Ya Gold’s stuff can be a bit tricky to interpret. He has such a strange position of power within the LA restaurant community that his opinion honestly seems like it could make or break a place. Thus, even if he doesn’t like a place, he won’t bash it like most reviewers would.
EDIT: just reread the Cannibal review. What more did they want? They aren’t doing anything extraordinary so why should we be wow’ed? Just because they do okay in NoMad doesn’t mean we are obliged to enjoy their food. Ugh, New Yorkers
interesting about The Cannibal - I thought it was a positive review too, especially compared to Garret Snyder’s.
I agree that sometimes Gold gets obtuse, and it can require a bit of close reading to see whether or not he actually likes a dish. That can definitely be frustrating if you’re trying to figure out whether you actually want to eat at a restaurant (which is, after all, the point of the damn reviews). At the same time, though, I also appreciate a bit of ambiguity, and that he tends to focus on the experience and the significance of a place, especially in a world obsessed with stars and scores. Yes, ok, fine, sure, I’m a bit of a Gold stan, but what can I say? He’s the one who got me interested in food to begin with.
It’s a pretty big diss when, at a meat-centric restaurant, he recommends two bar snacks (one which is a jar of dry-roasted peanuts),a vegetable dish, and two sausages.
I’m pretty much done with JGold’s reviews. They’re formulaic (e.g., “You WILL order the Botswanian deer terrine…”) and you can read the whole thing having no idea whether he feels the place is great and worth visiting.
I’ll take sans-Pulitzer Besha any day, as I know where she stands after reading a review. (Plus, I agree whole heartedly with her reviews about 98% of the time.)
Come ON, you guys! John, Besha and Amy are all writing really sound and highly entertaining reviews. I happen to like Mr. Gold’s stuff the most because he writes like I wish I could, so much so that I have to work on not trying to sound like him. If he deems a place not worthy of mention he simply doesn’t; if there are dishes at a restaurant worth stopping in for he’ll let us know. I think he liked Cannibal more than most of its food, and spoke kindly of the things that pleased him. That’s his job, and I think those guys need to un-wad their shorts.
@ aaqjr: If I were SIV I would be hanging out somewhere in Italy and writing only postcards for a while.
Nashwill: That’s not a bad idea! I prefer her more traditional style of review although JG’s writing is better I feel less informed. The few wine review’s SIV wrote were pretty well done imo.
Ms. Virbila is an experienced journalist, an expert on both food and wine and a sincere lover of both. The younger “Sherry” shows up in Ruth Reichl’s book about (among other things) being brought in to get the Times food pages out of the market basket and into both some serious cooking and equally serious restaurant reviewing. I used to see SIV as packing a hatchet and among friends referred to her as F. Sirene Verbalabuse, but came to realize that she knew a hell of a lot more about this stuff than I ever would, and attended her seminars gratefully.
J. Gold makes no secret about following where his tummy leads and chronicling the voyage, and long may he wave. He is effectively my surrogate on that journey, out to discover stuff I’ll want to go check out and to take the hits for what is less than wonderful. I feel informed about what it was and why he liked it or didn’t, and if I want to know more about the dish and its origins and antecedents there’s always Google.
I think they do have that. Noelle Carter not only runs the test kitchen, she can write about it like nobody’s business. Russ Parsons did too, but he seems to have been sorta kicked upstairs, only laterally, into Saveur, where I wish him more than luck because he might need it. Amy Scattergood writes well about food too.
I think we will see more blogging from the Times, as they keep trying to figure out how the hell they can do this newfangled stuff and make money at it without pissing too many people off. Again, good luck. Disclaimer: I have a family connection and lots of friends there.
