#BL

Tumblr shingle of Ben Leventhal, top editor at TheFeast.com and NBC non-honcho; Eater.com co-founder; ARod hater.

• Josh Friedland + Adam Robb = Ruth Bourdain?

  Perhaps the best kept secret in all of food is the identity of Ruth Bourdain, the Twitter-based Reichl-Bourdain mashup that’s won a Beard Award for journalism and has 47,337 followers at press time (Twitter bio: “Comfort me with offal. Mashing up the tweets of Ruth Reichl with the mind of Anthony Bourdain. This is a parody.”)  His-her identity has of late and from day-one been the source of wild speculation.  Enough with the backstorying.

  Yesterday, a phone number arrived in my inbox, 646-242-8xxx, with a note that said, “You can reach Ruth B. here.”  The name on the FROM: line of this note is an extremely reliable source who would have good reason to have Ruth B’s number (NB: Timing of receipt of email masked to protect source).  Whoaski. Now. I searched my inbox and got one contact back in the results list: Josh Friedland, old school food blogger of The Food Section fame.  I emailed Josh. He replied, “Listen, I do know who it is, but I’ve been sworn to secrecy, and I’m going to keep my word. I don’t want to hold the bag for ruining the game.”

  Ok, fair enough.  Ish, guy.  Fairenoughish.  

  It so happens that I’m not the first to have gotten his hands on this phone number as being Ruth’s.  Small time and defunct gossip monger Chomp Chump connected this number to other blogger and Restaurant Girl menace Adam Robb a little while back, a tie that now comes up when said digits are Googled. I happen to know where the Adam Robb theory comes from (partly, he was seen Tweeting at the exact moment a new Ruth Bourdain tweet hit the activity feed).  I think it’s a solid theory, too. UPDATE: Robb has previously denied being involved, as @frodnesor points out, but I still like him for this.

  So, here’s a new one: Josh Friedland and Adam Robb are collectively Ruth Bourdain.

  4 months ago / 8 notes