Alan Richman is often too cranky for my taste, but his writing is always crisp and generally entertaining. This piece from GQ combines all three attributes.
http://gqm.ag/1DkAegU
A few choice comments:
- “This is the first food development in America that exists not because customers are eager for it but because chefs insist on doing it.”
- “What bothers me most is that almost every aspect of this new style of cooking, from its conceptualization to its preparation to its presentation, is about coddling the chef, not the customer.”
I’m normally a supply side economist but I think he’s wrong here. Diners wouldn’t show up if they didn’t like it.
Some years ago, a somewhat local restaurant with pretty good food instituted the totally annoying practice of bringing out the entrées when the chef wanted, not when the diner was finished with the appetizer, let alone with a decent interval between the courses. Screw them, I stopped going.
The everyone is special, everyone gets a trophy generation comes into the business world. I suppose we will see how this goes, but I just can’t see it with the masses.