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!

I did not articulate that well. The San Francisco review actually was a rave. My ineptly put point about novice critics is the fact that they take the word "critic" entirely too seriously. They are not satisfied if they don't find *something* to criticize. ← But there always is "something" to criticize.

You can't be serious...

Would you have questioned the novice critic's credentials if the review had been a rave?

Re: Title of this thread. The need for love is a fatal flaw in a critic in any field, not only food.

To tell the truth, some of us thrive on hate mail...It means we have hit the mark.

Does anyone know the percentage, if any, of black students in our professional cooking schools? That would be a start toward chefdom..for it is chefs rather than cooks that capture the public imgaination unless the cook is also the owner of a restaurant. I think it works from both ends..being able to take professional training and then having an interest in doing the kind of cooking that engenders publicity as Patrick Clark did. Had he lived, he would surely have been on TV and would have been an affable showman but he did creative cooking with an Amrican base and was also a chef at Bice in L.A. I think there is something to the point made here that in the 60s and 70s other opportunities opened to African-Americans and they took it. Even for whites, other than French, being a cook-chef was regarded as being a servant. It took Bocuse and the highly educated-turned-chefs in the 70s to make it a celebrity role. I know there are black students in NYC public high schools that teach professional cooking. Anyone trace the results?

I found during my tenure as the NYt food critic, that there are restaurants that are review-proof. Their clientele likes them for reasons perhaps other than food and may not even read reviews. Examples in my time were Mamma Leone's in the theater district, Tavern on the Green and Elaine's to name only a few. I suspect that is the case with Da Silvano...As with Elaine's, it is practically a club and non-members need not go there. Those owners know how to coddle certain customers,. catering to their whims and, most of all, protecting them from the great unwashed. They also go there to be themselves without having to be "on." However, a very favorable review for such places can bring a temporary rush of thrill seekers, thereby annoying the regulars..It is a tight-rope for owners to walk, especially as the thrill-seekers will disappear within two months. Leone's and Tavern appealed to masses for other reasons and, mainly, their customers did not read restaurant reviews. What found depressing was that when I gave other types of popular restaurants a bad review, even many loyal regulars stopped going, indicating either that they were unsure of their own tastes or that they were embarrassed to suggest the place to friends or guests because it had rececntly received a bad review.

It seems totally inadequate to evaluate all TV food shows in terms of the Food Network..Some of the best cooking shows I watch are on PBS - most especially Lidia Bastianich, my favorite, as well as Pepin. Food Network has too much time to fill and not enough shows can be of quality. Julia Child, after all, was on PBS, not Food Network.

Today transfats and tomorrow what? Butter? Chicken, duck or goose fat? Lard?Heavy cream? Marrow? Sugar? Adult public should be educated and allowed to make choices. Children need the protection until they too are educated.

I hope so too now that you mention it...the term did not seem to bother Brit chef and mgr. or me since I did not know the difference until now... By the way, the printed menu lists the price at $50 not the $45 quoted to me and which I paid.