Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Cracking the Codes - Further Thoughts
Word out of Chicago is that Esquire restaurant writer John Mariani is making the rounds. Indeed, somehow it's common knowledge (to MenuPages Chicago, at least) where he's dining before he even arrives. MP Chicago gives a link that may help explain its Nostradamus-like ability to foretell the future, a story from a few years ago indicating that Mariani had sent a four-page list of requests to a restaurant he was about to visit, including requests to be comped for "everything from cab fare to his hotel bill." A later story in the L.A. Times took Mariani to task for non-disclosure of non-anonymous, comped meals.
Mariani still is apparently far from inconspicious. Here's something of a play-by-play of his current Chicago visit:
Not exactly the best example of following the American Food Journalists' Critics' Guidelines. But my point here is not to single out John Mariani. Though this may be a somewhat extreme example, it seems that often these rules can be honored more in the breach than in the observance even by "professional" journalists. Read this Wall Street Journal story on the Miami satellite restaurants of Scott Conant's Scarpetta and Alfred Portale's Gotham Steak in the Fontainebleau Resort and tell me if you think there's any chance the author paid more than one visit to either restaurant. Admittedly it's a bit of a fluff piece, and the writer did have the good sense to venture beyond the NY outposts and pay a visit to local product Michy's, so I'm not all that troubled (though it is curious that the local consensus seems to be that Scarpetta's getting it right and Gotham's got issues, and the writer had it contrariwise). This local review of a newly opened Italian restaurant, I Corsini, although it makes parenthetical mention of a second visit (in which the only dish described is referred to as "perfectly cooked" and "savory"), takes so much joy in describing the service and kitchen snafus from the first visit that it's completely lost in the shuffle. Was the service equally abysmal on the second visit? Is it fair to judge a restaurant based on "one appetizer, one pasta, two entrees, and one dessert"? Maybe so. Additional comments on the place seem to indicate the review was pretty much on target.
Particularly with newspapers cutting back on budgets and facing increasing competition from online media, it may be unrealistic to expect all of these rules to be honored by the traditional media outlets as well. Which really matter, and which can be compromised? The funny thing is, if I read enough of their work, it's always been pretty easy for me to figure out the reviewers I trust.
Cracking the Codes
Caught somewhat asleep at the switch, eGullet chimed in several days later with the assertion that they'd actually been hard at work on this for years, linking back to a thread from late 2007 which started with the prospect of a "list of guidelines" for posters, and quickly degenerated into a classic example of the meta-discussion to which the intertubes are prone, fading off into oblivion (with no guidelines) more than a year ago. The proposed eGullet code which emerged a week ago is not too dissimilar, though with more of a focus on site maintenance issues and less on aping the AFJ's guidelines. Meanwhile, the eGullet proposal prompted this rather pointed and ad hominem response from another website.
After much deliberation, I'm staying out of the fray. I operate by some simple rules:
- Be honest.
- Don't be a douche.
If that's a "code," then so be it.
[1]This would appear to be a fairly loose rule, given this exception: "Even if we choose to write anonymously for our own personal or professional safety, we will not post anything that we wouldn’t feel comfortable putting our name on and owning up to." I'm good with that.
[2]Again, this one seems to have been softened from the initial draft, now acknowledging "We realize that this is an ideal. Some people are writing about restaurants that they go to in their travels, and most of us don’t have the money to go to places more than once (and find it especially hard to cough up the extra dough if a place stinks the first time we go). If you only go to a restaurant once, just say so."
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
How to Win Friends and Influence People
Well, thanks for visiting anyway. Not exactly the kind of stuff that disabuses me of my perception on the influx of out-of-town chefs to Miami.I don’t really like Miami that much. It’s OK to visit for SOBE but I want to get back to New York.
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Bad Science or Bad Cooking?
Indeed, the review starts off:
Behold, the Molecular Gastronomist! Marvel as he whips, gels, foams, and deconstructs your food, much as he would his own hair. Admire his sullen expression as he leans over, tweezers in hand, to artfully apply grains of black pepper and dehydrated orange peel to your spoonful of Jellied Olive Oil and White Truffle Powder. And soldier on when you realize that all you are eating, really, is a slightly-gelatinous bit of olive oil, whose concentration mutes all the other flavors around it, and reminds you of forced dosages of cough medicine as a child.After much more of the same snarkiness (in which the chef is dubbed "McG", the author claims that "every McG must have at least fourteen thousand courses on their menu," etc.), the author concludes with a question:
Why can't more chefs just serve food that is simply comforting, and comfortingly simple? Not all of you are meant to paint a canvas on the plate.To which I responded with a question of my own:
The author has now responded, and perhaps we're not so far off after all. He now says:Why is this about "molecular gastronomy" and not about bad cooking? There are plenty of lousy restaurants making "traditional" food, but the reaction when someone experiences one is not "Why aren't they using an immersion circulator and a pacojet?"
Bad execution is just that, and there is no culinary genre that is immune to it. The lesson, if there is one, is that a stage at El Bulli (or any other highly regarded restaurant) does not of itself make someone a great chef - a lesson I've seen demonstrated several times.
What concerns me is chefs diving into "molecular gastronomy" and ignoring what they do well. I have nothing against the movement. ... But there is a fad as well, a bandwagon of McGs, and it is unfortunate to see a good chef hop on it without seeming to realize where he's going.No doubt, contemporary techniques and ingredients will not improve a chef that doesn't have solid fundamentals. In addition, a chef without a clear vision, and the talent to realize it, will rarely create a great meal regardless of the genre in which they choose to operate. But I think it's crucial to distinguish these individual failures from the genre itself. If I have a bad bowl of pasta, I don't castigate the entire body of Italian cuisine. And if I have a bad meal from someone working in the arena of "molecular gastronomy" - it's just bad cooking.
Monday, May 4, 2009
James Beard Journalism Awards Announced
- Swine flu or no, it was the year of the pig, with multiple porcine stories winning awards: The Pope of Pork by Kristen Hinman, Riverfront Times, and High on the Hairy Hogs: Super-Succulent Imports are Everything U.S. Pork Isn't by Rebekah Denn, Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
- Monica Eng and Phil Vettel wuz robbed. I thought their piece in the Chicago Tribune on Michael Carlson of Schwa restuarant was just a fantastic and fascinating read. The story that won the category, Sushi Bullies in the WSJ, I thought was sort of goofy. Even more disappointing in light of news that Monica Eng is being moved by the Trib off the food beat.
Edited to add: a complete shutout for South Florida tonight in the chef/restaurant awards. Michael Schwartz of Michael's Genuine Food & Drink, Douglas Rodriguez of Ola, Zach Bell of Café Boulud all bypassed for John Currence of City Grocery in Oxford, Mississippi in the Best Chef: South category. Hmph. Go figure.
Get Rich Quick!
- Salaries for executive chefs are down (3.5% from last year), averaging $74,869.
- Salaries for pastry chefs are way down (13%), averaging $46,228 - guess we're all skipping desssert more often.
- Sous chef salaries are actually going up (5% from last year), averaging $44,205.
- Miami is the place to be. Executive chef salaries in Miami, at an average of $90K+, are higher than any other city noted in the survey, including NY, LA, San Francisco, Boston and Chicago.
- Doing a stage in a working kitchen (especially one outside the U.S.) may be a better investment than culinary school. While culinary school grads actually make less on average than their uneducated brethren (just kidding!), chefs who have worked outside the U.S. make nearly 20% more than their peers who have never ventured abroad.
- Maybe not getting rich so quick after all - executive chefs with 5-8 years of experience are not getting close to that $75K average, instead their average salary is $52,579. It's only those with 13+ years of experience that are making in the $75K range.
- Kitchens are still, by and large, sausage fests. 78% of the 1,000+ survey respondents were men, and male exec chefs are earning nearly $15K more than women.
- Slackers need not apply. Most culinary professionals are working 9-11 hours a day and 50+ hours a week, with more than 16% working 65+ hours a week.