Added by Nancy Lanthier:
AA Gill, the restaurant critic for
The Times of London answers questions about being a restaurant reviewer.
"
I always book under a false name, but I never wear a disguise. Getting into a wig and a costume and talking in a funny voice to eat dinner is weird and way too self-obsessed – it’s the sort of thing they do in America. Yes, sometimes I am recognised and the first thing that happens is that everything gets worse. Particularly the service......."
A.A. Gill article~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Added by Judith Lane:
A British company has introduced a new robot bartender at the 2007 Restaurant Show that offers deadly accuracy. But can it shake?
"
...the Automatic Bartender reduces common sources of revenue losses including over dosage, wastage, billing mistakes and staff fraud, by ensuring all drinks are tracked through the till and fob system. It’s an idiot proof system, and most of all staff cannot cheat, and give out extra measures of drink free of charge, its impossible!..."
A New Automatic Cocktail Bartender by Giles & Posner Lauded at the Restaurant Show 2007.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Added by Cate Simpson:An article in Business Week profilies how London is now the
most expensive city in the world to eat out in.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Added by Rhonda May:
A
Peking Duck restaurant in China
gets an IPO.
A new book written by one of his former assistants, slags wine critic
Robert Parker, accusing him of
"cutting and pasting" old reviews.
Tidbit: When the
Gourmet Institute was in session last week in New York, Editor
Ruth Reichl found it amusing to be informed by some of the restaurant panelists that during the time she was the restaurant critic for the
New York Times, a 12-page dossier had been kept on her and secretly circulated around the restaurant community. The "How to Beat a Restaurant Critic at Her Own Game" report listed her likes, dislikes, quirks, repertoire of disguises, aliases, usual dining companions, even statistics on her column's distribution and an analysis of her star ratings on a typical restaurant's subsequent finances. Guess that's a notch up from having one's photo taped up in the coat checkroom.
We think the new "Food Issue" of
enRoute Magazine -- the one where they've announced their recent picks for "Best New Restaurants in Canada" -- unintentionally hit on a trend when they painted the food and tableware on their cover in gold. They didn't mention it in their new trends article inside, but the latest look in dining rooms is monochromatic gold.
Dolce and Gabbano have a new all-gold restaurant in Milan (appropriate, as gold is also making a comeback from the '80s as a fashion accessory), and
Les Cols in Catalina, Spain is of a similar hue, although like a gilded nuclear fallout shelter.
In an experimental pilot project at McDonalds restaurants
in Korea, teenage customers are ordering Big Macs via Radio Frequency Identification. In other words, they place their order by pointing their cell phones at the items they want on a screen. (Are the sides of corn salad and kimchee, like, a regional thing?) But in New York, a system called
GoMoBo is already finding success in fast food restaurants, especially among hyper New Yorkers who haven't the temperament for spending time in an order line up.
Four more reasons why New York is more interesting than most places:
1) The
Proposition gallery in New York is currently showing live size statuettes of Jesus and the apostles, all made of
100 percent chocolate.
2)
Obikà, the hip mozzarella-worshipping eatery, will open a small location the first week of December in the plaza of the New York IBM Building, (590 Madison between 56th/57th). Obikà became a molto hit in Rome when it opened in 2004, conceived as a kind of sushi bar that plied its trade with buffalo mozzarella instead of fish. Since then they've opened two other branches in Milan and in Selfridges department store in London. Hmmm ... an ultra chic cheese-tasting bar. Let's hope
les amis du Fromage have one of those when they open their new retail facility/cheese aging cave on Hastings Street next year. The wine might be a problem though.
3) Between November 28 and December 29, 2007, holiday shoppers milling about the Time Warner Center in New York will have a chance to rest, relax and sip a perfect cup of
illy espresso housed inside a recycled, former ocean going,
metal shipping container. Artist-architect
Adam Kalkin, who is currently making a fortune converting these containers into trendy post-modern housing extravaganzas called
Quick Houses, designed the concept. Actually, this idea is a little like that behind two of our local fish shacks
, Go Fish (Vancouver) and
Red Fish, Blue Fish (Victoria).
4)
New York is about to get its first off Broadway wine tasting musical. Yes, a wine tasting musical!
Wine Lovers tells the story of two mismatched students attending a wine class led by an effervescent teacher and their journey of discovery. During the show, audience members enjoy six delightful wines along with the class, and everyone learns a little about wine... and love. Ha, just try getting that one past our provincial liquor enjoyment prevention boards. The show will have an initial run of six performances beginning December 1st at the Triad Theatre. But double ha, here's where we beat 'em. Vancouver has already been there, done that with a wine musical written and performed by our own
Jurgen Gothe at last year's
Vancouver Playhouse International Wine Festival.
San Francisco's Michelin Guide came out last week and of course
everyone has an opinion about it, most of it contrary to what the book will tell you.
