On the heels of launching her very own Twitter account, famed chef, author, activist, conservationist, and dedicated locavore Alice Waters, has decided to come clean. Reached last night by phone, Waters, 66, informed the Weekly that she is in fact the person behind the infamous Twitter mash-up personality Ruth Bourdain. “Yes, it's true,” she said. “I am Ruth Bourdain.”

Ruth Bourdain, the hilarious, profane combination of former Gourmet editor Ruth Reichl and snarky author/television host Anthony Bourdain has been lighting up Twitter since his/her creation, and most recently, has been nominated for a James Beard Award in the newly formed humor category. But how did this happen?

“I care about all of my causes so very much,” said Waters. “I really do. But sometimes I just want to punch a hippie in the face and eat a big fucking Indonesian swordfish steak.”

Despite all of her longstanding efforts, it seems that even the celebrated Ms. Waters wants to deviate from the path of local, organic foods. “I do, of course, think that they're the best. But I haven't been able to eat a fast food hamburger in thirty-five years. Not once. Can you imagine if one of those nosy people at Eater ever took a picture of me at Johnny Rockets? It would be terrifying.”

Frustrated by one single narrative and lifestyle, Waters needed an outlet. “Twitter is perfect. It is anonymous, if you want to be anonymous. As Ruth, I can swear! It is quite lovely.” But why, and how, did she come up with Ruth Bourdain?

“Well, Tony has always been something of an ass to me. So there's that. But he also represents this tremendous dark-side of the human psyche. He is drugs, and sex, and rock music. Then to pair that with the lovely, idyllic musings of Ruth Reichl just seemed to make sense to me at the time. I'd had a glass of wine at that point, certainly.”

Waters insists that she has still not broken her personal dietary code, as much she has had cravings. “That's the Ruth in me,” she said. But why come clean now?

“I'm not good at holding in these kinds of secrets,” Waters said. “It's just gotten so big. It's time.”

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