Portland’s Vindalho Delivers the Indian Goods

Posted by Jennifer Heigl

While I certainly would never label myself a ‘restaurant reviewer’, as I like to leave the actual restaurant reviewing to the actual restaurant reviewers, I do love to write about the great food moments that happen. (And sometimes, the bad food moments as well!)

Last week, I had the chance to dine at Portland’s Vindalho, which touts itself as modern Indian, ’spice route’ cuisine. I had such a marvelous experience, I posted my thoughts over at Accidental Hedonist. You can also check out my upcoming interview with Vindalho’s Chef de Cuisine, and Portland’s current reigning Iron Chef, David Anderson, on Super Chef blog as well.

Are Restaurants Really Worth Their Awards?

Posted by Jennifer Heigl

Perhaps I set my restaurant reviewing bar a little too high. Perhaps my visit to New York’s Le Bernardin ruined me for all other restaurants. From the attentive service to the friendly staff to the impeccable and outrageously perfect food (not to mention the gorgeous chef) I was completely blown away by my experience. I thought maybe restaurant reviewing could be a gig I could get used to.

On my last visit to Seattle, I made reservations at Canlis. After living in the city for a number of years, I had heard great things about the restaurant, not to mention the outstanding views of Lake Union and the city neighborhoods below. The staff was attentive, the food arrived hot, and the drinks were marvelous (I recommend the ‘Lady in Satin’). But to be honest, the food just wasn’t memorable enough to warrant a return visit. The main dish arrived with overcooked vegetables and the dessert menu, riddled with ice cream offerings despite the January weather, seemed out of place. I couldn’t bear to write a bad review. Maybe the chef was just having an off night.

This weekend, I had a chance to dine at Union. With the chef, Ethan Stowell, nominated for another regional James Beard Award (he was nominated last year as well) I was certainly interested in tasting the food. Touted as a ’small plate menu’, I ordered three items – the lobster salad; potato gnocchi; and veal tenderloin. Despite the wait time for a drink and placing my order, I still had hope for the food, as a fellow diner confided that Stowell’s restaurants were some of his favorites.

However as each course arrived, I was again dismayed. The lobster salad was drenched in dressing, leaving me sad that I couldn’t actually taste the lobster. The potato gnocchi, with it’s decadent gnocchi bits, was overpowered by a bacon infusion. And the veal tenderloin. Oh, the veal tenderloin. When the plate arrived in front of me, the marvelously friendly Dining Manager described briefly, in the loud dining room, the two pieces of meat on the plate. While I enjoyed the smaller, perfectly cooked, melt-in-your-mouth piece of meat, the other piece was nearly inedible. So tough, I gave up after one bite, concerned I might accidentally fling the plate’s contents onto my lap trying to get my steak knife through. When when the waiter arrived to take the plate, I inquired again as to the selections on my plate. It turned out the smaller piece was a well-cooked piece of tongue (impressively yummy, much to my surprise) and the larger, inedible piece was actually the veal tenderloin. Oy. I nearly cheered when the honey tangerine sorbet arrived as the dessert course. Please, please, clean my palate!

Was this the standard for Union? Sadly, some of my local foodie friends say yes. Complaints in my friend circle ranged from terrible service to repeatedly bad food. I wonder, though, if my experience is similar to others, how could the restaurant be such an award winner? Are food awards really based on the taste of the food or merely the amount of press the restaurant (or chef) has received prior? Could James Beard be going the way of Wine Spectator?

Keeping Up with the Restaurant Critics

Posted by R.K. Gella

Tracking reviews has almost become a full-time position for some restaurants.  With the emergence of amateur reviewers/critics via personal blogs, consumer-generated networks such as Yelp and the countless number on online publications, sifting for reviews can be daunting.

This is why BooRah, a two-year-old restaurant search site, has begun offering “reputation management”.  The firm’s new database will keep track of all a restaurants reviews, summarize them and tally them into scores and ratings that concern food, service and ambiance.

“Restaurateurs are more focused than ever on keeping customers happy, especially in these tough economic times,” said Eric Moyer, the CEO and co-founder of BooRah, which takes its name from boo for bad and rah for good. “One way for restaurant owners to differentiate themselves is by heeding and responding to online feedback, and our reputation reports and review tracking services make it much easier to do that.”

The service currently available for $14.95, has a database of some 600,00 restaurants across the country with 2.5 million reviews.

Greene is Gone, Cuozzo is Ticked, and Bauer Offers Advice

Layoff.  It’s the notorious buzzword right now, from which nobody seems impervious, not even a long tenured New York food critic stricken with an “insatiable” appetite for designer hats and younger men.

Gael Greene’s dismissal from her long inhabited position at New York Magazine, caused a massive gulp heard around the food writers world last week, as critics had to wonder if their last bite of succulent porchetta would be their last bite… at least in terms of being covered by their publication.

A few days later, Between Meals columnist, Michael Bauer, warned aspiring food critics clasping to hopes of grandeur, to heed certain realities before entering the dining room.

For the most part the pay is paltry or nil. With traditional media in free fall, there are fewer paying jobs than a few years ago; I’ve already reported on the shrinking voice of Bay Area food writers. One study showed there were 25 percent fewer journalists working between March 2007 and March 2008, and it has gotten worse since then.

And perhaps this was all going through Steve Couzzo’s mind when he pieced together his rebuttal, addressing chefs and restaurateurs who have recently made a point of publicly outlining their grievances against what they perceived to be nearsighted reviews and biased critics, which he so eloquently entitled, “Shut Up”.

Chefs and owners are fed up with critics criticizing their restaurants. Carrying on like colicky babies, they’re whining in ads, blogs – even in books published years after they had their feelings hurt by a reviewer who was just doing his or her job.

They should heed Mike Tyson’s immortal advice: Take your beating like a man. Getting into the ring was your choice.

The opponent at the end of Cuozzo’s trajectory is Alain Ducasse, the Michelin Star chef at the helm of twenty-four restaurants around the world (from Japan to Lebanon), who has habitually been involved in his share of embittered sagas with New York City critics.

Last week Ducasse interviewed with Restaurant Girl, defending his restaurant Benoit and put the weight of its failures on the critics.

What happened at Benoit?
Perhaps we opened too quickly.  We needed time to adjust.  It was a slow evolution.  There are new dishes on the menu now, like the boudin noir burgers with raw and cooked apples.  But I think Americans don’t quite understand French bistro.

Who’s to blame for that?
I think it’s the journalists.  It’s their duty to educate New Yorkers about French cooking.  Americans don’t know what French bistro really means.  Here, nobody serves quenelles de brochet, cassoulet, or tarte tatin.

For Cuozzo the trend of chefs firing back has been too much to endure.

Maybe he took his cue from the swelling numbers of chefs all over town lashing out at the press.  In the old days, once in a blue moon, a powerful restaurateur might counter-punch a Mimi Sheraton or Gael Greene with a rebuttal ad in a newspaper or magazine.

Today, anybody can make a stink online.

The undeniable reality is that printed press as a medium is shrinking by the second.  The rules of engagement between the restaurant critic and the restaurateur have evolved.

It’s true that anybody can “make a stink online”, whether you’re the chef, an investor, a tenured food journalist, a blogger or a dissatisfied amateur food critic, but the value of opinion is up to the discerning reader.

Perhaps the most worthwhile advice Bauer offered last week was not for those aspiring to write, but for those already in the game.

The best advice I can give is for people to follow their passion and write, whether on a blog or on established web sites. The unique, interesting and trusted voices will rise to the top.

An Attitude on Food

As the final harvests are reaped from the fields an interlude begins to transition us into the feasting season.  The lights dim and the ageless story continues – our love affair with food.

The season beckons celebratory feasting and comfort dining, and yesterday the New Yorker’s annual food issue hit newsstands, filling the likes of NY Times food critic, Frank Bruni, with the urge to wax poetically:

I never throw away the New Yorker’s annual food issue, even if it came out nine months earlier. There may be an article I still haven’t gotten to, and I’m determined to get to it. Maybe I’ve read it all, but I feel that it’s a keeper, or that the best of the articles in it is.

It’s an issue that, I think, all food lovers look forward to and relish…

This year’s edition covers a scope of topics including the food crisis, microbreweries, Texas barbecue, cookbook authors, and localism in China.

Across the Atlantic… food is being observed in a whole new light.  In fact, what was once considered a sight worth detesting is now becoming dinner.

Under the stresses of rising food costs, the European Union ended regulations banning misshapen or imperfectly grown fruits and vegetables from their markets.

On estimate, retailers were rejecting 20% of the produce delivered based on the former bureaucratic regulation.

The BBC reports that new regulations will take affect next summer, relaxing the standards on 26 types of produce.

The Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, Mariann Fischer Boel, said Wednesday’s vote by the EU’s fruit and vegetable management committee was “a concrete example of our drive to cut unnecessary red tape”.

However, not all produce will be reprieved.  10 significant types of produce, of which account for 75% of the EU’s produce trade will not be recognized under the new rules, included are apples, citrus fruit, kiwi fruit, lettuces, peaches and nectarines, pears, and tomatoes.

And back in the states cranberries are everywhere.  From cocktail menus to dinner specials, what was once married to the unsavory image of gelatin in a can, the cranberry has been reinvented.  The NY Times sheds some light on this indigenious berry that has taken its share of derision and praise.

The Influence of the People

Posted by R.K. Gella

The American public called for change on Tuesday, strike that, they vehemently and overwhelmingly demanded change, and regardless of party lines, the night was a portrait of the democratic process at its best.

In many aspects it showed evolution, and in others, not to be contrary, it showed a throwback.

Evolution was not solely witnessed with the outcome, in the resulting decision, but in the process taken to get us there.  Obama, McCain, Clinton, Huckabee; each of these candidates utilized online networking (Facebook, MySpace) to a capacity unseen in any other presidential election.  In the end, President-elect Obama attributed a great deal of his success to grassroots campaigning and old school practices of working from within the communities and involving its citizens – a throwback indeed.  Via his methods his supporters were given a voice and a stake in their future.

For most (I’ll go out on a limb here and prescribe it as most) the chance to rattle off our opinions is an opportunity seldom declined.  The chance to be involved, outright and obvious, unshackled from anonymity, in a community of peers and spectators is a phenomenon that has captivated the online world.

It is indeed true that “everyone is a critic”, as online communities penetrate the outside world.

Earlier this week, the New York Times ran a piece entitled “Eat and Tell”, discussing the magnitude of online foodie communities such as City Search, Chowhound, and the increasingly growing Yelp.

“With 4 million reviews written and 15 million visitors a month, Yelp is a growing force in the food-obsessed corners of the Web.”  However, online service and nimble fingers are the only required credentials here, so how much of an impact can Yelp reviewers really have on the restaurant industry?  (Especially when Thomas Keller swears he never heard of Yelpers.)

Paul Kahan, the chef and an owner of Blackbird, Avec and the Publican in Chicago, became known there for complaining that sites like Yelp were “a forum for people who don’t necessarily know what they’re talking about.”

But, he conceded in an interview, the sheer volume of amateur opinion is useful. Any reader who struggled through 20 to 30 Yelp reviews of one of his restaurants, he said, “would get a fair impression of it.”

As for legit reviews, details lay secondary in opposition to amassing volume with personality and flair.

For example, Megan Cress — known online as Megan C. of New York — has been Yelp Elite for three years running. She has written more than 300 restaurant reviews (95 of them “firsts,” posted before anyone else). She has 957 friends and 151 fans on the site.

(By contrast, a New York Times restaurant critic might take six years to amass 300 reviews. The critic visits a restaurant several times, strives for anonymity and tries to sample every dish on the menu. Whether he or she has any friends is not recorded.)

Ms. Cress “networks for a living,” she said, introducing people and companies for a finder’s fee. Yelping helps; people who like her reviews often send her e-mail messages, and she decides whether answering them would be useful or fun.

There is a gain in confidence within the general public that their opinions have the same validity and affect, as any critic, pundit, politician, restaurateur, or chef, whether the opinions be factually/intellectually/mentally accredited or not.  This confidence should be encouraged and these opinions welcomed, with the realization that in the end it comes back to the general public to decide whether these opinions have any merit on our landscape.

New York Times’ Bruni Takes Questions

Posted by R.K. Gella

Dismantling the allegations earlier this month that his tenure as the NY Times food critic had fallen under equivocal terms, Frank Bruni opened his laptop to his readers this week, answering their submitted questions categorized into headings like “Who Eats This Stuff?”, “Reservations About Reservations”, and “How Anonymous Are You?”. 

On how the critic chooses restaurants for review:

These places have become objects of widespread curiosity. A substantial number of readers want to know what they’re like, how they are. And one of a newspaper’s central missions is to provide information (along with perspective) about matters of public interest, be those matters governmental or gastronomic… 

The big-time publicists aren’t necessarily landing them the reviews; the natures of the enterprises — which happen to include the budget for, and hiring of, said publicists — are landing them the reviews.

On how the shape of the economy will affect New York’s restaurant industry:

I’d be shocked if a place like Per Se or Jean Georges closed. New York’s a big, big city with enormous wealth, and there are many people who, while hurt by the economic downturn, still have more than enough money to splurge on fancy restaurants.

There’s also no doubt in my mind that the economic downturn is going to thin the restaurant herd…I think we’re going to hear, each month, about one or two restaurant closings that will be surprising, and upsetting, and that wouldn’t have happened in the normal course of things.

On foods the critic will not eat:

I’m no Tony Bourdain. Not even close. (And I say that with enormous respect.) 

I wouldn’t eat most reptiles. I think it’s above and beyond my particular call. I simply won’t eat any insects. Sorry. I’ve no sophisticated intellectual or ethical or any other -al justification for this. It just grosses me out — I can’t get around the idea of it — and, lucky for me, it doesn’t come up that often in Manhattan restaurants.

Wine That Loves – But What Does It Taste Like?

September’s issue of In Style Magazine recommends a recently released line of wine from Amazing Food Wine Company, cheekily named Wine That Loves. Following in the footsteps of cheaper, table wines, such as the popular Australian Yellow Tail, Wine That Loves hopes to take the guessing out of wine pairings. Designed for folks interested in making simpler choices about their wines, each of the five wines available offers clear graphics detailing their preferred dish, from pizza to grilled salmon.

The wine line, developed by former Le Cirque sommelier Ralph Hersom, includes four reds and one white. Aside from a brief note of ’surprisingly delicious’ in the InStyle article, I’m unable to find any other actual reviews of these wines. Perhaps reviews are limited due to the small distribution – the wines are only currently available in New York, Rhode Island, Michigan, Wisconsin, Maryland, Washington DC, Massachusetts, and Vermont. In any case, be sure to check them out for your next party if you’re unsure in your wine choice. And let us know what you think!

Michelin Goes Japanese – But Critics Are Skeptical

Restaurant review superstar Michelin recently released its first Tokyo edition and some are already questioning the prized reviews. The new guidebook awards a record-breaking 191 stars to 150 restaurants in the capital city – the most stars awarded to any city in the Michelin family – leaving Paris a distant second with a mere 65 stars. Some in the culinary world question whether the Michelin guide might be a bit biased, particularly with so many highly-rated French restaurants in the Tokyo guide.

“There are a lot of great cities in the world,” Tim Zagat, founder of the Zagat guides, told The Associated Press. “Tokyo is an exciting place to eat. But Paris is an exciting place to eat. So is Rome….Tokyo has the best Japanese food in the world. But it is nowhere near as diverse as other cities.”

With the new guidebook selling over 120,000 copies in the first three days of availability, it looks as though readers are anxious to hear what Michelin has to say about the Japanese city. Still, many culinary enthusiasts won’t be picking up their copies anytime soon.

Yasuo Terui, the editor of “Tokyo Ii Mise, Umai Mise (Tokyo Good Restaurant, Delicious Restaurant)” whose first edition went on sale in 1967, was also critical of Michelin, saying that it only scratched the surface of what there is to be had in Tokyo.

“I don’t think Michelin knows anything about Japan,” he said.

Fake Wine List Spells Trouble for Wine Spectator

In a meeting last Friday with the American Association of Wine Economists, writer Robin Goldstein revealed that during his recent research regarding standards with wine awards, he submitted a full application to Wine Spectator magazine for their Award of Excellence, listing a fictitious Italian restaurant, “Osteria L’Intrepido’, complete with sham menu and wine list. Surprisingly, as noted in its August 2008 issue, Wine Spectator awarded Osteria the Award of Excellence! Perhaps their research department was away on summer vacation?

More surprisingly to Mr. Goldstein, the entire “reserve wine list” submitted with the application included many wines previously reviewed, and horrendously rated, by Wine Spectator , some noted as “decayed…disjointed…smells like bug spray.”

It’s troubling, of course, that a restaurant that doesn’t exist could win an Award of Excellence. But it’s also troubling that the award doesn’t seem to be particularly tied to the quality of the supposed restaurant’s “reserve wine list,” even by Wine Spectator’s own standards.

You can take a look at Robin’s carefully calculated wine list, along with more details of his very interesting experiment, here at his blog.