A good restaurant critic should be able to write about great pizza or a terrific burger and French fries as well as informing us about the quality of a chef’s gnocchi or whole roasted branzino. It’s just as important to get simple, satisfying food right as to get complex, gourmet dishes right. It’s important to follow what celebrity chefs are doing, as well as the new chef on the block. Foodies want to eat well, whether that means a great plate of pancakes or a great croissant – and reviewers help us determine where to find the best.
So what’s wrong with The New York Times‘ Peter Wells‘ biting review of Guy Fieri‘s Guy’s American Kitchen and Bar in New York’s Times Square?
Why are there so many tweets and articles about it?
Should we, in fact, lower our expectations when eating at a restaurant owned by a Celebrity TV host?
Should restaurant reviewers avoid reviewing the restaurants and leave the teaming fans to do their work?
Does the issue come down to: it plainly is rare to find a chain restaurant owned by a celebrity chef that is as good as a restaurant where a chef actually cooks?
It is easier to write a series of questions that have the answers embedded in them, then to write the answers plainly to be read. Peter Wells did it with aplomb.
Are people rushing to Fieri’s latest meg-restaurant to find out if all those question-able dishes are really as bad as he says they are?
Would you?