If you read my posts through my social media, I love food. Not just eating it but all of it. The business of it. The cooking of it. The exploitation of it. If there is one thing that we can all agree on concerning food ….it’s not a want but a need. Yes, there are expensive food items that we might want such as foie gras or white truffles but we all need access to fresh food, produce and clean drinking water. Dining out is a luxury.
I bring this up because of food and media. There are food writers and food reviewers just as there are a variety of culinary newspapers, food magazines, and cooking blogs. Each covering the prospective news with a different angle and format for particular audience.
I’ve been following the Dallas Morning News brouhaha regarding the restaurant critic, Leslie Brenner. I’m throwing my two cents into this. (Not as if someone asked.) However, I feel strongly that a newspaper has the right to freedom of speech. For anyone to censor a publication because the restaurant doesn’t like it…well, is wrong. It brings up some of the most terrifying news events. If the chef and his crew are already doing $150,000 worth of business then good for them….nothing to worry about. (Most journalists, in contrast, may not even make that in 4 years of writing for a newspaper.)
Coming from a consumer and not a marketer, I love food reviews but they don’t determine my willingness to dine at a certain restaurant even if it’s from a Michelin guide. My selection is dependent on a couple of things such as does the owner/chef have more than one restaurant? I don’t want to go to restaurant where I’m supporting an empire. (Hence, I won’t eat at Guy Fieri’s or Mario Batali’s places.) I still love the romance of a neighborhood European bistro/ brasserie/ trattoria serving up delicious regional cuisine by one chef who owns the place; not by one chef who hires a multitude of chefs to cook under his/her name.
In today’s day and age, no one is depending upon one source of medium. We have Facebook, Instagram and Twitter explaining, photographing everything before there is a printed word. Even if the food isn’t liked by one critic, there is always another critic who will love it. It’s the nature of the beast.
Furthermore, I rely on the food reviewers. I want them and their publications to shell out the $200 or $300 tab before I get there….and tell me their thoughts. It’s incredibly expensive to dine out and I want to know that I’m getting a really good meal. It’s not coming back up the way it went down. However, I find a reveiwer who’s tastes run towards mine. LA Times’ critic Jonathan Gold is really towards far-flung, Asian foods. San Francisco’s Michael Bauer (from the Chronicle) prefers European based fare. (This doesn’t mean that they don’t like other cuisines but we all have personal preferences.)
When there is a chef/owner, who puts up too much of a fuss about a reviewer coming in to dine or eat, it makes me feel uncomfortable….as if my freedom of speech is being taken away. The now-defunct Red Medicine “outed” Los Angeles Times restaurant critic S. Irene Virbilia and I sort of found it heartbreaking. I personally felt she was doing her job. No one, not even a restaurant reviewer, deserves to be treated without respect. They are after all a paying customer. And she was a paying customer…regardless of who was paying for it. Unlike the entertainment media, who get to view free movies and theater, then give a bad review; restaurant writers from major outlets publications pay for it such as “Bon Appetit”, “Food + Wine”, “Saveur” and other major newspapers. It’s paid for with journalistic integrity even if it costs an arm and a leg.
Former New York Magazine restaurant critic, Gael Greene, and Ruth Reichl, former New York Times restaurant critic, would both dress up in costumes to review dining establishments. Maybe it needs to go back to that system so that a consumer and critic can get what they rightly pay for? Ultimately, the reason a critic gets to pay for the food is to determine if they will…or won’t…review the establishment. And it’s done anonymously so that the kitchen and staff are serving up just as if they were regular customers paying a bill.
It’s not about taking sides. No one wants to be powerful enough to shut down an establishment that’s putting people to work. But at the end of the day, being a consumer, I want to know that the price tag for my meal will be worth the money I’m spending. It’s not cheap to eat out, nor am I saying that it’s inexpensive to own a restaurant…but there is always a better way than mean-spiritedness.
To the media: I know so many restaurants and chefs who need to be reviewed, want to be reviewed and would love the attention…give it to them and ignore anyone who doesn’t want it. Tell me the news, don’t become it. (Listening up “The Today Show”….my opinion.)
