The Art of Being a Restaurant Critic
As is inherently obvious, there are many user generated websites where critics-in-waiting can hold forth on anything that pleases them. Some say that this abundance of verbiage obviates the need for professional critics like myself or Virginia Wood or Pat Sharp. Needless to say, I disagree.
I have put many years into the process of developing the sensibilities and palate that I use as the cornerstones of my reviews. I grew up in a world of restaurants, in a family of chefs. While I chose not to follow in their footsteps, I was nonetheless steeped in the wisdom that virtually flowed from all of them like a fountain of Perier Jouet.
When circumstances allowed me the opportunity to begin speaking and writing restaurant reviews and commentary, I was ready! And when you read my reviews, even though by choice they tend to come down on the positive side, my philosophy is simple: I want to spend my time telling my viewers, listeners and readers where to go, and what to enjoy as opposed to telling them where NOT to go. That does not mean that I love every dish I every tasted as is often inferred by faceless and nameless bloggers. In fact, I do not. I simply prefer to write about the ones that I enjoy. Nothing makes me happier than when a reader emails me and says he loved the dish I reviewed, or that my recommendation was “spot on.”
It’s easy to trash places. It’s much harder to translate the love of a dish or a restaurant into tangibles that lay people can appreciate or use to make choices. I see too many reviewers who simply regurgitate what’s in the dish and then ad a few superlative adverbs. That art of a good review is being able to make that dish come alive for your reader; to create almost a visual or olfactory sensation with the written word. This is what gives me great pleasure and this is why I do what I do.
