My friend Roy, who knows a lot more about food safety than I do, lamented on a mailing list for food safety nerds today that food safety doesn’t resonate in Washington, D.C., and doesn’t resonate in the public health community, falling somewhere in importance between “cross-gendered health, and sleep disorders.”

He’s right. Food safety stuff is completely overwhelmed by food porn – like this puff piece in today’s N.Y. Times, which gushes,

“Heston Blumenthal is one of the most forward-thinking chefs in the world.”

So forward thinking that he managed to sicken 529 diners at his flagship Fat Duck restaurant in the U.K., in part by letting sick workers work, spreading things around. And he still hasn’t accepted responsibility.

“For Christmas at home, Blumenthal — no stranger to creating a life-size gingerbread house with praline rose marshmallow bricks and white chocolate mortar — usually cooks goose or a Bresse capon. But for the last two years the family has gone skiing in Courmayeur, Italy. ‘There’s a restaurant near the top of the mountain, where we’ll have a Tuscan roast stuffed turkey dish, spaghetti with white truffle and a bottle of Guado al Tasso — and ski in the afternoon. Just fantastic.’”

That’s nice, but Heston will always be noro-boy to me.