Mario Batali's Apology Email Has Gotten the Feminist Response it Deserves

Mario Batali stepped down from his restaurant business in December after four women accused him of sexual misconduct, and his subsequent public apology letter to fans inexplicably included a link to a recipe for cinnamon rolls on his website. It was not warmly received.

Indeed the gaffe was largely ridiculed at the time... but now it has gotten the response that's truly deserved. Geraldine DeRuiter tried to make the cinnamon rolls using what she concludes is a "hastily written, untested recipe" on her blog Everywhereist and let's just say the baking didn't go so well. But in reviewing her steps for readers, she weaves through acerbic commentary about what it's like to be a woman in a leering man's world in between her steps.

The recipe states that store-bought pizza dough can be used to make these cinnamon rolls, or people can follow Batali's pizza dough recipe and make their own.

"I make my own, because I’m a woman, and for us there are no f---ing shortcuts," DeRuiter wrote. "We spend 25 years working our a--es off to be the most qualified Presidential candidate in U.S. history and we get beaten out by a sexual deviant who likely needs to call the front desk for help when he’s trying to order pornos in his hotel room. Donald Trump is President, so I’m making the goddamn dough by scratch."

In most cases, DeRuiter is working against her instincts by following a recipe that doesn't seem thought out at all, whether with the ingredients used or the techniques suggested. They're cut too wide, slathered with too much icing, and the savory pizza dough recipe he uses is a bad match for the accompanying sweetness, she concludes. She ultimately deems them unworthy to finish and throws them in the trash.

And while the cinnamon rolls may be discarded, the important critique of food world patriarchy remains.