Are critics looking at the whole picture?

[Marylisa L.]

I'm very new to this site, but an interesting thing has popped into my head, and I thought I'd throw it out there. Now, my point is not to come off as a jerk in this post... so hopefully, no one takes offense.

Here goes.. I was reading a review the other day in a certain well known magazine. It bashed the chef's use of tomatoes in the winter in an Insalata Caprese. The place is a small, neighborhood, Italian restaurant.

Ok, now everyone knows in an ideal world.. people don't eat tomatoes in the winter.. and in an ideal world, restaurants could follow this seasonality, organic, locally grown trend that has moved through culinaria. However, are the restaurant critics looking at the whole picture?? Are they considering that fact that maybe the chef doesn't really want an Insalata Caprese on the menu anyway BUT knows that he will lose business if he doesn't?? A small, neighborhood eatery cannot conduct business in the same way a place like Citronelle can. We have customers to please.. ones that will come in more than once every 6 months. Ones that will come in 4-5/week.

How would the general populace feel if Subway stopped using tomatoes in the winter because they weren't locally in season?? Yea, when I go to Citronelle in winter, I don't want tomatoes... maybe tomato jam.. maybe a confit.. BUT, I also know that I'm going to pay for it. And I know that I'm going there to have my palate surprised.. I want the chef to take care of me.. feed me what he thinks is best.

I just feel that critics are not always fair to restaurants that aren't out there to change the culinary world, but rather to just feed people really good food that they want.

I'm a local restaurant owner.. and I know what it's like trying to be seasonal in a world where people are used to grocery stores where the motto is "it's summer somewhere". General consensus with guests is-- if I can get it in the grocery store, why can't I get it here? Sometimes, I can't dictate the menu, because I would lose my regulars whose opinions matter.

I think that critics should be anonymous.. But I also think that they should take into account what type of restaurant and the clientele before smashing a restaurant.

[SanFran88]

I think you make a good point. Steve Klc has often written in this forum of the need to look at what a restaraunt is trying to do/be at its particular price point, etc. But who are the "critics" you are referring too?

[mnebergall]

MaryLisa:

First, welcome to eGullet. Excellent first post. The question I have is: why did you post it in the DC DelMarVas thread? I don't see the issue you raise is geographically limited. I think others would be interested in your issue.

Edited February 1, 2005 by mnebergall (log)

[Busboy]

I think most critics here in the DC area do a reasonable job of, to paraphrase SF88/Klc, looking at what a restaurant is trying to be.

But the critic isn't writing for the regulars, who have already made up their mind about a restaurant, as for people who haven't been there yet. As a potential customer, knowing that a restaurant serves out-of season tomatoes sends a potentially significant signal to me. Without the context of the rest of the review, I can't make a decision, and I'm happy that the regulars -- who are the backbone of any restaurant -- are happy, but maybe I don't want to go cross town or spend a rare big night there.

Which brings me to a second, related point. Since I can't seem to find the review in question, I can't tell, but a number of restauranteurs are (understandably) thin-kinned about criticism. Let someone write ten paragraphs of praise and then trash the desserts and the criticism becomes "unfair", "biased" "based on only a couple of experiences."

If a restaurant is high-enough profile to warrant a critic's interest, they're going to be judged against a certain standard, and have to have enough confidence in their own decisions and the judgement of the dining public to not get wound up over every critical word.

Full disclosure: I've dabbled in low-level restaurant criticism and may be a bit of a crank.

[DonRocks]

Yea, when I go to Citronelle in winter, I don't want tomatoes

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Then steer clear of the oyster shooters.

[Marylisa L.]

I only listed this post in DelMarVa b/c that happens to be where I'm located. I'm not AS familiar with critiques from other cities..

To Busboy: while I appreciate your point, are you honestly going to spend a "rare big night" in a neighborhood joint? In another neighborhood? If it were me, I'd be hittin' it up in a swanky joint downtown...

By the way, the idea was only sparked by a reveiw I've read..it's the type of comment I've noticed across the board and has become ubiquitous in reviews....

I've been reviewed and I'm not thin-skinned about it at all.. yeah, any negative comment you read or hear sucks.. but there is a reason for it and it brings to light something that may have been needing attention for a long time.

I just think the "standard" should be based on the type of restaurant and what the restaurant is going for.

I think I can stand on my own against other neighborhood eateries.. however, do I want to be judged against a restaurant that changes their menu daily and has a chef that can shop for the best produce and fish at local markets?? No. I don't think there necessarily should be a "standard" on which to write. Go in, eat a meal or two.. produce an unbiased opinion of the food, service, ambiance, etc, etc.. Judge the restaurant against itself. I've seen restaurants fold completely because of a review... I think we all have. Or at least know of them. Once a bad or mediocre review is out there.. it's very hard to recover. On the other hand.. a great review is just that... GREAT! It's amazing how much weight is put on one person's opinion. We were reviewed once in the Post..luckily it was favorable.. and we got hammered for two months straight! So I'm all for reviews.. I just think the food critic needs to be all emcompassing and very professional.. Especially nowadays when everybody can review any restaurant online...and be a critic for a day... THAT topic opens an entirely different can of worms.. I won't get into today.. but I will when anyone's interested.

DonRocks: thanks.. I will!

Thanks you guys for your nice welcome.. and I love talkin' food.. so I know I'll be around!!

[bilrus]

I've seen restaurants fold completely because of a review... I think we all have. Or at least know of them. Once a bad or mediocre review is out there.. it's very hard to recover.

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I know it happens, but if one bad review causes a restaurant to close, then the restaurant was probably in trouble with or without the review.

[laniloa]

MaryLisa -- Welcome to our corner of the board. I agree with you that restaurants should be judged by how they live up to intent. You can't eat in the most upscale every night (well, I can't anyway).

I'm always interested in a new neighborhood place whether it is actually in my neighborhood or not. Care to tell us more about your restaurant?

[redfox]

I absolutely agree that reviews should do their best to assess exactly what kind of restaurant a given place is aiming to be, and then judge it on how well it meets that aim. Some of the most important goals of a local joint are not, it's very true, always compatable with the loftiest standards for impeccable ingredients and so on. There's a lot more to what makes a given restaurant successful, and indeed lovable, than that. That said, insalata caprese made with crummy winter tomatoes is an icky thing.

[Busboy]

I remain curious to see the review. Was it a professional or someone on-line?

Bottom line is that it's the critic's job to describe the restaurant accurately and with enough insight and judgement for people to figure out if the palce is worth their dollars. There are good neighborhood restaurants and bad neighborhood restaurants. Standards at that level are different than the ones by which you would judge a "fine dining establishment." But they exist, and critics -- and diners -- should hold restaurants to them.

Again, I think most people know the difference between Tonic and Galileo, and that they take it into account when they read the review.

[DonRocks]

[Moved from DC & DelMarVa into Food Media and News]

[Bux]

Thanks Don. I might have missed this in DC and it's a pretty universal topic at least for points north of DC. Maybe in the topices local stuff grows all year.

There are a lot of issues here. Let me start with this minor one. "General consensus with guests is-- if I can get it in the grocery store, why can't I get it here?" I'd ask the same question. While I don't expect a neighborhood restaurant to be serving out of season stuff and I'd generally opt for seasonal stuff in the best restaurants as well, we have many foods than are not locally grown and not seasonal -- bananas, for one -- and we have foods that have traditionally been seasonal -- tomatoes are a good example. Whatever the food, if the consumer can get it locally, I assume any restaurant can get it locally as well. I assume any neighborhood restaurant can get what I can get at the local greengrocer.

The larger question is that while it's unfair to measure a neighborhood restaurant up agains the top places in town, it's also one way to alert a diner as to what he's going to get in relation to what he might get elsewhere at some other price level. Tell me a restaurant is as good as a restaurant in it's class can be and I know nothing until I know its class. Tell me it's ten percent as good as Citronelle and I can begin to judge how good the reviewer thinks it is, or would if I lived in the area and had a working knowledge of DC restaurants. In order for me to understand a review that judges a restaurant by how well it achieves what it's trying to do, I have to know what it's trying to do and that can only be done by comparing it to restaurants I might know, or to a universally applied scale.

If the chef is serving an inalata Caprese in the middle of January, because he knows his customers demand that and are happy with the tomatoes he can get, it probably serves my interests to know that. Nevertheless his satisfied diners are not going to stop ordering it because out of season tomatoes were the subject of derision in a magazine. On the other hand, the review may send a wake up signal that with a menu like that, the chef is not going to get business from diners with more serious taste buds. For all that, it's hard to know if the reviewer was being unfair without actually reading the review and seeing its overall balance.

[NulloModo]

Overall, I put little to no faith in critics of any sort. I have seen music, movies, books, and restaurants completely trashed by critics that I have ended up loving. I have seen critics laud things I have hated. Critics share their opinions, but they are just that, the opinions of people who are paid to be opinionated, so sometimes I'm sure they are tempted to push the bounds of how opinionated they are.

With regards to seasonality in restaurants: I think it is a load of bullshit. It is the quality of product that matters, not the time of year. If this restaurant can make a good insalata and get high quality tomatoes this time of year, then more power to them, in fact, it would convince me to go somewhere to get something I couldn't get anywhere else that time of year. If they make it with the crappy tomatoes I have seen at the grocery store lately (how was it that before I found eG I never found tomatoes any different in the summer vs. the winter?) then well, I guess the insalata wasn't that good, and it deserves to be bashed a bit.

Restaurants do not exist to be political. They do not exist to further ideals about local harvests or produce. They exist to serve good food and serve the diner what the diner wants.

[iamthestretch]

With regards to seasonality in restaurants:  I think it is a load of bullshit.  It is the quality of product that matters, not the time of year.

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Thank you for so concisely framing a view I've long held but never been able to satisfactorily articulate. I intend to steal this and nonchalantly trot it out at the first available opportunity. As the sincerest form of flattery, of course.

[Busboy]

With regards to seasonality in restaurants:  I think it is a load of bullshit.  It is the quality of product that matters, not the time of year.

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Thank you for so concisely framing a view I've long held but never been able to satisfactorily articulate. I intend to steal this and nonchalantly trot it out at the first available opportunity. As the sincerest form of flattery, of course.

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Bought a tomato lately?

[Joe H]

Sweet white corn, spargel in Germany, white Alban truffles in March-no problem. Out of a can. I also think that some restaurants DO exist to "further ideas about local harvests or produce." Simply, there is much to be said for fresh produce in season. There is more to be said for the best of this, picked fresh and served simply to taste the excellence of the season. Not hyperbole but truth. A ripe Hanover County tomato in the middle of July is much more delicious than a vine riped tomato from Whole Foods in January. I know of no other way to say this.

Of course some may prefer 1% milk to Lewes Dairy cream top. Others, reading this, have no idea what I am talking about: cream top milk? What's that? For them my argument has little meaning. For those who know the difference it is worth everything.

Edited February 2, 2005 by Joe H (log)

[ghostrider]

Over Christmas we dined in a Maine restaurant called Katahdin which makes a point of featuring local produce & ingredients. The fresh tomatoes in their salad were stunningly good for December.

I've read elsewhere that there are farm folk in Maine for whom growing hothouse produce in winter is an important segment of their business. I didn't ask Katahdin where they got their tomatoes that day, but putting two and two together.....

This is a little tangential to the topic, but I for one wouldn't slam a restaurant for serving seemingly out-of-season produce; were I a critic, I'd dig a little deeper.

[DonRocks]

Somewhat off-topic, but has anyone heard how much corn costs in Tampa right now?

I've heard it's a Buccaneer.

[Mnehrling]

A critic, like any other writer, has a product to sell. It is their job to find something to write about. Think about journalists, its not their job to find what is going right in a situation. They must find what will draw readers. The public will be more drawn to nightmares than someone saying 'its good.'

Specifically in your example, it seems the critic searched hard to find something that will meet the demand of 'criticism.'

I do believe that restaurant critics are often too hard, but many times they have saved me from a bad choice. There have also been many times when I wish a critic had warned me.

The problem, I suppose, is not the critic but the public. As long as we demand critical chop jobs, that's what we'll receive. It takes real talent from a critic to draw us in on the positive. One of the few I can think of is eGullet's own Chris Cognac, (the culinary detective.)

Edited February 2, 2005 by Mnehrling (log)

[iamthestretch]

With regards to seasonality in restaurants:  I think it is a load of bullshit.  It is the quality of product that matters, not the time of year.

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Thank you for so concisely framing a view I've long held but never been able to satisfactorily articulate. I intend to steal this and nonchalantly trot it out at the first available opportunity. As the sincerest form of flattery, of course.

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Bought a tomato lately?

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Hell no. But we're not really talking about personal sourcing here.

Look, it's mid-summer in the other half of the world, right? What's the philosophical difference between a July Hanover tomato three days from vine to your restaurant table by truck and the January, I don't know, say, Chilean equivalent that makes the same journey by air in the same time? And, while we're at it, why are we apparently happy to accept a piece of fish that was hauled from the deep off the coast of distant New Zealand, but will get the vapors unless its garnish was demonstrably grown no more than six feet from the restaurant's back door?

It's one thing to argue it's more likely that local, seasonal produce will be fresh and tasty, it's quite another to adopt as an article of faith that anything that isn't local or seasonal won't be.

[Marylisa L.]

" There is more to be said for the best of this, picked fresh and served simply to taste the excellence of the season. Not hyperbole but truth. A ripe Hanover County tomato in the middle of July is much more delicious than a vine riped tomato from Whole Foods in January. "

I agree.. at home. Try doing that on pizza or a salad on a Saturday with 200 covers all day AND still be able to sell it at a reasonable price point. HOWEVER, I did have a local farmer hookin' me up with produce in the summer for about what I was paying purveyors... when he'd actually show up

Trust me, I'm not featuring tomatoes anywhere right now BUT my guests would be fiery mad if I took the Pizza Margherita off the menu right now. Even in February it's still my #1 pie on the menu.. HOOOHAAA.. were they mad when tomato prices skyrocketed in the fall and I took them off the menu altogether b/c I couldn't put them on a plate without an upcharge. .

ok... what's everyone's take on this:: A. a restaurant should serve a customer what he/she wants (i.e- allowing substitutions even if it sounds yucky) OR B. protecting the artiste in the chef and saying no, you'll eat my dish as it was intended.

As a chef. I am all for the "A" choice. I've made some crazy, wacked out things that I wouldn't touch BUT has made someone very happy...

Edited February 2, 2005 by Marylisa L. (log)

[Marylisa L.]

[Busboy]

With regards to seasonality in restaurants:  I think it is a load of bullshit.  It is the quality of product that matters, not the time of year.

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Thank you for so concisely framing a view I've long held but never been able to satisfactorily articulate. I intend to steal this and nonchalantly trot it out at the first available opportunity. As the sincerest form of flattery, of course.

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Bought a tomato lately?

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Hell no. But we're not really talking about personal sourcing here.

Look, it's mid-summer in the other half of the world, right? What's the philosophical difference between a July Hanover tomato three days from vine to your restaurant table by truck and the January, I don't know, say, Chilean equivalent that makes the same journey by air in the same time? And, while we're at it, why are we apparently happy to accept a piece of fish that was hauled from the deep off the coast of distant New Zealand, but will get the vapors unless its garnish was demonstrably grown no more than six feet from the restaurant's back door?

It's one thing to argue it's more likely that local, seasonal produce will be fresh and tasty, it's quite another to adopt as an article of faith that anything that isn't local or seasonal won't be.

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This is a bit of a cul de sac from the original question, which is what, if any, standards a neighborhood restaurant should be held to.

However, since you asked, the differences between the July Hanover and the Chileanm equivalent are 1) The July tomato is picked already ripe and makes it to my larder the day after it is picked. The Chilean equivalent is picked green, many days before it arrives at the wholesaler's warehouse, where it lingers until ending up at Safeway until finally some misguided consumer (or me, shopping for my son) buys it. 2) The Chilean tomatoe is not a Hanover, it is some hideous variety bred for its ability to be transported slowly across national boundaries and still look at least somewhat like a tomato when it is ready for retail. Some produce can make that journey, proper tomatoes cannot -- particular those being bought by a "neighborhood" restaurant looking to control costs. 3) Similarly, fresh fish well-handled can make the flight from New Zealand in pretty good shape. Ripe-picked heirloom, or semi-heirloom tomatoes, simply can't.

Your point is well taken. I don't have a seasonal fetish; we're scheduled to turn hothouse basil into pesto tonight, and God knows where the broccoli is from. I'd suggest, however, that tomatoes are a bad argument for immigrant produce.

[Bux]

To put it another way. I've had tree ripened bananas and they're better. Nevertheless, I don't demand tree ripened bananas in New York in winter or in summer. I live with bananas shipped green simply because that's all I can get. However, I can get superb tomatoes in summer that are grown locally. In the winter I can get tomatoes that look better than the ones I eat in the summer, but they don't compare in taste. I don't want them. I'd rather wait for summer. It'll come back. In fact, if I want to cook with tomatoes, I'll use canned tomatoes because the canned tomatoes are really of a higher quality and better taste than the best fresh tomatoes I usually find in the market. Top restaurants do get better tomatoes that you'll see in the supermarket in the winter. I'll bet they pay a premium, but they're still not good enough to feature the way one might feature heirloom tomatoes in August. And I enjoy the summer tomatoes all the more because they are seasonal. Eating seasonally is less a moral issue for me than it is one that improves the quality of what I eat.

Marylisa, you asked:

ok... what's everyone's take on this:: A. a restaurant should serve a customer what he/she wants (i.e- allowing substitutions even if it sounds yucky) OR B. protecting the artiste in the chef and saying no, you'll eat my dish as it was intended.

The answer is that a restaurant should do what the chef and owner enjoy doing, if they can afford to do so. Hopefully, you'll find the combination that's right for you and hopefully it will involve a chef and an owner who see eye to eye. I know what kind of restaurant I'd like to visit for dinner, but it's not necessarily your job to supply that kind of restaurant, nor mine to tell you how to run your restaurant. And if you really want to know the truth, most of us patronize both kinds of places at different times for different reasons.

[Pan]

To put it another way. I've had tree ripened bananas and they're better. Nevertheless, I don't demand tree ripened bananas in New York in winter or in summer. I live with bananas shipped green simply because that's all I can get. However, I can get superb tomatoes in summer that are grown locally. In the winter I can get tomatoes that look better than the ones I eat in the summer, but they don't compare in taste. I don't want them. I'd rather wait for summer.[...]

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Understood perfectly. I, on the other hand, eschew non-tree-ripened bananas (not only because of taste but mostly because they literally make me sick), but am willing to have cooked non-tree-ripened plantains, whether sweet or (sometimes) as tostones (which aren't ripe no matter what). I don't have much use for winter tomatoes, either.