"restaurant critics" news and stories

Talk about a food-critic mash-up -- will the earth tilt and all the restaurants on the Eastern seaboard start sliding toward Key West, Florida, when some of the country's top food critics Ruth Reichl (above left), Jonathan Gold, Frank Bruni (above right), and Gael Greene fill the same space at "The Hungry Muse," An Exploration of Food in Literature, the 29th Annual Key West Literary Seminar (starting tomorrow and running, in two separate sessions, through January 16th)?

Sure, there will be readings, conversations, lectures, and panel discussions with best-selling authors like Calvin Trillin, Roy Blount Jr., Madhur Jaffrey, Molly O'Neill, Julia Reed, Adam Gopnik, Michael Ruhlman, and many others.

But it's this sold-out event that has foodies salivating over their Key lime pie: Reichl, Bruni, and Gold on "The Art & Craft of Restaurant Criticism: Matters of Aesthetics & Taste." Why? Well, not only are these three among the heaviest of the heavyweights in the biz (where are you, S. Irene Virbila?), but, says Reichl, "I get to meet Frank Bruni for the first time, which is kind of a thrill."

For real?

"I've never met Bruni, either," Gold told us. And here we thought all the critics hung out together, like some Skull & Bones society. This talk should be the bomb.

So, ok, you get to finally clap eyes on Bruni, and, well, maybe sparks will fly. But, we asked the former Gourmet editor in chief, why Key West and why this seminar?

When restaurateur Noah Ellis decided to shoot a photo of longtime L.A. Times restaurant critic S. Irene Virbila and post it on restaurant Red Medicine's Tumblr yesterday, he broke a mostly unspoken code among chefs and the men and women who eat their food and then either throw some stars at them or maybe serve up a little vitriol on the side. It's the "we'll pretend we don't know who you are; you pretend you're just a regular customer" dance that chefs and critics do, sometimes more successfully than others.

According to the report on Eater, Ellis claimed Virbilia's "unnecessarily cruel and irrational" reviews . . . have caused hard-working people in this industry to lose their jobs. . . We didn't want her reviewing us. . . .Our purpose for posting [the photo] is so that all restaurants can have a picture of her and make a decision as to whether or not they would like to serve her."

Agree or disagree about the outing of Ms. Virbila? We caught up with Village Voice critic (and Slashfood contributor) Robert Sietsema to hear his thoughts on what it means to catch a critic. Read on after the jump.

It used to be fairly common for restaurant reviewers to receive notes penned by chefs after a review came out. If the review was favorable, the handwritten missive would be polite and congratulatory. If the review was negative, sometimes the chef -- perhaps oblivious to his posterity -- might unleash invective.

Later, of course, the pen dried up in favor of email as the medium of choice for irate chefs to write to critics, and the practice has continued. In my work with the Village Voice, I personally have received angry emails from chefs, though polite thank-yous still predominate. The waters have further been muddied by the ascendance of blogs as a medium of review, and the rough-hewn quality of criticism they often exhibit. Many chefs have commented, both in public and in private, of their distaste for blog reviews, which often occur just days after a restaurant opens for business, and are hence deemed unfair by the chefs.

Restaurateurs and chefs have decided to fight back. New York chef David Chang banned food photography in his restaurants, in an apparent attempt to keep bloggers from taking pictures of food and posting them with reviews. In a 2008 roundtable discussion conducted by the Chicago Tribune, chefs Graham Bowles and Bill Kim expressed irritation at instantaneous reviews of their restaurants that appeared on foodie websites like Yelp and MenuPages, igniting a debate in the Windy City that continues today.

How does a man with a price tag on his head -- or at least his face -- keep from having his photo snapped by fellow partygoers or folks out for a hefty reward? Former New York Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni explains the art of ducking the spotlight in this Skype video from Salon's Kerry Lauerman.

[Via: 'Binger turned food critic' at Salon.com]

If you're a restaurateur in New York City, or even in the surrounding metropolitan area, or heck, anywhere in the United States, you might want to be on the lookout for this man. He looks a little bit like Ray Liotta, doesn't he? It is Frank Bruni, the dining critic for the New York Times, and many restaurants have "Wanted" posters in their kitchens and staff rooms instructing their employees to look out for him. If he shows up - it requires special attention.

According to this particular listing about Monsieur Bruni, "he looks very young, his guests are very often female, he is extremely polite with staff," and his "questions about food are asked in a very casual, unassuming manner."

Gee, that is so very helpful. Aside from his being polite with staff, it sounds like it could be just about anybody in the dining room.