In today’s on-line deluge of restaurant scores and rankings, the uniqueness of the Michelin Guides is supposedly their mythic inspection regime. Hardly a month goes by without someone, usually the young international director of the guides Gwendal Poullennec, reminding the restaurant world of some international army of full-time anonymous inspectors blanketing the Michelin Guide universe. […]
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One Part Genius To One Part Hype: Nouvelle Cuisine Française Clarified.
By Jörg Zipprick (This essay originally appeared in the book “Die Erfinder des Guten Geschmacks : Eine Kulturgeschichte der Köch”. (“The Inventors of Good Taste: A Cultural History of the Chef”). Bastei Entertainment. Cologne, 2013. We have edited it lightly in the translation and to bring it up to date.) The term “Nouvelle Cuisine” is […]
Read moreThe Daily Diningologist
April 8, 2019. The lack of entries lately is because I am working on something like an investigative report. It likely won’t appear for four months or so. In the meantime, I will write here as I encounter anything adventuresome or conceptual and post some writings with titles. Because there are noteworthy aspects to restaurant and […]
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The Poet of the Palate: An Appreciation, Appraisal and Analysis of the Writings of Jonathan Gold
On the continuum of critical writings, restaurant reviews fall somewhere between the Venice Biennale and the toaster ovens in Consumer Reports. When the restaurant culture began to take off in the 1960’s, the review media barely existed, but with the expansion of the restaurant business, reviewing grew likewise. Despite the inevitable hacks and the legions of […]
Read moreA Jonathan Gold Repository: Where to Dig For More Nuggets.
City of Gold. Laura Gabbert’s 2015 documentary about Jonathan Gold: This is accessible on several platforms. It is much more enjoyable than any of the chef puff pieces you see on Netflix since Jonathan Gold’s story is so much more encompassing and interesting than someone making food and running a restaurant. The LA Weekly reviews mostly […]
Read moreTwo Tributes to Bernard Pacaud and L’Ambroisie, Place des Vosges, Paris
(I am always pleased to bring you writings of the Paris-based, German-born gastronomy writer Jöerg Zipprick, who also created and administers La Liste 1000. He also turns out to be my culinary Döppelganger when it comes to taste, preferences and past experiences. He has written the second of our respective tributes to Bernard Pacaud […]
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Japan Journey Journal, Part 1: Tokyo Dining, Particularly Sushi, Overall.
What France in the 1980s was and what Spain continues to be since the early 2000s is what Japan is today—a pre-eminent “go to” country for the inveterate gastronomic traveler. The participants are rich Chinese (especially from Hong Kong); well-to-do bloggers; entrepreneurs who board a plane to Tokyo whenever they wish; and chefs searching for […]
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Feeding Off Each Other: Brandon Granier & Robert Brown Discuss Les Maisons de Bricourt–Olivier & Jane Roellinger’s Brittany Seafood Haven
We welcome, or welcome back, readers of “Restaurant Politics” after a hiatus during which we contributed to Gastromondiale. By we, I mean myself and Brandon Granier, who is not only an ardent, highly active international restaurant-goer, but possessor of a first-rate mind and an abundance of intellectual curiosity. (For a more detailed description of our […]
Read moreWrestling with Japan (Beware the Double Stars). Part One: Prelude to a Trip.
Among talented chefs and ardent gastronomes, Japan is a desirous destination, every bit as much as France, Spain and Italy. Also interest in Japanese cuisine has swiftly grown in recent years as seen by the number of Japanese-inspired and Japanese fusion restaurants around the world and the migration of chefs from Japan to Paris and […]
Read moreSmart St. Barth: An overview of the cuisine and more.
“Paradise” is a word that you shouldn’t bandy about, but at least reserve it for a place that is undeniably one, such as St. Barth. The variety of the undulating terrain’s is never monotonous; you can reach the furthest point from wherever you are in 20 to 25 minutes; the ocean views are mesmerizing and […]
Read moreMan Bites Truffle: Eating and Drinking in Piedmont in Late Fall
This is the first question and answer collaboration with me and Vedat Milor, founder and lead editor of the greatly-respected website Gastromondiale on which this Q & A also appears. We plan to present more discussions that will cover other significant and influential issues affecting gastronomy. Between us, we have observed and indulged in decades […]
Read moreLe Coucou: A Tail of Two Pheasants.
Reviewed by Robert Brown The battlefield of New York restaurants is filled with the remains of foreign adventurism gone awry. Ever since the 1939 New York World’s Fair at which Henri Soulé started Restaurant Le Pavilon, foreign chefs and restaurateurs, most of whom have been from France, have both been eaten up or taken the […]
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