Do Cookbooks Get Boycotts Too? — Cookbooks

Last week when Gabrielle Hamilton and Ashley Merriman, of celebrated NYC restaurant Prune, announced that they were going to swoop in to "save" Ken Friedman's The Spotted Pig, people recoiled. It has been only seven months since Friedman's toxic culture of sexual abuse at the Spotted Pig was revealed publicly, and just as people boycotted the Pig, now there are calls to boycott Prune over disappointment in Hamilton's betrayal.

Prune, Spotted Pig, Batali's Babbo, Lupa and beyond: In the wake of #metoo, the decision for restaurants owned by toxic, abusive chefs has been swift and decisive: Boycotts all around. Which is easy to do, especially if you don't live in New York anyway.

But many of these chefs have entered our homes in a more intimate way through their books and recipes. Should we boycott our beloved copy of Gabrielle Hamilton's Prune or the countless cookbooks that bear an emboldened "Batali" on their covers, spines, and forewords? Is it possible to cook a recipe without it serving as an edible reminder of the gross failings of the person who created it?

In the wake of #metoo, what happens to your cookbooks?

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