Who’d want to move to America now?

There’s a biopic released this summer, Roadrunner, about the late great chef, writer, bon viveur and TV presenter Anthony Bourdain. It recounts the many invaluable lessons Bourdain taught, such as: never eat the lower colon of a warthog; never order fish in a restaurant on Monday (it will probably be three days old); and, most of all, the American Dream is over.

This last fact may seem jarring. Bourdain was a proudly patriotic American. However, I firmly believe he reveals this truth in the 36th episode of his splendid food-and-travel TV show, No Reservations.

In this particular episode Bourdain visits Cleveland, Ohio. In his boyish, enthusiastic way, Bourdain tries all manner of nosh. And all goes well until he sits down in a fast-food chain called Skyline and ‘eats’ a popular local delicacy called ‘Cincinnati chilli’.

The best way to understand Cincinnati chilli is to look at it. Briefly. The second best is to describe it: a splat of overboiled spaghetti, smothered in an eerily thin chilli, then suffocated by shredded industrial cheddar, served with a side of three hot dogs, also interred under cheddar. The ingredients in the chilli include cinnamon, paprika, Worcestershire sauce, vinegar, cumin and chocolate.

As he tries to down this cosmically disturbing meal, Bourdain doesn’t criticise — he rarely does. He simply murmurs that it is a ‘mutant hybrid’ and is ‘suspiciously orange’. But he has an expressive face. And his face says: ‘Jesus Christ.’ And then it says: ‘This is meant to be a Greek-Italian speciality. If you gave this to an actual Greek they would punch you in the eye.’

And this, I submit, tells a wider truth. OK, yes, we’re supposedly only talking about food here.