Mimi Sheraton

Scallops also have holy name in French..coquille St. Jacques..a scallop shell was the symbol of the Crusaders and, I believe, religious pilgrams of that time...not sure about the last.... voquille meaning shell...

Too bad..focolares are colorful handsome sort of well-shaped hearths right in dining room for grilling over wood and whre fricco is made on iron pan......sort of fusion between Italy and Yugoslavia

But does Focolare have a focolare? Why not tell us what it is and the type of cooking done on it in Friuli?

I can't remember ever seeing a film that was more inane, insipid and uninvolving as this one...nor a more disgusting, overly sweet group of pies that would appeal only to the most undeveloped, infantile palates.

to the current ← For what it's worth, price was taken into consideration during my time there and i felt it important to be so..that was pre-Burros and Miller..I believe in Claiborne's time too altho I am not sure of that nor exacrtly when they chnaged it.

Then he should not open for lunch. I'd love to know what he thinks of the Ssam at Ssam.

Sorry to disappoint you, Steve. I have never championed chefs for their goals..only their achievments. A meal is not an oil painting. If I thought Alinea deserved slamming (I never went) I would have slammed it. I did not fail Momofuku Ssam. It failed me. More and more you seem to place the onus for a successful meal on the customer and are sounding like an apologist for restaurants and their chefs. if Chang can't produce something he is proud of for $7 at lunch, he should not do it at all.

I was surprised too. Danny Meyer is a very classy guy with more than his share of positive restaurant reviews and great success. But it never fails. Any critic who doesn't like a place, or even some small aspect of it, has to have a reason other than food and service...a bad night's sleep, a fight with his wife, a less than effusive greeting at the coat check room. Surely it could not be the food or service. When I gave negative reviews to some of France's 3-stars in the Times many years ago, several, including Bocuse, declared that I must have an unsatisfactory sex life. And no matter how many positive things a critic writees, it's the negatives restaurant owners remember. I am also surprised at Meyer's indescretions along these lines. Many of the critics he cites are still at it. And we always have the last word, don't we?

On the subject of critiquing the critics, see Danny Meyer's "Setting the Table" Just read him on the local restaurant critics last night... As I have always thought, "Scratch a restaurateur, find a cry baby."

Well if the shoe fits, Guys.... Clearly, I do not qualify....

Good idea! Let's form a panel....

Right! You bet! Only two valid panelists were Bourdain and Pepin...

Anyone seen current Time Out's critiques of New York critics in all fields? Other fields aside, the rankings of local restaurant critics is virtually meaningless, given the panelists...second-rate food writers disgruntled that they are not at major publications, and, even sillier, restaurateurs who may have been given - or fear getting - negative reviews by a local critic and thereby carry a grudge. Only distinterested panelists seem to be Anthony Bourdain and Jacques Pepin. But this being that evil known as consensus, we have no idea who agrees with findings and who does not, making it all irrelevant..And why print the panelists names only the website - www.Timeoutnewyork.com - and not in the magazine where most will read the story?

Try "Wild peaches" by Elinor Wylie..lots of other foods in it too...

You can't be serious... ← I confess I was kidding. In reality I play a little game where I analyze my inbound hate mail, blog and message-board posts about me, and voicemail messages and assign points to the various epithets and scorn heaped upon me. "Nazi" or "Stalinist" gets 3 points, an attack on my integrity gets 2 points and garden-variety swear words are 1 point each. So far I have 3.1 million points. ← That's better!