Jeffrey Chodorow "Smacks Down" Frank Bruni - The state of restaurant reviewing today

While it's important to note that I am not a fan of his restaurants (though my family had a long-running love affair with Tuscan Steak in South Beach before they changed chefs,) I have to give Jeffrey Chodorow credit for the full-page ad he took in today's New York Time's food section. Especially the second paragraph which I have quoted below and which says:

"This brings me to my second reason for writing this letter. A couple of years ago, my wife and I attended a restaurant preview dinner at which we were randomly seated with a former food critic for the NY Times and his wife, he having recently left his position at the Times. They were extremely pleasant and my wife, out of curiosity, asked his wife where they like to have dinner, now that her husband is no longer the NY Times food critic. His wife replied that they live in Queens and eat mostly at home. She told my wife that before her husband became the food critic for the Times, they almost never went out to dinner. He was a great writer, I’m sure, as is Mr. Bruni. But, they are not really food critics, at least any more than any of us who eat out regularly. Mr. Bruni comes to us from Rome where he was not the local “expert” on Italian cuisine; he wrote about politics. In fact, there hasn’t been a real food critic with food background (except perhaps Amanda Hesser) at the New York Times since Ruth Reichl (now editor-in-chief at Gourmet magazine.)"

Leaving Mr. Bruni and other Times critics aside for a moment, this has long been one of my pet peeves about the critics that newspapers and magazines hire to review restaurants. Mr. Chodorow's ad reminded me of a dinner I had a few years back at London's Rasoi Veenit Bhatia. During the meal, my dining companion and I started chatting with the couple sitting at the next table. As it turned out, one of them was a restaurant critic for a major London daily (and a name I'm sure everyone would know if I published it.) We started chatting about various restaurants in Britain, and I asked for his thoughts about the Fat Duck, which had recently recieved a third Michelin star, and Anthony's of Leeds, a restaurant that everyone in London who cared about fine dining had visited (including me and I live in New York.) He responded by telling me he hadn't been to either one of them, that he does London exclusively for the paper, and those two restaurants are "outside of his territory"   

I have to say his answer shocked me. Here was a major London paper willing to imply they were giving readers expert dining advice, when the person giving the advice couldn't qualify as an expert. Would the same paper consider hiring a film critic who hadn't seen all of the classic films, or an art critic who had not spent time with the world's great paintings, or would they give financial tips from someone who didn't have experience in the field? I doubt it, though I guess anything is possible. The reality is, most of the mainstream media do not take restaurant criticism as seriously as other types of criticism they publish, viewing it as some sort of consumer entertainment activity where a thorough knowledge of ingredients, culinary technique and the aesthetics of cuisine is not a requirement for their writers.

Mr. Chodorow hammers this point home when he asks of Mr. Bruni:

"Perhaps that’s also why your reviews are so all over the lot, with great restaurants getting bad reviews, fair restaurants getting great ones, one star reviews that read like two star and three star reviews that read like one star.... I feel your readers should be better informed as to this VERY IMPORTANT fact, so that they can give your reviews the weight, or lack thereof, they deserve.."

While Bruni is entitled to his opinion, and the Times is certainly allowed to present dining in any format that suits their business needs, when a food writer doesn't really understand what makes cuisine tick, or understand the essence of cuisine, and restaurants suffer as a result, it hurts us all. Take the case of Bruni's two-star review of Gilt.  Does anybody think that someone who was formally trained in their field of criticism would have written that review? Or give Del Posto a higher rating than Gilt? It's sort of like recommending the symphonic recordings of Montavani over recordings made by serious conductors. And this problem isn't limited to New York City. One wonders when the L.A. Times Irene Virbilia's gave Bastide a 1 1/2 star review. whether she could see the influence of the great chefs, Pierre Gagnaire, Alain Passard and Marc Meneau in Ludovic Lefbvre's cuisine (he spent time in all of their kitchens), and whether she would have given the restaurant a different rating if she was able to review Lefebvre's cuisine in that context?

So thanks to Jeffrey Chodorow. Without him sticking his neck out, I would never have weighed in on this topic in this particular way. But now that he brought it up, he is right to imply that diners are hurt by the mainstream food press not hiring critics who have the proper training and background. Just look at the case of what happened at Gilt, while we are certain that Bruni's review wasn't the sole cause, Mr. Liebrandt was dimissed from his position, having been replaced by a chef who came from the Striped Bass in Philadelphia, and who the last time we were there, was serving cuisine that is as generic as can of A & P green beans to a room that was 3/4 empty. And what impact did the Irene Virbilia review have on Bastide shutting its doors, supposedly to renovate? Whatever the impact, it certainly played a role in the fact that we can no longer enjoy Ludo Lefebvre's cuisine (though we hear that is going to change as he is supposed to open his own restaurant later this year.) Given my own background and training, and my knowledge of how business works, I am well aware that Montavani sold more recordings, and made more money than most serious conductors, But as a fan of the arts, I also know that it wasn't because publications like the New York and Los Angeles Times couldn't tell the difference. 

Comments

[YYC]

Thanks to you (and Chodorow) for highlighting one of the most infuriating trends in the food industry today (especially for those of us who don't get the Times). Restaurant reviewers in general have turned into verbal food stylists - describing the composition of a dish (as read from the menu, or retrieved from the server) and not the actual flavours, taste, texture, and execution of the dish itself. Sadly, they arent even the worst of the lot. The "local celebrity" reviewer, who gladhands for better treatment, and spends more time cultivating relationships than reviewing the food, and never gives worse than a 6.5 out of 10 for fear of alienating their happy clientele is probably the lowest of the low in my books.

[Jack]

On the one hand, I agree with some of what you say, although I think Chodorow didn't do anyone a service, esp. himself.

However, should we not apply what you say a food critic should be to wine critics as well? Therefore, shouldn't Robert Parker and Allen Meadows be excellent winemakers in order to be able to critique wine properly?

Another thing, Restaurant Critic is not really a life-long professional career. The top people who do this do not earn $250,000 a year. So, how can we expect the New York Times restaurant critic to be the All Supreme Food God Critic? You and I would both like the best possible person to be this critic. Yet all we can hope for is that the person Has a Clue and Will Do His Best.

[Steve Plotnicki]

I didn't say that food critics needed to be excellent chefs (your comment about Parker and Meadows,) all I said was that they should have enough expertise to do their job properly. What makes Parker and Meadows good at their job is that they have a sufficient amount of experience tasting the greatest wines ever made, and they can calibrate current releases to an appropriate standard. But the point Chodorow made about food critics, and which I agree with, is that there are many critics writing for important dailies who haven't been to the world's best restaurants, and who can't do their job properly as a result.

[Jack]

First, it doesn't get more laughable than a London restaurant critic not having dined at the Fat Duck.

Steve, you say "that there are many critics writing for important dailies who haven't been to the world's best restaurants, and who can't do their job properly as a result."

Ah, but when you say "properly" you really are saying "Steve Plotnicki properly"? This is because you are (I assume) one of the top 25 dining seekers in the world. You aggressively seek out the greatest food on the planet - and I think you try to do that for wine, too. So, you have more great/top restaurant experience than ANY restaurant critic will ever have; they lack the time to travel to those locations and the cash to do so. What does this mean? I think you will always be frustrated, by varying degrees, by every restaurant critic - and well you should be - as they can never match your knowledge and experience. (Yeah, okay, I'm just stating the obvious.)

I think the real question is: Do you think that the very top daily newspapers are hiring the best applicants to be their restaurant critics? And, do you think they are putting too much emphasis on being able to string two coherent sentences together rather than quantity of top dining experiences plus food knowledge?

[Steve Plotnicki]

Thanks for the compliments Jack. I think your closing paragraph addresses the problem. Newspapers are more interested in hiring people who know how to write well, than hiring people with extensive dining experience.

[D]

Great post!!!

[MC Slim JB]

I wonder where you'll find someone with these kind of qualifications who's willing to work for what the typical newspaper pays its food critics. Developing those credentials and experience requires huge investments of time and money. Maybe it's a pursuit best left as a not-for-profit exercise by wealthy, passionate, dedicated amateurs like Steve. But can anyone with strong business credentials explain to me how it would make sense in business terms for a newspaper to support that kind of critic?

[Steve Plotnicki]

You make a good point. But quite often dedicated amateurs turn profesional, or chefs with lots of work dining experience become writers. I must know a half dozen amateurs who can write, have the appropraite experience, and who would make better restaurant reviewers than many of the "professionals" who work for newspapers.

[MC Slim JB]

No question there are people out there who are better qualified. My question is, who's going to pay them enough to lure them away from whatever they've done that got them those qualifications?

Let's say you've developed extraordinary depth and breadth in your appreciation of food, by dint of having worked your way up to a top back-of-the-house industry job, or through extensive travel with enough discretionary income to dine in the world's best restaurants. You've been dining out long enough at every level to fairly judge a range of kitchen and front-of-the-house products across scores of world cuisines. And you've invested the considerable time and money needed to develop fine wine connoisseurship, maybe know a thing or two about serious bartending.

To me, this suggests someone of extensive professional accomplishments and earning power. The only way this person ends up writing newspaper restaurant criticism is as a hobby: because they're passionate about it, not for the paltry salary that newspapers pay. Would you abandon your other professional pursuits to write restaurant criticism full-time? It's a great gig if you're already a journalist, especially at prestige pubs like the NY Times. But for most folks with the experience you're describing, it's a big step down in pay, independence, freedom from editorial interference, and mobility. Better to keep doing what you're doing, and maybe start a blog.

Given the ongoing profitability struggles of the entire newspaper business, this isn't going to change anytime soon. In this light, Chodorow's rant is a Phyrric victory. He may have scored some points about Bruni's credentials, but at the cost of having millions of people read Bruni's pan who would otherwise have missed it. That's clearly a case of overweening ego trumping good business sense.

[generic cialis]

I doubt it, though I guess anything is possible. The reality is, most of the mainstream media do not take restaurant criticism as seriously as other types of criticism they publish, viewing it as some sort of consumer entertainment activity where a thorough knowledge of ingredients, culinary technique and the aesthetics of cuisine is not a requirement for their writers.

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