Food Critics and Egomaniacs

Some of you might remember Jeffrey Chodorow from his restaurant reality show, The Restaurant, starring the young and talented publicity whore Rocco DiSpirito. You might even know him as a restaurateur. After all, he has over 20 restaurants. Recently, he received a poor review from The New York Times' food critic, Frank Bruni, for his new restaurant Kobe Club. Chodorow fought back, in classic sore looser fashion, with an obnoxious ad in the Times about how great his restaurant is and how the other critics loved it. He spent a lot of money telling the readers of The New York Times that Bruni was wrong and that his restaurant is great. The ad was well worth the money. He's getting a ton of publicity from it, good and bad. There is such a thing as bad publicity when it comes to restaurants. I can understand his frustration. His restaurant that took over the space that used to house Rocco's on 22nd Street suffered from Rocco's Curse and harsh criticism that could have been residual distaste for Rocco's. Frankly, I believe some of its demise was in the name, Caviar and Banana. What the F!

The main point of Mr. Chodorow's ad/letter was that Bruni has no food experience and hence is not qualified to be a food critic. This brings two issues to mind. One, Jeffrey Chodorow is an egomaniac. If you watched The Restaurant you would come to the same conclusion. Of course he thinks his restaurant is great. He has now gone so far as to create his own blog, giving himself the title of food critic. He claims that he plans to post only positive experiences. That's realistic! Bad restaurants do exist and if you want to be a critic you have to report on the negative experiences too. If not, you're not a food critic but rather a reporter of good restaurants. After being criticized for censoring the comments that were streaming in to his blog, the decision was made to let them all through. There are some harsh words to Mr. Chodorow in those comments. How can he bare it? On his own blog? How dare they! At least it won't cost tens of thousands of dollars in ad fees to respond to those opinions.

The second issue that came from all of this is the topic of food critics. Frank Bruni does not have a background in food, except for an eater of it. I believe he's been eating all of his life. I'll have to check on that fact though. Commonly, food critics are snobbish when it comes to food. I am in no way a food expert. I love pub food and beer as much as I love fine dining and a great wine. I just love food. I do, however, know a good experience when I have one. I'm even more aware of a bad experience when I have one.

A little story:
My wife and I went to the Chart House, located at 60 Long Wharf in Boston, which is part of Landry's Restaurants, Inc.. The Chart House in Boston is one of 26 in the country. More about these upscale chain restaurants at a later date.

We had a great meal. However, something that happened that night would have completely given a food critic the red ass. The first problem we had was our waitress in the lounge. She was slow to take our cocktail order, slow to bring the bill and generally slow all around. After being seated, everything went very smoothly until it was time to clear the table. The waitress piled our plates on a tray, turned around and something happened. I can only explain this as a glitch in the gravitational pull or maybe a drop in atmospheric pressure. I just don't know what happened. The waitress didn't just loose her hold of the tray but somehow managed to violently toss the contents. My wife and I were covered in rice, fish and lemons halves with the little seed condoms on them. The very subtle Australian gentleman behind us screamed "WOW I've never seen that before". I'm telling you, it was something to see. I felt very bad for the waitress. She was extremely upset but she kept her composure enough to promptly move us to another table and offer us free dessert. It was an accident. It clearly made an impression on me though. I can see past that though and tell you that the food, atmosphere and even our server were all great. I can only imagine the horror of a food critic wiping rice from his lapel and picking fish shrapnel from his wife's hair. I'm thinking that would not be a pleasant review. It was a bruise to the ego, for sure. I deserve nothing short of flawless service and food. Supernatural phenomena is no excuse.

I think social networking, mainly blogs, will have a big effect on these types of things. Everyone will become a critic. The challenge is to write about your good experiences as well as your bad. We are tempted to only tell people about the bad experiences we have. That has to change. I don't have a problem with Frank Bruni being a food critic. He's a regular guy. So am I. He doesn't have a background in food. Neither do I. It does, however, matter to those who get bad reviews from him. You don't hear complaints when three stars are awarded, unless you're Mario Batali. Nobody likes to be criticized, especially egomaniacs.

Brew-a-phile: For the Love of Beer

Boston Beer Co., the maker of Sam Adams brand beer has unveiled a special glass designed to enhance the beer drinking experience. They hired "world-renowned sensory experts" to design a glass that will sustain the head, which releases aroma throughout drinking. The new glass will be sold in packages of four for $30 at www.samueladams.com, beginning in March. This move is another example of beer being repositioned as a thing to be savored and enjoyed rather than chugged, funneled or shotgunned. Beer has many of the characteristics that you look for in wine, such as body, aroma, aftertaste and undertones. I enjoy both beer and wine but I never take the time to swirl, swish or gargle beer. Spit?!? LOL Good one!

Recently, I noticed the trend of beer being matched with gourmet food and not just pizza, burgers and buffalo wings. In fact, my wife and I went to a beer and cheese tasting at Formaggio Kitchen in Cambridge, MA. Incredibly, I enjoyed the combination of the cheese and beer better than the more common wine and cheese pairings. The "class" showcased several beers and cheeses I've never had. They did instruct us to pay attention to the beer, its taste, aroma and aftertaste. What an idea!

I'm not sure that the new glass is going to get a lot of attention from die-hard beer drinkers but it is showing that beer isn't just suds but rather a carefully crafted art that deserves the attention and critique normally reserved for wine.

Food Miles

I read a blog entry from Victoria Von Biel, executive editor of Bon Appétit, about "food miles" today. In this entry, Victoria explains that the further a food item has to travel to it's destination, the larger its impact on energy and pollution. She also mentions that, along the way, items also stop at processing plants. This made me realize that food miles have a greater impact than Victoria thought. Stopping along the way, and traveling any distance at all increases the possibility of contaminating other foods and a wider area of people should the items be contaminated with salmonella or some other googly moogly that it picked up at its origin or along the way. This was one reason why the spinach and lettuce disasters of 2006 were so wide spread. So, not only is food travel killing the earth, it is also making sure it takes out a wider area of people all at once. I don't know if I'd rather die from the flooding of the melting glaciers or from a lower intestinal issue caused by a bad taco or anything alla Florentine. Contamination was not the purpose of the article, the purpose, however, was to announce that Tesco, a large grocery chain in the UK is planning to label its products with the amount of carbon dioxide generated from the production, transportation, and consumption of those items. I'm thinking that the folks in the marketing departments of these food companies are jumping out of windows right about now. How appetizing is a head of lettuce covered in road dirt, carbon dioxide, guilt, and the possibility of a foodborne illness?