Food Meditations...: Food, Critics and Criticism. Reviewers and/or Faultfinders, Have U Tried Trading Places?

Behind the Scenes ~

How French Laundry's chefs reach for the stars

"A sign under the clock reads "Sense of Urgency". What goes on behind the French Laundry scene? Scheduled to spend a day in the kitchen, Sophie Brickman would be helping the cooks prep while observing a day in the life of the restaurant"

Thomas Keller, executive chef and owner of the French Laundry, twice named "the best restaurant in the world," walked into the restaurant's waiting room...
Read more: How French Laundry's chefs reach for the stars; sfgate.com

"Pay no attention to what the critics say. A statue has never been erected in honor of a critic." ~Jean Sibelius

Delightfully yours, Food Meditations (*)

For Better and for Worse
Mimi Sheraton, high-profile restaurant reviewer, after six decades of journalism and some 16 books, takes stock of where we are as eaters,...
Read more: Behind the Scenes with Restaurant Critic Mimi Sheraton; bonappetit.com

Restaurant Critic
Does the points system add anything to reviews?...
Read more: What do you want from restaurant reviews?; guardian.co.uk

Culinary Stars

Do you want to watch Michael Voltaggio cook? As he manipulates late-summer farmers’ market produce onto a rock...

Read more: Consuming Passion : Dinner with Michael Voltaggio; latimesmagazine.com

Trading Places - What If? ...
~ Waiting tables, one of those rites of passage that adorn the curricula vitae of the wildly successful,...
Read more: John Walsh: A restaurant critic turns the tables; independent.co.uk

~ What happens when the tables get turned and the critic is the one dealing with diva diners and obnoxious oenophiles?...
Read more: Critic turns waitress for a week; theglobeandmail.com

~ 7:45 p.m., East Coast Grill full tilt, ready to throttle one of the six diners at Table...
Read more: My Week as a Waiter; nytimes.com

Ax to Grind or Business to Promote
Offering almost no specifics, the writer slammed the food, the owners, the washrooms and even the wine...
Read more: Sylvia Rector: Use a critical eye to see truth in online restaurant reviews; freep.com

Restaurant Review
Community-review site as Yelp are used to find bars, restaurants and even movers! Didn't know the site could be used to find business that didn't actually exist, yet...
Read more: Restaurant Gets Negative Review on Yelp — Before It Even Opens; time.com

Ephemeral Marché

Paris - Alain Ducasse has often repeated that without his suppliers, those dedicated producers, he and his fellow chefs would not be worth much...
Read more: Parisians Meet the Purveyors; foodarts.com

Learning a Lot, Sleeping Little
Why life in a restaurant kitchen isn't all it's cracked up to be...
Read more: If You Can't Stand the Heat...; bonappetit.com

Hospitality Business
It's amazing how many people you can offend by starting a restaurant...
Read more: How to Make 100 Enemies Lists; nytimes.com

Dos and Don’ts
By popular demand, a restaurateur-to-be offers his list of 100 things his servers will never do...
Read more: 100 Things Restaurant Staffers Should Never Do (Part 1); nytimes.com
Check also: ‘Insulting An Entire Profession’; easthamptonstar.com

Loads of Theories
There's a really easy one to get things going. When we run out of something, we say it's "86"...
Read more: Secret service: An anonymous head waiter reveals what the staff at Britain's top restaurants are saying behind your back; independent.co.uk

Work in the Food Business

Working in a way that seems disorganized and uncategorizable, in this world of labels and compartmentalization...

Read more: Where the Lines Between Chefs and Artists Blur; theatlantic.com

From the Blogosphere
~ Food Culture - There is lots of media coverage these days about food fads and how many voices there are in food criticism, restaurant reviewing, etc, etc...
Read more: Perspectives on Food Culture; ancientfirewineblog.blogspot.com

~ Food for Thought - Very informative exchanges of thoughts between foodies and non-foodies, full-time or part-time Parisian residents...
Read more: Food for Thought; parismissives.blogspot.com

~ French bistros and the difference between American and French ideas of service...
Read more: Bistro Bummer; davidlebovitz.com

Glossary
Foodie is an informal term for a particular class of aficionado of food and drink and differ from gourmets...
Read more: Foodie; wikipedia.org

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