David Corcoran

Hi, all ... thanks for the feedback. I was obviously imprecise in my use of the word "factory," a holdover from my days as a meadowlands reporter for the Bergen Record in the 1970's. I guess if there's still a factory in town it wasn't exactly wrong, but I'll ask the Web site to adjust the wording in the online version. Best, David

Many thanks to all who have posted. Your fascinating & lively responses exceeded my high expectations. I may be getting in touch with some of you individually. Best, David

Great point. I'm also speaking to a retailer or two for their BY0 advice. Thanks and albest, David

I'm writing an article for the New Jersey section of the New York Times about ordering wine in restaurants. A daunting subject for many, if not most, diners. Amid a bewildering array of choices, how to proceed? In your experience, are servers usually helpful and knowledgeable? How can you tell when you're being steered correctly? Anecdotes welcome. I won't be able to publish all responses, but if I do include yours, I'll want to use your actual name and hometown. Thanks! David

You can access this article by going to www.nytimes.com and typing "best of the sweets" (don't forget the quotation marks) in the search window at the top of the screen. It is not, in fact, a compilation of reviews. The editor of the Best of New Jersey special section asked Karla Cook and me to write a few original paragraphs about a few of our favorite desserts. On a related matter: the John Foy who wrote about top chefs is not the Foy whose shore restaurant was involved in the flap over a painting of a nude in the window. That's his brother Dennis.

Authentic sweet potato pie, or banana pudding? Tbe NY Times would like to know ...

I have to say this isn't a topic I've paid much attention to. I know there are some good books on the subject but I confess I haven't read them. The connection between my day job and the restaurant gig is minimal.I try very hard not to let the one get in the way of the other.

Thanks, Rosie. I have not been to Frankie & Johnnie's. David Bonom of the Bergen Record gave it 1 star (fair) on 2/12/99.

You make an excellent point. We do comment on the wine list in the summary box that contains the overall rating. And I always try to expand on that comment in the body of my review, though usually in no more than a sentence or two. The reason I seldom say more is that I usually visit a restaurant only twice. Typically, that allows me to taste no more than two or three wines on a list that may number in the hundreds -- hardly a representative sample. So my comments tend to be rather general, based on the interest level of the list and the fairness of the prices. That said, I agree that wine is a fundamental ingredient of the dining experience and I promise to give it more thought in the future. Thanks.

Chicago? Haven't been in a long time. Have I been recognized? Not to my knowledge.

The food is very important. The other factors are much less so, and while they occasionally affect the final rating, I'd say that's pretty rare. To put it another way, great food forgives a lot of sins.

The Ryland Inn, on all counts. A couple of others have come close, notably Nicholas, Rat's and the sadly closed Raku in Westwood.

New Jersey is certainly overshadowed by New York, but then everything is overshadowed by New York. On the other hand, I've never found that the differences in restaurants are all that glaring. Many New Jersey chefs have cooked on both sides of the river, and some choose to relocate not because they're any less good but for the same reasons other people relocate: life in the suburbs is much less complicated than in the city. If I did a blind tasting between, say, Jean-Georges and Nicholas, or Alain Ducasse and the Ryland Inn, I bet you I couldn't tell you which was which.

No. Even in New Jersey, that kind of behavior is beyond the pale.

When you have to review them, they're all memorable. A few highlights, however: The Ryland Inn, for its herb garden, complete with slightly menacing dog, and for a late-summer tomato appetizer that was off every chart. Charrito's, in Union City, for its amazing and unexpected superrealist décor and (repeat all adjectives, including superrealist) chicken mole. Rat's, for the Sculpture Garden. The James Beard House in Manhattan, where the great man used to cook on a stove with electric burners (before my time, however). And La Mère Blanc, in Vonnas, France, a Michelin 3-star where my wife and I ate on our honeymoon. Georges Blanc, who looked impossibly young, came out of the kitchen and signed our menu, wishing us une bonne lune de miel.

Other than home? It's kind of a miscellany, since 99 percent of my dining out is done in restaurants. But ... I love Cafe Panache in Ramsey, and Esca and Marseille in the theater district in New York.

I actually did review Rat's back in May 2000. Rated it excellent. Karla Cook went back last month, after their renovation, and gave it the same rating. As I may have mentioned, since Karla's arrival last year we've divvied up the state geographically. I take north, she takes central, including Princeton, Lambertville, Hopewell et al.

The regional sections -- New Jersey, Connecticut, Westchester, Long Island -- once used star ratings for restaurants. That changed in 1985. It was before my time, but my guess is that management here felt that restaurants in the provinces should not be judged on the same scale as the temples of haute cuisine on the right bank of the Hudson, lest some hapless reader be misled into thinking that the Ryland Inn was as good as, say, Lutèce. Horrors. Our ratings are extraordinary, excellent, very good, good, satisfactory, fair and poor. The Dining section uses the same adjectives but couples them with stars: 1 star for good up to 4 for extraordinary.

If I don't know the cuisine, I try to research it both before and after my visits, using standard reference works, cookbooks, the Web, people who are familiar with the cooking, et al. It's pretty daunting to dive into a new cuisine, but also fun and instructive. And while comparisons are obviously difficult (you can't compare a dish you've never eaten with a dish you've never eaten), the basic criteria for judging are the same in any language: Is it fresh? Is it tasty? Is it interesting?

um ... I didn't review this place. The Bergen Record gave it 3 stars in June 2002 and NJ Monthly gave it 2 stars in February 2001. David

Oh, it's a great job. But it is work. I'd much rather eat in a restaurant I'm not reviewing, so I can pay more attention to my dining companions and less to the décor and the doneness of the salmon.

Oh, and have I ever been recognized? Not on a first visit, I'm reasonably sure, and I've never knowingly been recognized even on a second visit. But maybe dozens of chefs are laughing behind their hands at the naïveté of that remark.

I don't mean to be opaque, but I'm not the best person to answer this question. You'd have to ask the editors of the New Jersey section about their criteria for selecting a food critic. I can tell you that our other reviewer, Karla Cook, is the former food editor of the Star-Ledger.

I've never worn a disguise (except 10 extra pounds). My strong suspicion is that New Jersey restaurateurs do not spend their days expecting a visit from a restaurant critic -- unlike their Manhattan counterparts, who live in constant fear of a Grimes landing.

The cast of characters usually changes from review to review. And as I said in an earlier post, their opinions do matter. They're knowledgeable diners, and seldom shy.