macrosan

We're a one-cook family, and it's not me But that's all gonna change quite soon, when I get my Tom Valenti cook-book Only time I have cooked is weekend breakfast, and that's because I do a decent job with eggs and things, and I enjoy it at the weekend, so it's become a tradition. I probably could do full meals, but I have never bothered to learn. On the odd occasion when my wife's been ill and I have to take over the cooking, the results have been so horrendous (compared with my wife's excellent cooking) that she only asks me in absolute emergency. She believes I do it on purpose

I don't really wish to indulge in semantics, but the true meaning of words is, after all, crucial to a discussion. "Critical" is not a qualitative term meaning "adversely critical". It is an objective term meaning using judgement and evaluation. So you can be critical and conclude something is wonderful. The misuse of the word to purport bad is the same as to use the word "quality" to qualitatively purport "good quality".

Well said, Gavin See, Plotnicki ? We British know a bit more about good food than you thought

Oh LOLOLOL. According to the Caterer Survey, "A third (32%) of respondents said they ate out at least four times a month. They spent an average £26 a head when treating themselves to a special meal". £26 a head when treating themselves to a special meal Let me say that again £26 a head when treating themselves to a special meal Does that give any small indication as to the sort of people included in the survey ? LOLOLOLOLOL And Steve, a recent survey on behalf of the British Dental Association confirmed that a third (32%) of respondents were using artificial, rather than natural, palates.

First things first. Welcome , Conrad, I hope you enjoy it here I've always said of AA Gill that he's a terrific writer with little understanding of food. Yesterday in the Sunday Times he wrote a long piece on how he enjoys going on holiday to sunny, exotic lands. Then in the last 20 lines told us that this was meant to be a review of the Clerkenwell Dining Room, but he couldn't think of much to say about it, and gave it three stars. At least that was honest

Hi Conrad You obviously missed the major discussion around this topic. Click here to go Compromised Food Critics in the General Forum. It starts off on a different slant from your question, but read on.....

This is "a friends hostess story. We had been invited to a friend for 8pm dinner. We arrived at 7.45, chatted with the host and hostess and the other invited couple for a while. At about 8.15 I noticed the hostess getting agitated and looking continually at her watch. "Maxine and Allan are coming too", she said.She went out of the room to phone them, but they didn't answer the phone. By 8.30 she was getting frantic. "I don't know where they are" she announced, and "but the dinner's spoiling so we'd better sit down without them". We'd just finished the first course when the doorbell rang, and in came Maxine and Allan. The hostess rushed out to get their food as they sat down, full of apologies. Maxine sat next to me and whispered out of the corner of her mouth "We thought it was just coffee and we've come straight from the Indian restaurant". I watched them in admiration as they ate their way thru a huge 5 course dinner. To this day the hostess (still a close friend) doesn't know the truth.

Sez who, Roger ? My guess is exactly the oposite, that these are the very people who are not fickle enough ....

Steve, you can't do the first week in June. That's the next Peter Luger lunch, remember ? That's when I'm in Chicago/New York. Incidentally, you're right about meat on beigels Beigels are for salt or pickled herring, or cream cheese with chives or smoked salmon. Rye bread is for meat. But what is for appetizing ?

That's what the manager of China 46 said when the eGullet party asked him to have all their food delivered to the table at the same time.

Tom Jones - the scene

We know the Fat Guy took that beauty pageant photo --- it's all blurred cuz his hands were shaking from the excitement. So he almost certainly did take a photo of Jennifer but it's too blurred to publish. I've noticed, along with others, the huge proportion of shellfish you're eating, F-G. Is that a regional thing, or is it just a general strong preference ?

I hope you just mean professional reviews, Fat Guy, and are not including our reviews we put up on eGullet If indeed our 'family' reviews are of value to one another, what makes them so, and in what way do they differ from the "useless" professional ones ? Is it just mutual trust ?

Whaddya talking about, Graham ???? There's a world beyond North America ??????? :wow:

I've just heard that Addington Palace is excellent from some people who went there to a private party on Sunday. I will try it. Beijing Cottage is classy Cantonese/Pekingese, never busy except Saturday night, slow service and not at all buzzy. Best Chinese food since Tung Kum closed down, and particularly try their lamb with ginger and paper-wrapped chicken. Going into Croydon from the south along Brighton Rd, it's on the right after the Swan&SugarLoaf but before the traffic lights (a few doors from that little alleyway that goes into the Council car park). The Basil Leaf is kinda bistro-ey, interesting menu, simple but well-cooked. It's on the right just past those traffic lights referred to above.

...now that looks like a topic for a whole new thread ... or maybe just a new page in BalicBioLand ...

Shame on you Matthew :wow: Have you tried Beijing Cottage (Brighton Rd) or Kelong Lower Selsdon Rd) ? Both excellent. The Basil Leaf and Il Ponte (Brighton Rd) are quite acceptable. There's a newish Mauritian fish restaurant which I haven't tried, but it loks good and two people have recommended it to me. Chateau Napoleon (Coombe Rd) used to be superb, but I haven't been for a few years since I did have a bad meal.

...or maybe just bad at sums, John I agree with you on this, not just in respect of British chefs, but in fact all types of celebrity. I have no qualms about the charges made by Pavarotti, or Russell Crowe, or John Major (for his speaking engagements). I believe that people are entitled to charge whatever they want for anything. The market will determine whether or not they want to pay the price, and I'm entirely happy with that arrangement.

Hey Rocky, thanks for the excellent review. I've had Le Bernardin on my "must go" list for a while, and you've confirmed that I absolutely must go. If there's one thing I hate it's that "stuffed" feeling at the end of a meal. As a Brit who has spent a lot of time in the USA, I still get embarrassed by the sheer size of portions in America. I do hate to leave good food, because I dislike waste and I think it's like an insult to the chef. So when I get presented with these portions suitable for a 350lb footballer, I find that my enjoyment level instantly drops. It's just too daunting. So I'm thrilled to hear that there is a restaurant that serves superb quality food in portion sizes to match my appetite.

Basildog, there are two issues here. First, you are not making 10% on a £9 bottle of wine, and (by inference) 10% on food. In fact you're making probably 50% on the wine and a loss of 40% on the food. I think that as a business strategy that stinks, because it puts you in an unstable position, dependent on maintaining historical spending patterns by your customers. However, I recognizse that the whole industry does this, and you probably feel you have to follow the market, not try to create your own. The second point is the one Matthew makes. A 300% markup on a £3 bottle (which gives a sale price of $12 btw) gives your business an overall 10% profit. The only extra cost to you of a wine costing £30 rather than £3 is the cost of tying up your capital. You're probably paying bank interest at 8%, and assume that a bottle in your cellar stays there for two years, so the extra cost of that bottle to you is £4.50. Therefore, to maintain your margin, you should sell it for an extra £5, which gives a sale price for the bottle of £17 and not the £120 that you do actually charge. Fair ????? Discuss

Wassup, Fat Guy ? Car broken down ? You should be in New Orleans or somewhere by now :wow:

Roger, why is this such a major problem ? I can heatedly argue with and criticise close friends, but still remain friends, and still continue to argue with and criticise them. Members of the scientific community do this all the time. Literary people do this all the time. Normal people do this all the time. Why is it different for restaurant reviewers? SteveS, you said that restaurant revies have two primary functions (consumer protection and information). I would add a third - entertainment. My pet example of this is AAGill, who I find lacking in knowledge or critical capacity, but highly entertaining. In fact, I suspect he says a lot of things he doesn't really mean just in order to deliver a mot juste.

I know this is arrogant, but I want to reiterate a point I made earlier which no-one has addressed. I don't believe what Simon says here, that a critic can close a restaurant [with a bad review]. I simply do not accept they have that level of influence. To us the theatre critic analogy, it is clear that very many shows panned by the critics are wildly successful (Lloyd Webber's were classic, The Mousetrap was universally panned, and so on) and even more significantly vice versa. When a show which the critics panned happens to close because it's no good, the critics inevitably latch on to that as the proof of their influence and power. Someone give me an example of a good restaurant which received a bad review and which then closed. Someone give me an example of the opposite. No, I think the professional reviewer has a valuable place in the hierarchy of restaurant cuisine, but it is one of entertaining accompaniment rather than power.

Its only because I'm very new to eGullet - but I am studying Simon R's entries very carefully I assume you mean Simon M, BLH. Steve, I don't understand your last post. It is self-evident that art can't be created by people looking at it. No-one suggested they could. Why does that fact preclude objectivity? And on your example at the Brooklyn Museum, do you not accept that the published title of a 'work of art' is part of the work? Why should the artist not be "allowed" to tell you what he wants you to see? Finally, when you said "When I go into a BMW showroom to look at motorcycles, the designer isn't asking me to only view it aesthectically" you defeated the central theme of your own argument. The key word is "only", so you acknowledge that he is inter alia indeed asking you to view it aesthetically. And you now seem to accept that gives it artistic content. Which it has.

This sounds like a case for a rsearch study. Maybe the UN would fund that The fastest eater in the world is my father. Give him boiling soup or ice cream straight from the freezer, and he'll be finished before you're ready to take your first taste. For other foods, his ICR (Instinctive Chew Rate) is so fast that his jaw is just a blur. And he does exactly what Cabrales suggests. As he chews one mouthful, he is cutting/forking/spooning the next so that he is ready to refill his mouth the very instant he takes his last swallow. The reason for this is simple. He was the youngest of 11 siblings, and was always served last. If he didn't catch up with the others, all the food was gone before he could get second helpings