaination almost makes sense but it's best not to say any groups food is dirty. Of course others will take it the wrong way... not everyone knows her food lingo. And the apology doesn't do enough to apologize lol. Why are people so bad at this?
 

rras1994

Member
Nov 4, 2017
5,742
MaffewE said:
Maybe it's a British thing, but I have heard of people going for a 'dirty burger', or 'dirty takeaway', or 'dirty kebab'. So I have a small amount of sympathy, as it does get said here in the UK sometimes.

However, the connotations are still ugly, and I am never a fan of the 'sorry you got offended' apology.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I have heard of it but it's much more common in my area to see you're going out for a cheeky wee burger, it probably depends on region what you call it? Essentially means going out for junk food that's bad for you, though I can see why it looks bad with how it looks like in her bio, and she honestly just should have apologised.
 
MyQuarters

MyQuarters

Member
Oct 25, 2017
828
UK
Cocolina said:
Dirty burgers and cheeky Nando's
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Nah, different things.
Cheeky Nandos is a jokey almost ironic phrase to use.

Dirty curry/burger/takeaway/noodles just means something a bit bad for you, but that you're proper craving.

"Oh I could just smash some dirty tacos tonight" means I want tacos with loads of meat, cheese, coriander and hot sauce
 
Chopchop

Chopchop

Member
Oct 25, 2017
14,171
I didn't know that it's a British slang thing, but yeah it's easy to see how bad that looks outside the UK.
 
Renna Hazel

Renna Hazel

Member
Oct 27, 2017
11,556
Nall said:
"I'm going out for a dirty burger."

Who the fuck says that?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I've never heard dirty burger used, but dirty rice/fries is a pretty common thing and they're delicious. It's a pretty common terminology in relation to food and it's not meant as a negative thing. I won't speak for this person or how she meant it, but I wouldn't immediately assume negative.
 
nopressure

nopressure

Member
Oct 28, 2017
1,414
Can't say I felt offended by the use - I've heard "dirty" used in that context plenty of times in UK.
 
DIE BART DIE

DIE BART DIE

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,845
Sounds like some UK slang or something. "Dirty burger" or "cheeky Nandos" etc.

Half Chinese guy from the UK here, by the way.
 
jchap

jchap

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,772
I have no issue with specializing in cooking cuisine outside your heritage or refining street food, but she diffidently could have found a better way to express it!
 
PinkSpider

PinkSpider

Member
Oct 27, 2017
4,907
Probably should of labelled it Street food refined but yeah dirty is a common term in the UK. I've referred to peoples food in groups I run as utter filth (say a massive veggie burger with multiple layers, toppings etc) as a compliment.
 
Dennis8K

Dennis8K

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
20,161
I have never heard 'dirty burger' or 'dirty fries' before but I have heard 'dirty rice'.
 
OrangeNova

OrangeNova

Member
Oct 30, 2017
12,626
Canada
I've heard dirty used for any budget food that was sloppy or covered in something, like it's pretty common where I am at least in Canada
 
prophetvx

prophetvx

Member
Nov 28, 2017
5,320
Eh I don't think it's racist. It's much harder to plate a stir fry nicely than say a steak... I've heard the term used pretty commonly and not just in reference to Asian food.

With that said, I can see how people find it offensive.
 
Dest

Dest

Has seen more 10s than EA ever will
Coward
Jun 4, 2018
14,032
Work
Didn't know it was a UK thing. I've never used it to describe a burger, but even over here in the US I've had "dirty rice" and "dirty fries". Just referring to the fact that the plate/meal isn't highly presentable (as in some snobbish food critic would scoff at it), but they're usually comfort dishes and really tasty. Really think this is just a local terminology thing more than anything, and that's there's nothing wrong happened.
 
AHA-Lambda

AHA-Lambda

Member
Oct 25, 2017
11,789
ParanormalFupa said:
Idk her explanation seems somewhat reasonable, but I still understand why you wouldn't want your food and culture associated with the word dirty.

I have seen dirty burgers. I have heard dirty used in a non-literal way like nasty or crunchy.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

yeah this, it's a poor choice of words but I get where she's coming from with this
 
You must log in or register to reply here.