This is a very touchy topic at the moment because there are a
lot of food critics out there nowadays. In the past food critics and people who
wrote for food magazines were mostly qualified individuals who were trained
writers or communicators. Because of the growth of technology and the internet,
everyone can be an expert in the field of being a food critic even with little
knowledge of communication or food these days.
In the mid eighties and nineties food critics walked a thin line
as they knew about food, did a lot of homework and were employed by the
mainstream media, which were themselves operating under journalism best
practices and codes of ethics. Those food critics usually had a degree in
communication or food science, hence they knew how to communicate properly and
knew about food, conducting extensive research so that they could be
knowledgeable. Marco Pierre White mentioned in his book “The Devil in the
Kitchen” that “It was only after
Egon Ronay delivered a superb review of Harvey’s a couple of months after we
opened that the restaurant became a massive success.” So, we do need food
critics and food bloggers and can benefit from their input. But before the
article was printed Ronay called White to tell him and asked him some questions
so he could give a response prior to publishing. This is not done in these
times. Raymond Blanc said the same about Egon
Ronay.
The fact I am trying to make here is that he did his research
and also gave an opportunity for the chef to reply first. Egon Ronay first
worked in the business as a restaurant manager so he knew how passionate chefs
are about their food. Anyone who has worked in the food industry and I mean
directly in a stand alone restaurant or hotel restaurant, knows that chefs are
passionate about food and only respect those that know about food also. So when
one criticizes his/her work it needs to be balanced and not done like Fox
News.
There are times when we as chefs feel that critics could not
last one month in a kitchen! Because yes they may know how to cook at home but
can they cook in a pressured environment? Can they cook 30 steaks in 40 minutes
at different temperatures while listening to the chef calling the orders and
remembering each order and getting it correctly? The job of a chef is very
demanding, with a lot of pressure. We may take four hours to prep the
ingredients before the restaurant opens and all that prep comes down to one meal
that is gobbled up in roughly 90 minutes. The critic can demoralize the chef and
his staff in those 90 minutes.
We take our passion seriously. It’s like what Macro Pierre White
wrote in his book “White Heat”…“If I came to your house for dinner, criticized all your
furniture and your wife’s haircut and said all your opinions were stupid, how
would you feel?”
Food critics and bloggers alike don’t like it when people
criticize their writing skills and when that happens, they feel attacked and
offended. Please be aware of how the shoe fits one the other foot and try to be
open-minded like the critics in the past.
So I say this to food critics and bloggers (and I am a blogger
myself) – do you have what it takes to work 12 to 15 hours a day everyday on
your feet in a room that is 35 to 50 degrees? Or let me put it this way – try to
write your articles in a room with no air conditioning in the middle of the
desert summer and see how difficult it is.
Please don’t get me wrong we need food critics and bloggers
in the industry to help to sell our business. Egon Ronay’s guide (when he
was with us) did not have any advertising from restaurants or companies that
were in the industry. The ads that were in the guide were from companies that
had nothing to do with the food industry.
Mario Batali in one of his articles on Eater mentions why he is
wary of bloggers:
“I do not really HATE anything or anybody, it takes too much
energy to hate, and I would rather dog someone/thing sotto voce to the large
audience than spend a lot of time hating them/it. But blogs live by different
rules. Many of the anonymous authors who vent on blogs rant their snarky
vituperative from behind the smoky curtain of the web. This allows them a
peculiar and nasty vocabulary that seems to be taken as truth by virtue of the
fact that it has been printed somewhere. Unfortunately, this also allows
untruths, lies and malicious and personally driven dreck to be quoted as
fact”.
In ending I say chefs are human beings also. We can be very hard
but how would you like it if you went out on your anniversary night and the food
was not good? It would ruin the entire night. That is why we take our jobs so
seriously. So when you criticize a restaurant do so knowing that you may put
certain amount of people out of a job. When we chefs go out to eat we are the
ideal customers. We eat the meal and go home and don’t complain. 99.9% of the
time we never make a fuss. The difference between the average customer and us is
that our expectations are realistic.
NOTE:
The moral of the story- blog responsibly.
RSS Feed