When Will Spencer Matthews Admit He is Wrong About Irish Butter?
Words: Shamim de Brún
Images: Instagram
Words: Shamim de Brún
Images: Instagram
The butter war is real, and it’s Irish.
Back in July this year, Vogue Williams’s husband Spencer Matthews went on a tirade against Irish butter. He said it was blind patriotism that kept us thinking it was superior. The irony that an English man would say someone else is patriotic to the point of senselessness was so gas that we took him down for it. Or more accurately we fact-checked him in a whimsical article about his idiocy and Irish butter’s scientific supremacy.
More recently, Kerrygold went on to win the best butter in the US according to the American publication Tasting Table. Vogue saw this and, not being one to let things slide easily, brought this to Spencer’s attention again in their most recent podcast. The podcast snippet that went live on Instagram on Sunday reveals a classic case of cognitive dissonance, with Spencer’s refusal to accept the buttery truth.
In the clip, the Englishman proceeds to try and dismiss the blind study by a third-party industry magazine in America as biased. But failed.
According to their website as a Static Media brand, they’re ‘committed to excellence in editorial standards’. Their rankings are ‘thoroughly tested and edited by a dedicated team of contributors that includes registered dietitians, published cookbook authors, former chefs, educators from NYC’s Institute of Culinary Education, and experienced home cooks who ensure they’re easy-to-understand for various skill levels’.
For the butter test in question, Tasting Table bought exclusively salted butter and let each option come to room temperature to make a fair comparison between brands. They then spread them so thickly on pieces of bread that all they could taste was butter.
Seems pretty objective to us. But this is only the latest in a series of butter awards Kerrygold has won. In 2004 Kerrygold won a gold medal at the cheese and buttermaking Olympics. In 2021, it won Best European-Style Butter at Taste of Home. It won the best-tasting salted butter in Australia according to Choice.com. But it’s not all about awards. Kerrygold has also been endorsed by almost every food celebrity worth their salted butter.
Since at least 2011, Snoop Dogg’s bestie Martha Stewart has evangelised Irish butter. Many of her early recipes say “preferably Kerrygold,” ” In a 2015 New York Times interview Dora Charles, a Southern chef and author, said that cookbook writer Fran McCullough introduced her to Kerrygold, which then made its way into her recipes.
According to Eater magazine, Anna Gershenson, a Boston-based food consultant, uses Kerrygold as her go-to. She says, “It imparts wonderful flavour to everything, be it toast, cooked grains, enriched doughs, you name it,” she says. “I am very discerning about where and how food is sourced. Kerrygold meets my standard.” Kourtney Kardashian has been seen baking with it as far back as 2015.
Stanley Tucci had a whole article in the paper recently about how much he and his family love Kerrygold butter. So much so that they hoarded frozen bars of it during the lockdown in case they ran out. Model and cookbook author Chrissy Teigen (and, we can assume, her husband John Legend) has been on the Kerrygold bandwagon since 2016. Back in 2018 when the brand wasn’t as well-stocked overseas as it is now, English actress Kate Beckinsale would pack it in her suitcase while travelling. That same year SJP included it in her poem about leaving Donegal.
Oprah is the most recent celeb to share a cooking video using Kerrygold. In a reel posted to the legendary host’s Instagram account, the butter can be seen on the kitchen counter while she and her family make breadsticks.
Then you can go by the stats. It’s the number one butter in Germany. It’s the second biggest butter in the USA and that’s with it being banned in Wisconsin. It’s pretty big in Japan, a country known for its lactose intolerance.
There is so much anecdotal evidence here that Irish butter is objectively the best and I haven’t even delved into the science and culture behind it like I did in my first response to Spencer. But none of that will matter to him because he is not refusing to admit its supremacy for want of hard data. His steadfast refusal to read the writing on the proverbial wall is the embodiment of stubbornness and has echoes of colonial hangovers.
When a person pushes back against the facts, when they simply cannot admit they are wrong about a thing, there is usually a psychological reason behind it. No one enjoys being wrong. It’s an unpleasant emotional experience for all of us.
Some people, like Spencer Matthews, refuse to admit they’re wrong, even in the face of overwhelming evidence, due to a fragile ego. According to Psychology Today, if one cannot psychologically handle being wrong, they may deny facts to defend their actions or beliefs.
For some, acknowledging a mistake or admitting they were wrong is an ordeal too threatening for their fragile egos to endure. The mere acceptance of being wrong would be psychologically shattering, prompting defence mechanisms to distort their perception of reality. In a remarkable twist, they reshape the facts in their minds. Like Spencer in the most recent podcast seeks to undermine the study instead of admitting that ‘maybe – just maybe – I might have been wrong about Irish butter’. Most of us sulk a bit when we have to admit we’re wrong, but we get over it. Here’s hoping one day Spencer Matthews will have the mental fortitude to do the same.
In a world where even the staunchest dieters embrace Irish butter, Spencer Matthews finds himself at a slippery crossroads. Is he capable of a seismic shift in butter beliefs? Will Spencer Matthews ride the wave or remain stuck in his buttered bubble?
As the world acknowledges the indisputable reign of Irish butter, Spencer Matthews might want to reconsider his stance before his whole sense of superiority crumbles around him.
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