Lest you think it’s only comedians who dislike walking millennial trend piece Josh Ostrovsky, a.k.a. The Fat Jew, now a group of ramen-shop owners in New York have dropped out of a food festival because they don’t want to be associated with him. Presumably unable to wipe the image of Ostrovsky’s naked torso popping out of a hot tub full of ramen like a hairy poached egg, Serious Eats culinary director and The Food Lab columnist J. Kenji López-Alt posted a long, thoughtful missive on Facebook today explaining why he was dropping out of the NYC Wine & Food Festival’s Ramen Party on October 17.
Basically, López-Alt was upset to discover that the event, which he and a group of colleagues had been planning as a Food Lab/Serious Eats presentation, had been re-branded as “Ramen Party: Hosted by The Fat Jew,” with their names removed from the description and replaced with Ostrovsky’s. That’s a dick move regardless, made worse by the fact that López-Alt says that “The Fat Jew is the antithesis of everything I represent in the media world.” He continues:
The Fat Jew and the types of people who are okay with promoting someone like him actively hurt the quality of good media. In the end I decided that being involved with him and the event would do more harm than good. I simply cannot see myself sharing the stage and promoting-by-association a man that thrives by stealing the efforts of serious writers and comedians, diminishing their ability to get recognized for their work and earn a living off of producing valuable content … In the end it’s really the writers he has stolen from that I feel bad for. He stole their work. At least in my case the only thing he stole is my event.
In later updates, López-Alt reports that previously announced participants Jin, Ivan Ramen, Mu Ramen, and Yuji Ramen and sponsor Sun Noodle have all dropped out of the event as well. Sounds like Ostrovsky better send one of his interns to the bodega to pick up some Instant Lunch.