The Dish

[jamiemaw]

Forum Hosts please note: I had considered placing this in the Media Forum, however the information is so Vancouver-centric as to only be germane to this forum.

The Globe launched its new 7 Entertainment Insert to its Vancouver circulation today. Featuring prominently was Alexandra Gill's column called Dish, which this week features chef Nico Scheurmans and the success of Chambar--complete with early growing pains.

A profile of David Hawksworth accompanies, and there is a calendar sidebar.

My own thoughts: I applaud this new direction--I thought it vigorously written and I welcome any style that supplements proforma restaurant reviewing (i.e. dining as shopping--I came, I ate, I left). There's some humour too, not a little mildly salicious content, and it takes the reader behind the swinging doors.

I'd be interested in hearing your opinions.

Jamie

Edited April 8, 2005 by jamiemaw (log)

[Andrew Morrison]

Just read Gill's column about Chambar here. Pretty bang on.

Edited April 8, 2005 by editor@waiterblog (log)

[Keith Talent]

Tangentially related; do any of those new free papers have any food content? I'd think that there are now so many that I'm certain there's an individual paper for each and everyone of us, someone let me know if they spy a copy of "The Keith Talent Tribune" in a paper box around town. I'd like to read what I thought about where I ate last week. (Now competely unrelated; Why so many new M->F dailies when what this city desperately needs is a Sunday paper. More than two million people and no paper on Sunday, it's insane. I get the NY Times out of sheer desperation, but I'd switch in a second if there was another alternative, as the cost is more than enough to finace the foie gras supplement on prixe fixe menus I encounter through the year.)

[*Deborah*]

Hmm, this is the same person who slagged (and gave away practically the entire episode of) Godiva's.

I have some trepidation about reading her review of Chambar before I have been there myself!!

[Andrew Morrison]

Hmm, this is the same person who slagged (and gave away practically the entire episode of) Godiva's.

Hahaha!

I thought the same thing while reading it. I thought that article about Godiva's was useless. But it's the Globe, right?

Unimpeachable reporting.

[jamiemaw]

Hmm, this is the same person who slagged (and gave away practically the entire episode of) Godiva's.

I have some trepidation about reading her review of Chambar before I have been there myself!!

←

Perhaps my memory's playing tricks, Deborah, wasn't it the chefs and service folks whom she interviewed that slagged Godiva's after they had viewed the promo tapes?

[barolo]

I don't know, it sort of reminds me of those society columns of old only now all the news is who got drunk, who gave who the finger, and who showed the most skin.

Lots of insider "dish" for those poor plebs who have to make reservations, pay for their dinners and don't get recognized when they walk in the door. I'm sure it helps to sell the newspaper.

[Andrew Morrison]

QUOTE(*Deborah* @ Apr 8 2005, 03:05 PM)

Hmm, this is the same person who slagged (and gave away practically the entire episode of) Godiva's.

I have some trepidation about reading her review of Chambar before I have been there myself!!

Perhaps my memory's playing tricks, Deborah, wasn't it the chefs and service folks whom she interviewed that slagged Godiva's after they had viewed the promo tapes?

They were led along, like a set up. She brings the tape, puts it in, and presses play for a group predisposed to despise the show on their day off.

I just thought it was a silly article - not even a review.

[*Deborah*]

Hmm, this is the same person who slagged (and gave away practically the entire episode of) Godiva's.

I have some trepidation about reading her review of Chambar before I have been there myself!!

←

Perhaps my memory's playing tricks, Deborah, wasn't it the chefs and service folks whom she interviewed that slagged Godiva's after they had viewed the promo tapes?

←

Not 100% sure at this juncture who made all the negative comments; I know the restaurant people did, but I cannot, as you say, say definitely whether *she* did. Between them, nonetheless, they did give away 90% of the plot, though, which I thought not quite sporting. If I were not an eGulleter, I doubt I would have watched even as much of the show (1.5 episodes ) as I did.

[Andrew Morrison]

The opening lines from her Godiva's article:

Too many cooks may spoil the broth, so they say. But what happens when you take six acerbic veterans from the Vancouver restaurant industry, wrangle them inside on a gorgeous Sunday afternoon -- their only day off -- give them a drink and ask them to review the first two episodes of a new TV drama about a fictional restaurant set in their own city? Oh, you know it's going to burn.

Colour me sensitive.

[Keith Talent]

I'm confused, you're anti-Globe YVR food coverage because the writer found Godivas stupid?

Uhh, Godivas is stupid. It's horrible. I quit watching halfway into the third episode on Wednesday.

[*Deborah*]

I'm confused, you're anti-Globe YVR food coverage because the writer found Godivas stupid?

Uhh, Godivas is stupid. It's horrible. I quit watching halfway into the third episode on Wednesday.

←

If you're talking to me, no, I have not yet read her column. I'm not anti- Globe coverage of Vancouver food. (And wow, you lasted a whole nother episode than I did! )

I was lightheartedly poking fun (I thought) at reading her column about Chambar before going there myself...as the last time I read something beneath her by-line, it was a big old thumbs down that gave away the story.

Please note Alexandra Gill and any relatives/friends reading this post: I AM NOT SLAGGING YOU OFF.

[Andrew Morrison]

No. Don't get me wrong. I think the Globe is fine and the Alexandra Gill is a good journalist. I thought her piece on Godiva's was a touch or two offiside, is all. I thought her column on Chambar was accurate, entertaining, and probably informative.

Much of TV is stupid. Are we talking degrees here?

That being said, I still find Godiva's to be entertaining. I'm in a business that had no dramatic representation. I'm not a cop. I'm not a lawyer. I'm not in forensics and I'm not running for President. Evidently, I'm also not a good TV critic.

Edited April 8, 2005 by editor@waiterblog (log)

[Keith Talent]

That being said, I still find Godiva's to be entertaining. I'm in a business that had no dramatic representation.

←

Eat my grits.

or kiss, whatever.

(edited to get my 70's pop culture refernce correct.)

Edited April 8, 2005 by Keith Talent (log)

[jamiemaw]

*Deborah*    Between them, nonetheless, they did give away 90% of the plot, though, which I thought not quite sporting. If I were not an eGulleter, I doubt I would have watched even as much of the show (1.5 episodes ) as I did.

I should have thought that exposing 90% of the plot would have required all of one sharply drawn sentence and a shallow breath.

But I would like to retract a criticism that I levelled at the visionaries of Godiva's in its earlier thread.

In it I likened their show to Married With Children at its zenith. I feel very badly about this and would like to offer my unconditional apologies to Ed O'Neill, Katey Sagal, Christina Applegate, David Faustino and the rest of the cast.

Edited April 9, 2005 by jamiemaw (log)

[2roost]

Why so many new M->F dailies when what this city desperately needs is a Sunday paper. More than two million people and no paper on Sunday, it's insane.

←

O.K. I'll admit the journalistic standards aren't much but I still think The Province qualifies as a Sunday paper.

[jamiemaw]

That being said, I still find Godiva's to be entertaining. I'm in a business that had no dramatic representation.

←

Eat my grits.

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I should have thought that was the responsibility of the Gomery Inquiry.

[Andrew Morrison]

Keith - I also enjoyed the Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, and Waterworld.

Being subjected to a screen is not my strong point.

[jamiemaw]

Why so many new M->F dailies when what this city desperately needs is a Sunday paper. More than two million people and no paper on Sunday, it's insane.

←

O.K. I'll admit the journalistic standards aren't much but I still think The Province qualifies as a Sunday paper.

←

Tough semantics, to be sure. Let's agree: It is published on Sunday, and it is made of paper. The other bits are trickier.

The test in our family is whether you would wrap a fish in it. Out of respect, I would not wrap a fish in The Province.

[Andrew Morrison]

Speaking of the Globe, Mr. Maw has a short but excellent article in today's edition entitled: Dining on the Edge.

Have a read.

[nwyles]

Speaking of the Globe, Mr. Maw has a short but excellent article in today's edition entitled: Dining on the Edge.

Have a read.

←

That's great - nice to see Jamie get more action. Do what you can to support him. I would hate to see the day when we see Jamie on the street corner, still very well dressed, with a sign - "Will write for foie gras !"

What would we do then ? Cross the street and pretend we don't see him or toss a white truffle in his stainless steel Starbucks coffee mug.

[Andrew Morrison]

there but for the grace of Beluga go we...

[jamiemaw]

Tangentially related; do any of those new free papers have any food content?

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I'm not sure as our budgie recently died.

[Zucchini Mama]

Oddly enough, one of them does. I picked up The Dose today, hardy harr-that joke's already past its sell-by date- and found it to be a sophmoric rag full of entertainment gossip. Lo and behold there was a little blurb on a cool place to eat that was so forgettable, I went and forgot it.

When someone from the other daily was asked on CBC radio why he thought the people of Vancouver would read his paper he said something like "Well, it's glossy and the ink won't come off on their hands." Uh huh.

[Keith Talent]

First we had them decide to give us local news, then their weekly entertainment insert, then unwrap the paper on Staurday morning, and what's splashed above the The Globe? Special style section on Vancouver.

Giant headline on the front of the style section. It's getting weird.

The Globe's recent infatuation with all things Vancouver is semi-creepy. It's alot like being back in high school, and having one of the popular pretty girls come and begin speaking with you for no apparent reason. Yeah, you're kinda flattered, you enjoy the attention of the cool kids, but in the back of your mind, you know there's an alterior motive. Does she want my notes from Biology class? Or have the in crowd finally decided I'm cool enough to hang with them? I'll be saying goodbye to the other gawky nerds of Calgary and Edmonton, I'll be out back having a smoke with Toronto and Monteal.