The famous saying "everyone is a critic" is a saying that has been said for any type of cultural art form, including the restaurant business. Although, what does it truly take to become a restaurant critic? A recent article from Bon Appetite Magazine featured an article of a interesting lunch from acclaimed critics Pete Well's and Frank Bruni from the New York Times. Chef Adam Saches tells his story of cooking for the two important critics.
Adam's experience was one of fear and understanding the mind of the critic. The lunch was planned out, yet somewhat unexpected of how the two writers react. The menu was made mostly for them but tries to be subtle of the whole ordeal by being creative of what he had and what the farmers market was selling that day. Adams tirelessly planed out, prepare and served from the wondrous and the unusual of Pork-belly tarte Tatin, fried pork ear salad and zabaglione ice cream. Although, Adam was expecting to triumph over the challenge of satisfying the critic but was not prepared to see what the mind of the critic would reveal to the chef.
As soon as the critics take the first bites, they appraised Adam with achieving the flavors so perfectly and gave him advice of the size and how he can improve the Tatin. As the lunch went on, Adam suddenly realized that critics are not just people who say's "This is bad" or "This is really good." They carefully evaluate of how the tartin was to be served, the presentation of the salad and the whole meal experience.
The point of this story is that even though a critics words can attract or repel guests from coming back, the actual critics are people who are somewhat the same for you and me, but just a little more obsessive of what is on the plate. If you truly think about it, critics are some of the most obsessive people of the culinary world. They look at detail in the ingredients, the presentation of the restaurant and the food, the hospitality of the front-of-the-house staff and many other little details of the experience. A critics job is to not really judge the eatery highly or harshly for the public eye to see. They're job is to inform the general public of what the restaurant's true identity and how it can better it's self. True, the ideas of critics change and restaurants do change with the owners or the decision of the owners, but the words of a critic would always be eternal to the chef. Those words would be an opportunity to better the business or to improve one selfs true potential to reach culinary excellence.
If you wish to see more detail of this story, grab a copy of Bon Appetit, September 2012 issue and give your own opinion.
Before I say a-do I want to give one more final clue of what the cookbook is. I want to share what the topic is but none made any guesses yet and I cant give out clues forever. So here is the last clue. The artists known as the Living tombstone, Mic the microphone and Mando pony based their music for this fan base. I will provide a link to an example video of one of the artists below and make your guess before I reaveal. I will reveal the topic on the next post or if someone makes the right guess.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPfMb50dsOk
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