Mimi Sheraton

P.S. Anyone interested in the whys, wherefores, workings and pitfalls of all institutional foods - schools, hospitals, prisons, airlines, etc. - will find a complete analysis in my book, Eating My Words: An Appetite for Life (Morrow). See Page 158 - The Care and Feeding of Passengers. Patients and Other Captives. Sure it's a plug, but it is a pertinent one. It is all part of the same story.

Having studied and written about elementary public school lunches in New York and around the country for many years beginning in the New York Times in 1976, I am convinced that besides classroom education on diet and health and a demand for better food from parents, our best hope is to have role models who children will want to emulate. I have seen waste baskets full of healthy foods tossed away by children who find them unpalatable (yucky, I believe is the word). Children are hard to please anyway and notoriously finicky unless they are given the few things they like - in my surveys, pizza, hamburgers, hot dogs, spaghetti, and grilled cheese sandwiches. But if one of their heroes - sports, rock,rap, hiphop, film, cartoon characters (Sponge Bob) or otherwise - were to do public service commercials for healthful eating I think we'd stand a better chance of success. It is not for nothing that Wheaties "Breakfast of Champions" campaign has lasted for what in my calculation is four generations. In big cities schools with low budgets, children of diverse ethnic backgrounds with diverse eating habits are not even being taught arithmetic properly. So how can we hope to change eating habits with limited funds, limited teacher participation and, to me the biggest bugga-boo of all, centralized purchasing and basic off-site prepartion? I envy Alice Waters and admire her wonderful experiments which, I am sure, will have lessons for all, but I have serious doubts about their workability in a school system such as New York's. It is very much a one-on-one idea.

Anyone seen results of Consumer Reports ratings of chocolates? Doesn't it seem odd to rate chocolate as such by bon-bons? Fillings and flavorings, however delightful, mask the pure qualities of the chocolate. It would seem that the way to rate chocolate is to taste in bar and bark forms - unfilled and with no flavors other than, perhaps, vanilla. Or should they have said they were rating bon-bons, which is another matter? And no Debauve & Gallais or Lindt 70 percent cocoa? What kind of test is that?

The Cook, the Thief, His Wife, Her Lover

And taking good notes as well, I assume Mimi. I love to hear about multiple visits, and yes it is about fairness to the restaurant and reader. Most especially the reader. That is the customer here. Our customer is the owner or manager of the facility who wants to know what is going on from the customer's pov. That whole people do what you inspect not what you expect thing. We have a built in rotation limitation we have to work within, in order to get a varied pov and a fair evaluation. Let's face it, and I don't want to seem as if I am always taking the side of the waitron unit, but some places just suck and are not worth the trip. I would want to know that it was a fair evaluation, but I would also want to know if I should not waste my time and effort. Law suits, huh? I can see it. I've known a couple of restaurant owners who would rather sue than improve the property and build the business. In fact, I am required by one company to keep my notes on file for two years, in case an employee is dismissed based upon my, and other, evaluations, and in case I have to testify in court. So far, I have been lucky and never had an evaluation questioned. Never been ID'd to my knowledge either. Of course, if the staff were smart they would never let on if they did realize what I was up to, and just give me fabulous service. I have been known to "behave" like a mystery shopper when not on a shop. It works. How do you manage to protect your anonymity? It would be defeating the purpose, I would think, if you were recognized when you walked into the door. I find it interesting to talk to a real live critic. I worked for a paper for a while, but as an "Advertorial" writer. heh. Bought and paid for by advertisers, that is. Thanks. Annie ← Never took a note in all the years I reviewed fro the Times. Maybe went home and wrote a few thoughts, but never in the restaurant..a sure giveaway.

If you can afford to pay for meals for six people, it would seem wiser to have two people visit a restaurant three times to account for what might be different conditions on different days. or, at least, four people once and two on the second visit. Then if the chef had been hit by a truck one night and so was not in top form (as one restaurant claimed when I gave it a negative review), he would presumably be recovered for the next. Only exception for me would be if it were a Chinese or Indian restaurant where sampling many dishes at once is part of the format..even then, four once and two once would be a safer method. And by safer, I mean as a defense against law suits, never mind being fair to restaurant and reader. Law suits have not come into this discussion but when one is at a publication of considerable note, such suits are always imminent. You can't imagine how they back down when they hear that the critic was there three times.

That's why a critic should go at least three times..to counteract the one-time off night then average out the experiences..I believe that minimum is still a NYTimes rule.

As entertaining as it may be to read of a restaurant's critic's experience as waiter or cook, the idea behind such a stunt is that the critic then will "understand" what restaurant owners have to contend with. And then what? Make allowances in reviews placing onus on customers? A critic should not "understand" anything.Only how it works out, front-of-the-house for the customer. Restaurant prices are high, meaning owners are playing hard ball. So should customers and critics.

Whole Foods biggest benefit in NYC has been the openings in areas where there are no other supermarkets and so, naturally, they are welcome. The only one I can think of that has a supermkt nearby is Union Sq. where there is also a Food Emporium on Union Sq. West and 14th St. But there is no other market near E. Houston Street where WF will soon open, or near 7th Ave & 25th, or near AOL and Columbus Circle...To those of us who have other options, WF is a marginal choice at best.

If you look over on the Pennsylvania board, you will probably find a post or two from me that notes that my two "neighborhood" supermarkets are a Super Fresh (A&P family, like Food Emporium) and a Whole Foods, which are located across the street from each other. I've never been disappointed with anything I've bought from Whole Foods, but I do the overwhelming bulk of my shopping at the Super Fresh (and at an Acme about a mile further south), and I can tell you why in one word: Price. The funny thing is, when it comes to regular prices on products both stores carry, WFM is not all that out of line with the competition. However, the regular supermarket runs much better specials on these products. That also applies for natural and organic products--the Super Fresh is running a very good special on Del Monte's new line of organic canned tomatoes this week; I've never seen Muir Glen priced that low at Whole Foods. Yes, it has. That is very evident at the aforementioned Super Fresh, which increased the number of natural food products it carries and grouped most of them together in one section of the store. The Whole Foods on South Street does carry Boston lettuce regularly. That the store near you does not may have something to do with its produce suppliers and where they get their products. WFM does prefer to carry produce grown as close to the store's location as possible whenever possible, which is why you will find lots of Pennsylvania and Maryland grown produce on South Street. (Take a look at the labels in the WFM next door to you and see what states dominate where such information is provided.) This probably should not be an issue with lettuce, as most of the lettuce Americans eat is grown in California. But there are local growers of Romaine, for instance, and Boston lettuce is often grown hydroponically; there is a large hydroponic grower of Boston lettuce in Chester County, IIRC, and it may supply WFM stores in this region. ← I have been disappointed at all prepared foods I bought at Whole Foods and generally awful pre-sliced smoked salmon at a high price both in NY and in Evanston, Ill. As for fish, I don't think WF's compares in freshness to Citarella tho better than most supermarkets. In addition, I have found the help in fish and meat departments sadly lacking in expertise, both in the Time-Warner Center and on 7th Ave & 25th Street in Manhattan.

Considering all of the conventional products sold at Whole Food Markets, I have been wondering what the name of the market really means. Nothing is cut up? Hardly. I have yet to see anyone carrying out a whole calf or pig. Not refined? But many products there are. Certainly not all organic as that distinction is made where applicable. Or does it mean that these markets offer an entire array of food..meat, fish, cheese, vegetables, pastry, etc. as in "That's a whole market of food." I believe it is a cleverly devised halo term meant to cast a glow of sanctitity over all products sold within although you can get at least half of the stuff at Food Emporium or D'Agostino. Any thoughts? Anyone have access to Whole Food Market PR department? It would be great to hear that answer from down Austin way.

Really Orthodox Jews did not eat at 2nd Ave. It was not glatt kosher as it stayed open over Shabbas..Fri. sundown to Sat. sundown. I doubt that orthodox Jews in Bklyn, atet at 2nd Ave. You are strictly speaking correct as I wrote in The New York Times Jewish Cookbook. But "glatt": has come to signify shomer shabbas observers. A small point at most.

It is called nitpicking when it relates to negative details. When it is positive, even the tiniest, most recherche detail is welcome.

Really Orthodox Jews did not eat at 2nd Ave. It was not glatt kosher as it stayed open over Shabbas..Fri. sundown to Sat. sundown. I doubt that orthodox Jews in Bklyn, atet at 2nd Ave.

Katz's. ← not Carnegie Deli? ← Carnegie is more known for its Corned Beef. Its pastrami is okay. I don't agree with Mimi that their meat quality is better than Katz. I will say that Katz is more difficult to get the hulking sandwich now than it used to be. Just a few years past, if you got one of the old Jewish guys as a slicer, and you tipped him like 2 bucks, he'd give you extra meat on your plate AND feed you a slice right there on the line. "Eh, You like juicy? Cause you look like a juicy guy!". The Latino guys they now have don't seem to understand the tradition -- if you tip them, they don't do anything extra for you. They just look at you strangely and say "uh, thanks". That actually really pissed me off the last time I went. I beleive they still have a few of the old timers working there, but I just happened to get one of the new guys on the slicing line. ← Carnegie has been known for pastrami ever since I awarded them first prize in a city wide tasting in about 1977 altho the corned beef was great too. They no longer make both in their basement. Katz's meat though flavorful, is often full of gristle and sinews and, once slightlyt cooled, tastes awful. Carnegie's stands up much better. By the way, if you ask, Carnegie will hand slice. I think the best pastrami in NYC is at Pastrami Queen on 3rd Ave. or Lex. bet. 85th & 86th. if they are still there.

I have felt from the start that anonymity is a drawback on this site. It would be more fun, more credible, more reassuring and more interesting to know the real names of those we read and respond to. It would also obviate the kind of mild humiliation I felt when I discovered that I had been having exchanges with an anon e-gulleter who turned out to be my own son! How much sharper than a serpent's tooth is that?

Anyone have comments on Bruni's Diner's Journal, re: Cafe Country..or is it Country Cafe? Odd that after so much talk about the book and the man, there's has been no blogging on the food and the place..if I have missed something, as I often do, I apologize in advance and hope to be directed to pertinent comments.

It wasn't a freebie. It cost $85 per person. And why wouldn't you care how he cooked? Or his cooking ability irrelevant?

Mimi, What is your theory on why Psaltis keeps getting these plum jobs when he is "mindless" and "taste blind"? How is he hoodwinking all of these top chefs? ← I am wondering about that myself. Had I the time - and perhaps even if I don't - it might be worth researching. First stop would be at Country to taste the food there. It is one thing for a chef to look good when he or she is following the style and precepts of an executive chef who sets the tone --i.e. Ducasse, Keller, etc. Quite another when he is given carte blanche to create on his and, God help us, freely express himself. That's where the rubber hits the road.

My only apology goes to Steve. Somehow I missed prior references to Psaltis as a friend and, perhaps, also to his brother as an agent.

Hey Steve..if Doug is your friend and his brother your agent, you should have made that clear at the start...or recused yourself from the discussion. Your defense of him is much misplaced as are your excuses for the very bad meal at Beard. The fault, dear Steven, lay not with the kitchen equipment but with the mindless creations of the chef whom seems to be taste-blind.

J.Kurowycki on First Ave. in NYC...They smoke it there after pickling it..Call ahead and be sure they have lean slabs....It's not anything free and therefore never turns gray nor tastes of mold like so many nitrate-frees do and is fabulous fried with eggs or seasoning choucroute or cassoulet or pea soup or anything else bacon is used for....

Ginger is the lemon of Asia in preparing fish, and for the same reason - an astringent touch to clean up any lingering hints of excessive fishiness

I've had a copy, in Italian, for at least 30 years..it is terrific but you really have to care a lot about Italian food...I have no idea what changes might be wrought in an English edition might or if it has been up-dated to include different recipes than in my very old, tattered copy. Good as it is, I prefer another huge Italian recipe compendium..Il Talismano della Felicita by Ada Boni. A much abbreviated English version was published here many years ago as The Talisman Cookbook. I do not know if that is in print.

Russ is right..I said it, not him..I have met Zakarian.