8 replies to this topic

[Daisy]

Eater has an entertaining sitdown with the UK-based critic.

Here

"You've got to be careful to not review an elephant for being a cow."

He also had dessert issues at Ma Peche.

[Blondie]

Dude's funny.

[tsquare]

He used to talk to us lowlifes some times. That was fun.

[Wilfrid]

Eater has an entertaining sitdown with the UK-based critic.

Here

"You've got to be careful to not review an elephant for being a cow."

He also had dessert issues at Ma Peche.

I guess he just published it? Chang not happy.

tweet war

[Orik]

You can almost think Ma Peche only started serving dessert as a preemptive strike against Rayner's review.

[nuxvomica]

You can almost think Ma Peche only started serving dessert as a preemptive strike against Rayner's review.

wouldn't be surprised. am surprised that chang took to twitter to bitch though

[Rail Paul]

Jay Rayner is in NY, he's whoring for his new book, as he puts it. My Dining Hell.

Eater interviewed him at Balthazar...

Cold open] I timed this trip brilliantly, because David Chang is in London.

He's cooking at St. John, I think.
Yeah. I thought that it was possibly the perfect moment for me to come to New York because, you know, he gets cross. I don't think it's good for him.

How'd you react to his response to your review last year?
It was merely baffling that you and I should do an interview two days after I had been to the restaurant and I should explain my own curiosity about the no-dessert policy, but he only gets furious at me when the review appears three weeks later.

He can't read everything, can he?
Not so sure. I just thought it was amusing, especially when Mario Batali weighed in.

He called you...
Self-absorbed. I think being called self-absorbed by Mario Batali is possibly the highlight of my career. I thought that I had arrived at that moment. It was something very special. It's a little bit like being made a cardinal by the pope.

Do those kinds of spats happen often in London?
That's a good question. I don't think that happens in London much. I'm sure people talk about the critics behind their backs, but the confrontations are infrequent, even on Twitter.

Do you interact with chefs?
Yes, on a number of levels. For one, I make films around food for the BBC almost every day. I also write features. You just have to tiptoe carefully around people that you are about to review or those who you've recently reviewed.

Perhaps a better question is if you have chefs that are friends. Here you might say that certain critics at least try to make it seem like that's not the case.
That preciousness has always slightly baffled me. I have friends who are chefs and I do go to the occasional party, but I'm not a massively reliable friend when it comes to chefs. I once had to send a letter to Simon Hopkinson reminding him of the story of the scorpion who asks the frog to take him across the river, promising not to sting him. Halfway there, he stings him.

I consider Simon Hopkinson a friend, but I once had to give a restaurant he was involved with a bad review. I'll do it if I need to.

Some chefs don't take well to helpful criticism

[Wilfrid]

Still alive! Go Jay!

[balex]

Lunch at the David Chang popup at St John -- waste of time and money. Standard Ssam bar fare but not as good as NY and grievously overpriced. Mr Chang was in evidence but not in the kitchen as he spent all the time talking to Fergus H and showing him how to wrap his lettuce leaves.
Jay Rayner not evident.