The New Guardian Restaurant Critic

[MobyP]

Matthew Norman, late of the Sunday Telegraph.

And wasn't he formerly sued for a particularly biting review a while back?

[Andy Lynes]

Was that the Shepherd's review. I'm not sure if that ever got past the threat of legal action stage.

I think this is disappointing news; a safe obvious choice. But then I would say that wouldn't I.

[camp_dick]

He was Food and Drink Writer at the British Press Awards in 2003. Inexplicably, in my view. Norman celebrated, in January 2004, by describing Richard Shepherd's restaurant in Westminster, as "the eighth circle of hell", "among the very worst restaurants in Christendom" serving "meals of crescendoing monstrosity." Shepherd threatened to sue The Sunday Telegraph for libel, but as the newspaper retorted: "It is almost unheard of to sue over a bad restaurant review, and no British restaurateur has ever successfully sued a food critic for libel."

Matthew Norman is a renowned hypochondriac and Spurs fan who used to write a moderately amusing diary in the Grauniad and may well still write a column about football (on which subject, as a Spurs fan, he hardly sees eye to eye with most Londoners;-). He's also married to the appalling Rebecca Tyrell (a product of the Tyrell corporation, TM, designed to provoke a visceral response) who gave him the job at the Torygraph. Basically, the bloke is a hack who can churn reasonably entertaining copy. There's no real reason to hate him, but why not?

PS: My spell checker says there's no such word as 'crescendoing' so I take it all back. Matthew Norman is a profoundly innovative writer, whose restaurant reviews are liable to rock British society to its foundations.

[KaffirLime]

On the subject of damning reviews AA Gill's piece on Taqueria in yesterdays ST was notable. Don't particularly like AA Gills style - invariably wittering on about unrelated topices for 9/10ths of the review before mentioning the restaurant in question in the last paragraph but I dislike Mexican food even more so in my book it was fair game. The food here was so bad (in his opinion) that he went one better and refused to talk about it beyond describing his lime soup as 'pub-glass rinse'. Classic

[Paul de Gruchy]

one of the great things about the web is that it is inherently democratic. all other media appears to be almost wholly nepotistic. whenever there is a story about an "exciting new novelist/actor/filmaker/designer" he or she is invariably the child/partner/godchild of an existing media person/celeb (usually, in my experience, Edward Fox). it is hugely depressing and the only comfort one can take is that the only people who read restaurant reviews are those who are interested in food, and most of those probably take any review with a pinch of salt, as they can tell that the writer's judgment is relatively unformed. Someone like Matthew Fort is an exception, though his piece in the last Waitrose magazine about Aga's was, I think, a bit silly.

Edited August 30, 2005 by Paul de Gruchy (log)

[Jon Tseng]

To be fair I've always found Matthew Norman's reviews perfectly reasonable, if somewhat interchangeable with those of Jan Moir and Matthew Fort. At least he (or they) remember to write about the food, rather than pretending they are entering a primary school creative writing competition.

A fair choice, IMHO.

ta

J

[rjs1]

To be fair I've always found Matthew Norman's reviews perfectly reasonable, if somewhat interchangeable with those of Jan Moir and Matthew Fort. At least he (or they) remember to write about the food, rather than pretending they are entering a primary school creative writing competition.

A fair choice, IMHO.

ta

J

←

He gave us an absolute stinker of a review at Glas in the Sunday Telegraph on 23 July, very spiteful and personal in tone, which was particularly disappointing because I think he's a very good writer.

He came in in a vile mood, was rude to the staff from the moment he sat down and generally behaved in such a way that was embarrassing to behold. I'd be astonished if Matthew Fort or Jan Moir ever behaved like that.