Search JTA's historical archive dating back to 1923

Feathers Flying over Whoopi’s Recipe for ‘jewish American Princess’ Chicken

December 2, 1993
See Original Daily Bulletin From This Date
Advertisement

Whoopi Goldberg’s recipe for “Jewish American Princess Fried Chicken” is leaving at least a couple of Jews with a bad case of indigestion.

Her recipe, in a cookbook published to raise money for an environmental educational center in Connecticut, instructs readers to “send the chauffeur to your favorite butcher shop for the chicken,” shake the chicken in a bag while being careful to “watch your nails,” and to “hand the bag to the cook and go dress for dinner.”

Finish the chicken by having the “cook prepare the rest of the meal while you touch up your makeup,” says Whoopi’s recipe.

“Cooking in Litchfield Hills” also contains recipes from Nancy Kissinger, Bill Blass and Tom Brokaw.

According to Cathy Setterlin, executive director of the Pratt Center, the group that is benefiting from the proceeds, about 3,000 copies of the book have been sold and there have been only two complaints.

But according to Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, the recipe is “not funny, it’s insulting. It’s a lousy recipe with insensitive and anti-Semitic ingredients.”

“Whoopi should know better,” he said. “She needs some sensitivity training, unfortunately. The good people who published it need some sensitivity training too.”

Goldberg’s publicist, Brad Cararelli, told a New York newspaper, the Daily News, that “maybe (the critics) are not aware that Whoopi is Jewish, so she is certainly not anti-Semitic.”

Goldberg seems to have a penchant for stirring things up.

There recently was a controversy about her then-lover Ted Danson’s blackface skit at a recent Friar’s Club roast for her. Goldberg wrote Danson’s material, which was full of racial obscenities.

Recommended from JTA

Advertisement