Restaurant reviews

[Tonyfinch]

No. If it was I'd have said "buggerER".

[Tonyfinch]

Forced by The Observer's distribution problems to buy The Sunday Times I turned to A A Gill's column with forebodoing. I was not disappointed. Nominally reviewing Racine,Gill spent two thirds of his "review" prattling on about Rome and statues therein. Whyowhy doesn't an editor at the ST ask him/herself whether anyone is interested in this pointless drivel.

When he can finally drag himself around to writing about the restaurant, Gill comes up with gems of culinary history,viz:

"I miss French food. Time was when virtually every restaurant in Britain was French, or at least had a menu in French. The word "restaurant" meant French food-everything else was a grill or a caff. French food shrivelled and withered because it was so badly made".

Er,wrong actually AA. On just about every count.Still why bother researching the truth about restaurants in Britain when you can get paid for hacking out any old claptrap knowing that no-one's going to bother to check whether its bollocks and even if they do nobody cares do they?

[Gavin Baxter]

Tony, if you managed to get that far, what was AAG's take on the restaurant?

[Tonyfinch]

Gill describes Racine as a restaurant that "wants to go back to the roots of French bourgeois cooking" and that "seems to be making quite a good job of simple French food".

He praises the salad lyonnaise and the tete de veau but says that "this is a tricky time of the year for potatoes" and goes on to describes the Chocolat au Pot as "too Protestant,bitter and covered again in creme fraiche" ?????

He ends saying "I wish Racine well:food in London desparately needs its roots seen to"

If you are privvy to the mind of AA Gill and understand what this blithering idiot is going on about then good luck to you.

[John Whiting]

Here are a few excerpts from an A.A. Gill masterpiece of a couple of years ago which I saved as a horrible example. ". . . [A] restaurant critic . . . is a spiteful no-mates old queen. . . . I’m a restaurant critic.” Deliberate irony? He goes on to write in the same review, “The alpha and omega of stuff to say about this restaurant is that you can’t smoke. As far as I’m concerned, that’s the end of it – I shan’t ever go back.” He develops this proposition to obscene lengths: “I’ll stop smoking in restaurants when they stop serving ugly people,” and proceeds through an elaboration which would make Bernard Manning blush.

[Tonyfinch]

The serious point is this. Reviewers like Gill, Nick Foulkes, Giles Coren and several others have no respect for their job. Gill's contempt for it shines through every line he writes. Like Meades in the year before he called it a day,they are bored with restaurants and consider restaurant reviewing beneath them. At least Meades admitted it finally,and called it a day.

One would think it a prerequisite of being a film critic that you should love film as a generic concept. Editors do not appear to include a passion for food and restaurants in the job description for their restaurant reviewers. There are exceptions- Fay Maschler brings the right degree of gravitas to her work, Charles Campion is very enthusiastic and encouraging, our very own Jay seems to have got over his Embassy aberration and is lucid and informative.

Generally,though,restaurant criticism,when compared to other forms,is often an embarassment to read-badly researched,factually inaccurate and full of sneering attitudes and irrelevant prattle.Come on editors.It doesn't have to be this way.

[John Whiting]

Second it on Charles Campion -- really dedicated and not taken in by fashionable pretense. Conscientious scoffing has left its mark -- he makes our Fat Guy look like an Oxfam poster!

[Simon Majumdar]

Let us not forget that these are the days when someone with the limited talents of India Knight can be allowed to review restaurants.

It used to be the case that reporting on the annual dog show was the lowest point in journalism, now it seems that the job of restaurant reviewing is given to the slithering stomach scraper in the building

I agree about Campion and Maschler. I will also allow Jay to be on the "not first against the wall" list as, against my better judgement, I can't help liking him and his most recent book is actually terribly well written.

And despite the fact he had his head waaaay up MPW rectum, I can't help liking Meades. I do think however that he will cringe with shame every time he sees the truly risible piece he wrote about cooking for his beloved Marco at home. One of the worst pieces of food writing that was not associated with the words " Observer Food Monthly" I have ever seen.

S

[jayrayner]

Simon

can we have 'actually terribly well written' for the paperback? I'll be walking on air all day after that; it's the kind of boost slithering stomach scrapers need.

j

ps. don't expect me to get involved in this one. After getting into a fight at a party and being accused of dissing my own paper, both because of my posts here, it's more than my expense account is worth.

[Fat Guy]

It used to be the case that reporting on the annual dog show was the lowest point in journalism, now it seems that the job of restaurant reviewing is given to the slithering stomach scraper in the building

We really should have a thread on "Great eGullet Turns-of-Phrase." I especially like that, thanks to the magic of time zones and a spherical planet, you can come 'round at any time and trip over a gem like "slithering stomach scraper." Not a single occurrence of that one on Google, I dare say.

[Simon Majumdar]

Simon

can we have 'actually terribly well written' for the paperback? I'll be walking on air all day after that; it's the kind of boost slithering stomach scrapers need.

Jay

I am not sure you want a quote from me on the cover of one of your books. A bit like having Herod saying " it taught me everything I needed to know" on the front of a Miriam Stoppard books

S

[Tonyfinch]

ps. don't expect me to get involved in this one. After getting into a fight at a party and being accused of dissing my own paper, both because of my posts here, it's more than my expense account is worth.

Come on Jay. Diss and tell.

[enthusiast]

Can't remember why i ended up here - the last entry was two years ago. i would love the informed people to give an update on the state of restaurant criticism - due to young children and moving out i tend to eat out only vicariously now.

the point i wanted to make though was that while it is true that a consumer only has one shot and deserves (hopes) that there is consistency that simply does not justify a critic sampling only once. indeed it implies that he should go many times so that he/she can give a more accurate view on whether the restaurant is consistent or not. A critic is as likely to overpraise as overcriticise by visiting only once.

years ago (1992) i remember talking to Michel Trama (Puymirol) and him explaining that unlike Michelin who would whizz in and out unannounced, M Gault and M Millaut would come and stay for two days and eat everything off the menu!!

[and for those interested in lengthy criticism/journalism though not necessarily food, i heartily recommend the London Review of Books ]

[Rachel Perlow]

You may ask the audience, go 50:50 phone a restauarant pr. HINT I suspect answer a) is total bollox...<p>ii) Having recently read the Dornenburg-Page book on restaurant critics it is clear there is a remarkable disparity between the depth of the reviews in the UK.

Reminder: Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page are online for an eGullet Q&A right now.

[Marlyn4k]

Take any old chef from a top end restaurant kitchen and what could he tell you blindfolded?

The difference between duck and goose foie gras

Whether the lobster had been plucked straight from the tank

Whether hand dived or dredged scallop

Line caught or pair trawled sea bass

The difference reflects on cost, quality and in turn price to customer.

The chef could go on to explain, for any given dish, what was involved in the creation and the degree of difficulty in execution through the cooking process.

Should we expect broadsheet critics to have an in depth knowledge and appreciation of these matters? Or is it a case of packaging some 'infotainment' around an assessment of the end product compared to previous end product experiences? or should we expect more?

As one example, should the role of the critic expand to why we ought to appreciate what is in front of us more than we otherwise might?

Edited August 30, 2004 by Marlyn4k (log)

[tony h]

it'd be handy of they could tell us if er're being ripped off or not

[Scott]

Interesting question,

I guess I am less concerned if a food critic can discern these degrees, unless he/she claims to be able to. If they lay claim to such expertise I expect them to have it.

pretty simple really.

now how many would admit to not being expert enough to recognise these traits? I suspect next to none. Broadsheet food notices have more hubris than greek tragedy.

as entertaining as many are, these pieces are more about the author and their authorship rather than the subject of their attentions.

my opinion anyways.

[Conor]

So women reviewers:<p>Fay Maschler      London Evening Standard

Caroline Stacey   Independent

Jan Moir              Telegraph (Took over from Alice Thompason)

Marrion McGillervray (v good)   Financial Times<p>Kate Flett did indeed do the job on the observer befor eme. Tracey McCloud did or may still do some for the Independent titles.<p>I'm sure there are others I've forgotten. Hope that helps.  

Jay,

Shame on you, and the rest of the e gullet forum. Have you all forgotten the powerhouse that is Marina O'Loughlin.

In all seriousness, i think she writes the best restaurant review of all. Her reviews only contain what the average diner wants to read, no padding or social commentary that so many others suffer from/are instucted to do* (delete as necessary)

[Suzi Edwards]

I think Marina might not have been reviewing in 2001 but she posts on here so maybe she can tell us!

Circe? Where are you?

[circeplum]

i've been reviewing since 1998. so many dinners....

and conor:

x

[Andy Lynes]

The cover story on the current issue of Restaurant magazine is "The Critics: How to get them into your restaurant". It features all the "major" writers, except for one...

(my guess is that, as the piece is about getting a critic to review small independent restaurants in the sticks that, Marina would be excluded as she only goes to places in London. That, or she refused to have a caricature done of her.)

[circeplum]

That, or she refused to have a caricature done of her.

they could've always used ros out of monsters inc

x

[Andy Lynes]

In the article AA Gill claims that he has nothing to do with restaurant PR's. It must be pure coincidence that he ends up at all the places that I get press releases about, and reviews the same restaurants as everybody else.

[Scott]

In the article AA Gill claims that he has nothing to do with restaurant PR's. It must be pure coincidence that he ends up at all the places that I get press releases about, and reviews the same restaurants as everybody else.

spooky