My Culinary CV - A Life Worth of Eating

Now that I have launched a publicity campaign which is intended to promote the Opinionated About Dining Survey, I have run into the inevitable Catch-22 one finds in the world of media. It goes like this. In order to get publicity you already need to be well known or even famous for doing the thing you are trying to publicize. But that begs the question, how can you be well known or famous without having already gotten publicity in the media? Well obviously you can't. So what happens is a slow and tedious process whereby you go about trying to convince the press that your idea is newsworthy. The thing is, one editor's newsworthy is another's ordinary, and invariably, you end up plugging away until you find someone who puts the pieces of the puzzle together and anoints you (or your idea,) as something that is fit to print.

A key aspect in this process is establishing your credentials. In this particular instance, the media wants to know, "why this guy?" What is it that sets this Plotnicki guy apart from the rest of the pack of self-appointed food critics who think they have something valuable to say? If I had a dollar for every time our publicist, Melanie Young, or I, was asked that question, I could probably take you to lunch at Katz's Deli. The importance of this issue hit home for me earlier this week, when during an interview with a major daily paper, the writer asked me for my dining credentials. I have to admit the question caught me a bit off guard. Not because I don't believe in the concept - you often hear me complain that there are restaurant reviewers for major daily papers who haven't visited the important restaurants - but I wasn't fully prepared to answer the question either. I hung up the phone and thought about it for a bit and I had the bright idea of creating a dining resume. A Curriculum Vitae. Only this would be about food. Hence, the creation of the Culinarium Vitae.

I began compiling a list of every restaurant I had been to. Not only would I include fine dining, but moderate and casual dining as well as cheap eats. After working my way through New England, the task was becoming much too tedious. Besides, what relevance does Red's Eats in Wiscasset, Maine or Mr. Bartley's Burger Cottage in Cambridge, Mass have to do with the fine dining survey I am promoting? So I limited it to the restaurants on the survey. And here is the final result. My Culinarium Vitae of the restaurants in the Opinionated About Dining Survey. Where the restaurant has been reviewed on this site I have created a link:

North America
Maine	New York City cont.	Georgia & South Carolina cont.
Arrows Restaurant	Kai	Ocean Room
Fore Street	Kuruma Zushi	Peninsula Grill
	L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon
Boston	Le Bernardin	Florida
	Le Perigord
Clio	Lever House	Azul
Great Bay	L'Impero	Chef Allen's
Locke-Ober	Maze	Darrel & Oliver's Cafe Maxx
No. 9 Park	Mas	Joe's Stone Crabs
Oishi Boston	Masa	Mark's Las Olas
Pigalle	Matsuri	Nobu Miami Beach
Radius	Megu	Osteria del Teatro
Rialto	Megu Midtown	Wish
Troquet	Milos, Estiatorio
Uni	Modern, The	New Orleans
	Morimoto
New York City	Nobu	Bayona
	Nobu, Next Door	Brigsten's
15 East	Oceana	Commander's Palace
A Voce	Ouest	Emeril's
Ada	Oyster Bar	Chicago
Alto	per se
Annisa	Perry Street	Alinea
Aquagrill	Picholine	Avenues
Aquavit	Regency	Charlie Trotter's
Aureole	San Domenico	Moto
Babbo	Scalinatella	Topolobampo
Bar Masa	Soto	Tru
Beacon	Sugiyama
Beppe	Sushi Ann	Las Vegas
Bice	Sushi of Gari
BLT Fish	Sushi Seki	Picasso
Blue Hill	Sushi Yasuda
Blue Hill at Stone Barns	Tabla	Los Angeles
Bottega del Vino	Tamarind
Bouley	Telepan	Cut
Café Boulud	Tocqueville	Il Grano
Café des Artistes	Town	Matsuhisa
Café Gray	Union Square Cafe	Providence
Chanterelle	Ushiwakamura	Spago
City Hall	Veritas	Sushi Sasabune
Coco Pazzo	WD-50	Urasawa
Country		Valentino
Craft
Cru	Hamptons
Da Silvano
Daniel	American Hotel	San Francisco
davidburke & donatella	Della Femina
db Bistro Moderne	Nick & Toni's	Boulevard
Degustation	North Fork Table & Inn	Chez Panisse
Del Posto	Plaza Cafe	French Laundry, The
devi		Gary Danko
Dona	Philadelphia	Kiss Sushi
Eleven Madison Park		Manresa
Elio's	Le Bec-Fin	Michael Mina
Esca	Morimoto	Oliveto
Etats-Unis	Striped Bass	Ritz-Carlton Dining Room
Felidia	Susanna Foo's
Fleur de Sel	Vetri	Seattle
Four Seasons Grill Room
Four Seasons Pool Room	Washington D.C.	Lampreia
Fresco by Scotto		Mistral
fresh	Café Atlantico
Gari	Citronelle	Honolulu
Gotham Bar & Grill	CityZen
Gramercy Tavern	Kinkead's	Alan Wong
Hearth	Maestro	Roy's
Il Cantinori	Mini-Bar
Il Mulino		Vancouver
Insieme	Georgia & South Carolina
Jack's Luxury Oyster Bar		Lumiere
Jean Georges	Georgian Room at the Cloisters	West
Jewel Bako	McCrady's
Europe
Paris	Spain	United Kingdom cont.
L'Ambroisie	Abac
L'Ami Louis (L')	Akelare	Hakkasan
Alain Ducasse Plaza Athenee	Arzak	Ivy, The
Apicius	Ca Sento	J. Sheeky
L'Arpege	Can Fabes	Launceston Place
L'Astrance	Combarro	Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons
L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon	Comerc 24	Le Pont de la Tour
Benoit	El Bulli	Ledbury, The
Le Divellec	El Celler de Can Roca	Maze
Guy Savoy	El Poblet	Mju
Helene Darroze	El Raco d'en Freixa	Nobu London
Le Meurice	Elkano	Petrus
Ledoyen	Etxebarri	Pied a Terre
Les Magnolias	Faggolago	Rasoi Vineet Bhatia
Marius et Jeanette	Gaig	River Café
Pierre Gagnaire	Hispania	Sketch Gallery  Room
Relais d'Auteuil "Patrick Pignol"	Kabuki	Square, The
La Table de Joel Robuchon	La Broche	St. John
La Table du Lancaster	La Trainera	Tamarind
Taillevent	L'Esguard	Tom Aikens
Le Violon d'Ingres	Martin Berasategui	Waterside Inn, The
	Mugaritz	Wolseley, The
French Provinces	O Pazo	Zafferano
	Sant Pau	Zaika
Alain Ducasse - Louis XV	Zuberoa
Alain Llorca		Benelux
L'Arnsbourg	Italy
Auberge de L'Ille		Comme Chez Soi
Auberge la Feniere	Balzi Rossi	Hof van Cleve
Bacon	Bice	La Truffe Noire
Bastide-Saint-Antoine	Dei Cacciatori "Da Cesare"	Oud Sluis
Buerheisal	Da Giacomo	t Fornuis
Le Cerf	da Guido da Costigliole
Christian Etiene	Da Vittorio	Switzerland
Grand Hotel Lion D'Or	Gener Neuv
Hostelerie Jerome	Le Calandre	Philippe Rochat
L'Huitriere
Ithurria	United Kingdom	Czech Republic
Jacques Decoret
Le Jardin des Sens	Anthony's	Allegro
Leon de Lyon	Assaggi
La Palme d'Or	Bacchus
La Pyramide	Benares
La Reserve de Beaulieu	Blue Elephant
Michel Bras	Champanny Inn
Michel Trama	Chez Bruce
Nicolas Le Bec	Clarke's
Ondine Plage	Fat Duck
Tetou	Galvin at Windows Restaurant
Troisgros	Gordon Ramsay RHR

                                                                                                                                          

The thing is, I look at this list and say to myself, my, there are so many places I haven't been to yet. So I made a short list of restaurants I am going to try and visit in 2008. At the moment it's currently at about 60 restaurants and I am hoping to knock between 1/4 and 1/3 off the list this year, depending on how much travelling I get to do.

While I am happy to share my CV with everyone, I am hoping  I can convince you to also share yours. The best way to do that is to register for the Opinionated About Dining Survey and add your ratings to our database. There are currently more than 1,500 fine dining establishments on the survey, and we have already collected  ratings for more than 1,000 of them. Because so many people have been willing to participate, the quality of the information we have collected is amazing, and the level of experience that we have seen from the dining community is mind-blowing. For example, although 75% of existing participants come from the U.S., the list of the 25 restaurants that have been rated most often includes L'Arpege, L'Astrance, El Bulli, Fat Duck, and Pierre Gagnaire, along with top U.S. restaurants like The French Laundry, Alinea and Manresa. In addition, because we think your opinion is valuable, we have created a Rating Reward program to try and recognize your contribution. Currently the program is limited to U.S. residents, and the rewards consist of discount coupons to a select group of food and beverage retailers. The full details of the offer are on our homepage.

This is just the beginning of our program and we intend on expanding it to Canada and Europe after the first of the year. And as we grow, the rewards program rewards will grow with us and the benefits to our survey participants will keep getting better. So click on the link and help us accomplish our goal. The results will be published this spring in book form.

Register for the Opinionated About Dining Survey

Comments

[Scott Solomon]

Steve -- I was just watching Patrick O'Connell on the TV show 'Chef's Story.' Suddenly "it hit me" . . . why haven't you ever been to Inn At Little Washington??????

[rachel d]

I do not qualify to review anything save thousands of books, but I delight in the fact that all you young folks are doing such a splendid job of recounting your dining adventures, just for my reading pleasure and vicarious enjoyment.

I DO love your websites!

rachel