Who is Gene Weingarten? Columnist apologizes after controversial Indian food review receives scathing backlash online

American columnist Gene Weingarten recently came under fire after writing a controversial Indian food review for The Washington Post. In an article titled, You can’t make me eat these foods, the columnist claimed that Indian cuisine is entirely based on a single spice.

The questionable piece was published on August 19, 2021. The two-time Pulitzer Prize winner reportedly wrote:

"The Indian subcontinent has vastly enriched the world, giving us chess, buttons, the mathematical concept of zero, shampoo, modern-day nonviolent political resistance, Chutes and Ladders, the Fibonacci sequence, rock candy, cataract surgery, cashmere, USB ports … and the only ethnic cuisine in the world insanely based entirely on one spice."

He went on to further describe his own idea of the Indian cuisine stating:

"If you like Indian curries, yay, you like Indian food! If you think Indian curries taste like something that could knock a vulture off a meat wagon, you do not like Indian food. I don’t get it, as a culinary principle."

The column sparked severe online outrage as it was reportedly based on incorrect facts. Gene Weingarten received huge criticism from celebrities, chefs, critics, food enthusiasts and the Indian community.

The writer was mainly slammed by Indian-American model and TV host, Padma Lakshmi. The Top Chef judge called out Gene Weingarten and mentioned that he requires education on “spices, flavor, and taste”:

She even sarcastically offered the columnist her book, The Encyclopedia of Spices and Herbs, in a follow-up tweet:

Following the backlash, Gene Weingarten took to Twitter to share that he had visited Rasika, one of the top Indian restaurants in Washington, to try Indian food. However, he continued to maintain his opinion on the cuisine.

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Meet Gene Weingarten as he is slammed for incorrect food review

Gene Weingarten is an American humor columnist (Image via Getty Images)

Gene Weingarten is an American humor columnist popularly known for his work at The Washington Post. He currently writes the Below the Beltway weekly column for the publication. He also co-authors the Barne & Clyde comic strip with his son, Dan Weingarten.

The 69-year-old began his writing career in 1972 after his story on South Bronx gangs was published in New York Magazine. He started working at Knickerbocker News and went on to work at the Detroit Free Press.

He also served as the editor of the Miami Herald Sunday Magazine from 1981 to 1990. Gene Weingarten joined The Washington Post in 1990. He won the Missouri Lifestyle Journalism Award for Multicultural Journalism in 2006.

He won two Pulitzer Prizes for Feature Writing in 2008 and 2010, respectively. He also received the National Society of Newspaper Columnists’ Ernie Pyre Lifetime Achievement Award in 2014.

Unfortunately, the acclaimed columnist recently landed in hot waters after writing a controversial review of Indian cuisine. Several social media users took to Twitter to slam Gene Weingarten for his controversial column.

In response to the severe backlash, The Washington Post added a correction over the Gene Weingarten piece. The corrigendum reads:

"A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that Indian cuisine is based on one spice, curry, and that Indian food is made up only of curries, types of stew. In fact, India’s vastly diverse cuisines use many spice blends and include many other types of dishes. The article has been corrected."

Gene Weingarten also issued a public apology on Twitter, mentioning that he did not intend to “insult” the Indian cuisine through his column.

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