My reviews are written in a style that is not sellable / media or buzz-friendly. In other words, you will rarely find my reviews advertised on restaurant web sites or promoted in the foodie blogosphere. This is exactly what I want since the purpose of my reviews is to be as indepent as possible from the restaurant industry.
***My food rating system is explained here.
Also my background as a gourmand -> http://tinyurl.com/8774sax
I realized that most people do not take time to learn a bit more about the writer of the food review they are reading. It makes no sense to me. That writer, being human, has naturally his/her preferences as you, I, or anyone else writing about restaurant and food.
If, as an example, that writer does not like bistro food, I presume you understand that you might need to consider this when you need or read his advices on bistro food.
I personally am more into traditional fares (French, African, Asian, Carribean), therefore I will naturally tend to favor rich savourish dishes over simplistic display of raw ingredients on my plate. Of course, I love contemporary fares too:
I am fond of the modern bistro fares as much as I like their traditional versions. I do appreciate Modern French cuisine a lot, perhaps as much as I like traditional French.
I was born in a fishermen village, which explains my sacred fascination for seafood and why I am particularly demanding/strict when I evaluate seafood dishes. But I am as much picky with meats too: few years ago, curious about the buzz on Japanese seafood and beef, I sacrificed three months in just that -> enjoying what Japan was offering as its best beef and seafood. That was a fascinating experience that I will never forget, and also a reminder of how the best of what others might have enjoyed could be completely different from what you have liked the most. Japan has indeed amazing products and their top quality beef deserve the hype, but the best seafood I enjoyed was in Africa and the Caribbean.
The best beef? hard to say. Japan top graded beef are truly one thing you need to experience at least once in your life (it will be way too long for me to explain all the different types of top graded Japanese beef here. We’ll leave that for a later post on top Japanese beef, but their beef, at the upper echelon, is one experience you will not enjoy elsewhere), but I preferred the Australian beef. The top graded Argentinian beef, to my surprise, did not impress me up to now, but I need to spend more time in Argentina in order to have a more extended experience with their beef. I need to experience the Galician beef, of which I heard rave opinions. Chicken fared better to me in Africa (some chicken I tried there were far better than another chicken that I love so dearly and that is highly praised, for good reasons because it is indeed a great chicken: France’s poulette de Bresse).
The best meat I ever ate: a roasted tailless tenrec over 15 yrs ago, in the Indian Ocean. No meat at a 3* Michelin restaurant, none of the widely praised meats, not one dining venture ever came close to that one.
I am very curious and want to submit my palate to as much tastes as possible, thus I tend to try all sort of food. There are many remote places I’d like to go just to taste their food: I dream of spending years with remote saharian, amazonian tribes and discover their cuisine, their cooking techniques.
Let’s conclude on a straightforward Q&A’s in order for you to better read/interpret/understand my restaurant evaluations:
-Before covering anything related to food and the restaurant world, let’s talk about travel. As someone who is passionate about the variety of cultures and cuisines that this globe does offer, You have , naturally, traveled a lot around the globe. What are the top 4 destinations you did like the most (as a tourist/visitor) as well as the 3 destinations that did disappoint you? The top 4 places I liked the most, up to now, have been — in no particular order: Japan / Myanmar /Vietnam/Italy. Hopefully, that will not change, because you know, what is scary with what you like is the fear that one day you may not like them anymore…That is why I am always nervous when I go back to a place that I liked. Lol. The places that did disappoint me have been (1)Greece (2)Morocco (3)Mayotte. With time, I will explain why (on my blog). So stay tuned.
–Why anonymous? Because the average patron (AKA the normal diner, which is most diners) has always been anonymous, not a fame seeker. I am interested by the dining experience that any normal diner has a chance to partake in, not one where the cooking and experience is adjusted because the restaurant knows who you are. Those who want to befriend the industry, good for them, but what they are doing is irrelevant for someone like me who wants to know how things are happening in normal conditions.
–Why “michelinstarfinedinings ” as a name for your food blog ??? It is a taunt. Challenging Michelin is trendy, these days, therefore most imbeciles (for me, someone who follows a trend just for the purpose of following it, without a thought, is an imbecile ) will run away from this blog because they will foolishly fall into the trap of confusing this blog with an Ode to Michelin. And that is exactly what I want: I want such nuisance to stay away from my blog. My blog deserves the attention of those who are willing to focus on what matters, and not those who are distracted by the superfluous.
–Why your food blog??..when there is certainly no shortage of food blogs online. Is your food blog different from most food blogs? Why my food blog? Because I wanted to share my foodie adventures with foodies who help me find great places where I can dine at across the globe. Therefore, instead of sharing my adventures by email, it was easier to put them in writing on a blog. The big majority of the online food / travel blogs and vlogs serve a different purpose: they are promoters of the food / tourism industries. So, two different purposes.
–What about the preconception that food bloggers do this to get freebies? It’s like with anything in life: there are fake chefs and there are real Chefs as well. There are dodgy remunerated food critics, there are honest ones too. There are lowlife opportunistic food bloggers, and there are those with ethics as well. A crooked food blogger will run after freebies and the industry will feed him with…just that, Lol. A food blogger who wants to be treated as a normal diner will ensure that he is treated as a normal diner. And he will be treated as a normal diner. In life if you are a cheater, you will attract those who benefit from having you as a cheater. If you are not, there just won’t be any cheating. As blunt as that.
–Should restaurateurs be afraid of food critics? A dishonest and not capable restaurateur should. And She/He will. She/He should, because She/He knows deep inside of Herself/Himself that there are reasons not to be at peace with what She/He is doing. Most restaurateurs who can’t get the job done will naturally NOT appreciate food critics because they know their job is crap and that it will be assessed as such by any honest normal diner. That said, it is always unfortunate to see the good restaurateurs ..the real good ones, I mean…who have to face some stupid critics who are mixing up personal vendettas with the seriousness of accurately reviewing a dinner, and that is annoying, but that is some easy cheap shot to spot (No sane mind will buy that kind of crap, anyways) and that should not be an excuse for any restaurateur to refuse to live in peace with the notion of the freedom of speech / opinions.
–Isn’t there any danger to abuse the food industry by hiding behind an anonymous status? You do not need to be anonymous (aka a normal diner) to be abusive: you just need to be an imbecile! Anonymous is the normal condition of the vast majority of diners. They are just normal diners. As such, they are anonymous. The only reason being a normal / anonymous diner is challenged, nowadays, is because the food industry wants to control our opinions. An anonymous source is one that chose to stay away from their BS.
–If you had the means, would you visit all existing widely known restaurants around the world? No. I don’t believe in quantity as a decisive factor. If you do have a good palate, a sense for details, the genuine will to learn how things ARE (and NOT how YOU WANT THEM TO BE … ), that is all that counts. 25 yrs of dining or one second of it won’t make any difference if you are close minded, see no difference between what is good, great or excellent, refuse to appreciate things for what they are and have no palate.
–You have always stressed that GREAT SERVICE should always be encouraged. So, between an eatery that offers great service but shitty food, Vs one that offers great food but shitty service, which one do you prefer? If you have great food and your service makes me lose my appetite, you are worthless! I need my appetite in order … to enjoy your food. Get it? If the service is GREAT but the food AVERAGE, I will mention that. That said, most of us, food bloggers, do not visit those places regularly, therefore if your service is GREAT, but the food is AVERAGE, I will still give you another shot, at some point in time, just to see if that was just an accident. At the end of the day, we all need both great food and great service in order to be fully satisfied, obviously. After all, why would a serious restaurant play that kind of game (meaning, trying to see if great food will dominate bad service). Only an amateurish eatery will opt for that sort of risk taking amateurish “bet”…
-Do you trust online reviews, critics, opinions? Should we trust Yelp, Tripadvisor, Google, etc …?? I remember, in the 1990s, there was an Indian restaurant called Palais de L’Inde on St Laurent Street (Corner of Laurier Street) in Montreal. Palais de L’Inde is now closed, since a long time (therefore NOT to be confused with any other Palais de L’Inde that is currently opened in Montreal), but when it was in operation it had a score of 2.x/5 on Google and something as low as that on other similar online platforms, such as Yelp/Tripadvisor and so on. Alas, for those online platforms, it happened that I have tried all Indian restaurants in Montreal in those days, and Palais de L’Inde was one of the best in town, by leaps (it was not the “sexiest” looking restaurant, as far as interior design goes, but they were using a real tandoori oven, which most Indian restaurants were not doing in Mtl, and they had a highly skilled Chef, with food to match ). It is just that they did not bother “paying to play” (they did completely ignore those online restaurant rankings), therefore their competitors were winning the online “keyboard war”, Lol. It was a laughable reminder of the obvious weakness of those online restaurant ranking platforms, but most importantly, it was a reminder that…you just need to go and find out for yourself. There are tons of examples like this one. So, the thing to keep in mind is that there is NO online restaurant review platform that will match your due diligence. If you think that you can rely on someone’s else opinion to judge something as subjective as food enjoyment, well…pity you! People say what they have to say. They can can be honest, AND YET that DOES NOT MATTER, as TASTE is …. SUBJECTIVE. They can fake it, and it does not matter, as …….TASTE/APPRECIATION/JUDGEMENT is …. SUBJECTIVE. YOU just have to TRY and see for yourself. That is the ONLY SENSE you will be able to make out of this. So, Nope… I do not have to trust opinions, reviews and critics. I just have to trust what I will experience, on the field…That’s the ONLY reality that will make sense to me.
-Your blog is designed to remain an “underground” foodie source. Aren’t you afraid that it remains “anonymous”? For a blog that is not marketed, it is actually already surprisingly popular. Come to think of it, that is not really a surprise, because people are “never satisfied” by nature. They like what is popular, indeed, but at some point they get used to that and want the opposite of … just that, lol! And a real Chef with a head on his shoulders, do you really think he is stupid enough to believe that he can thrive on the back of fake ‘O’ face’d opinions about how great he is?? Lol. It would be delusional to think that it is the case. Someone seriously interested to succeed in the food industry cannot rely on fake ‘O’ face’d reactions , or he will surely be doomed to fail… He won’t reveal it to the world, for sure, but he will, secretly look for opinions like the ones you find on “underground” blogs like mine. Same for people who are seriously looking for honest opinions when they need to dine out.
–It is widely known that many food bloggers and food journalists are, in facts, promoters of the food industry and tourism authorities. Therefore not credible. What is your take on that? Regarding the vast majority of food bloggers and food journalists that are essentially just promotional tools for the food industry, we all know who they are and they all know that we all know who they are: their behavior and material talk for their agenda. Their agenda is obvious. On a personal level, I am not concerned by that. People are free to think whatever they want to set their mind to. As far as what I do as a food blogger, whether someone doubts of the credibility of my blog or not, I don’t give two bollocks about that . I am here to document my foodie adventures. If it pleases you, good for you. If Not, then your loss. Not mine.
-You seem to be knowledgeable about many cuisines. How was that possible? I was born and raised on an island where Indian, Chinese, French, Arabic and African food had a strong presence in the culinary landscape. And they were cooked at a very high level because that island did NOT have Africans, French, Chinese, Indians and Arabs as tourists, lol, but as demanding diners. So right from my tender childhood, my palate was exposed to such a rich and varied culinary reality. By now, I have decades of profound understanding, advanced practical experience and deep familiarity with the above mentioned cuisines as well as Japanese, Thai, Italian, Korean, Greek, most Latin American and Caribbean cuisines. There is still room for improvement, Lol: I am totally ignorant about all Eastern European cuisines. Which is why you do not see me reviewing a restaurant that is cooking Eastern European food. I am looking forward to educate my palate on Eastern European cuisines, but it has to be done the right way, with those really in the know.
-What’s the relationship between the industry and its relevant, related online sources (food blogs, etc)? Since the beginning of food blogging, the food industry and its proxies (restaurant world, the tourism authorities and industry, etc) did work hard to control opinions about what they are doing. Which, is expected (put yourself in their shoes – that is exactly what you would do, too), indeed. They did basically overwhelm the web with massive friendly web sources (payola reviews/food bloggers promoting the industry, etc) and a close cooperation with all relevant major online sources of opinions (if you go on some of the major crowd-sourced review websites, to take an example, you will understand what I mean… ). Anyone not “playing to pay” was immediately going to be marginalized. Again and again, that was to be expected. Therefore, guess what: if they do not know who you are, if you are just an anonymous (normal) diner, then you cannot be trusted (the predictable chant on most online relevant and related sources). Also: just keep a watchful eye on most online sources (crowd-sourced review web sites, search engines, etc), and you won’t fail to notice the tactics that are deployed by many businesses to keep your opinion under control. For example, if you do a search on a restaurant, most of the time the search will lead you to favorable articles that are easy to control for the Business (either an article from a popular blogger who is close to the industry, or any advertising article in their favor). Again, to be expected, as that is their job to silence any opinion they cannot control.
–You have cooked and have been passionate about food trends since the late 1980s. What are the main differences between what you have experienced in the late 1980s Vs now? In the late 80s, on the mainstream, you had access to ingredients that were of far superior quality to what is considered as “exceptional” nowadays. Stellar tuna, eggs, poultry, meat, fish, all of that were just part of your normal life. You had honey made by bees, meat and milk with no chemical manipulation to the contrary of what is “fashion” these days. You really had the taste of what things were. The era in which we live right now, the 2000s, that is an era that I call the BIG FRAUD: for a long time, in that period, honey made from flowers was sold as honey produced from bees. Of course, the newer generations could not tell the difference and the fraudsters got away with it. Right now, they are more careful about the scam of the honey and the honey that is sold to the mass is now generally labeled as it is (anything but not made from the real thing, not made from the nectar collected by bees!). And people are getting a bit smarter about it: honey sold at $10 cannot come from bees…Lol!. That said, it remains a period of disgusting fraud: they now call pretty much everything ‘Bio” to cash in. But the ‘Bio’ they are talking about was just ‘normal’, ‘natural’ in the context of the 1980s. The other day I did invite my Mom at a 3 star Michelin so that she can appreciate what is considered as ‘exceptional produce’ at the present time —because the fraudulent system within which we live today ensures that you have to pay a leg and an arm to get access to what is considered ‘exceptional’ — and we had the laugh of our life: all produce that could not hold a candle to what was just “normal produce” in the late 1980s.
– In a world where most would not shy away from a moment of fame and freebies, why are you taking the opposite route? Indeed, most would prefer fame and freebies and I wish I was like that as it would make my life certainly easier in the relevant aspects (less money to spend, better food as I’d essentially attend PR related meals with all the bells and whistles that come along, etc). But then, that would not be me. Things like those do boil down to who you are as a person, how you view life, how you were brought up. I take no pleasure in benefiting from privileges and attention, I am a giver, not a taker so right there it’s easy to understand how freebies and fame are useless notions for me. At best, I can appreciate that they are useful to others.
–Any problem with those seeking fame? Nope. It is their rights. If you want to use food blogging to make a name in the food industry and build your career, or make friends, or standing as the cool kid of the block, why not? It is your right. But obviously, I am not going to get the ‘right time’ with what you are communicating .
–In order to find a restaurant where to go to eat, do you rely on the crowd-sourced review forum, online reviews of critics? That is the first step of anyone who wants to find a restaurant. Years ago, that is also what I used to do: looking at the reviews on the crowd-sourced review forums, reading the reviews of critics. In those days, there was a reasonable proportion of honest reviewers, meaning people who are not there to promote the agenda of the food industry but doing their honest / anonymous / normal duty of sharing their views as any honest / anonymous / normal Joe or Jane would. But now, it is very different: the web is infested by business competitors who try to put down each other by overwhelming those crowd-sourced review forums with a plethora of profiles of their own creation and paying the food critics to play, Tourism authorities flooding the web with plenty of friendly food blogs, etc. It is exactly as you would expect it to be: a multi-billion industry who ensures that its flaws are silenced, its fake glory marketed as real, etc. So, normal stuff, nothing out of the ordinary, here. Consequently, it is also normal that I cannot rely on these widely known unrealiable sources of info to find a restaurant.
–Marco Pierre White once decried the fact that he was assessed by people who knew less than him…what do you think? I love Marco. But I have got to say this: Marco could afford saying that kind of stupid thing because he was a true great Chef. I say stupid because it is always stupid to try to shutdown the voice of others when you are living in a democracy full of grown men and women … NOT in a banana republic. I say stupid because how can he know that those who are assessing his food are not better than him. It is not because you think you are right, that others are not! I say stupid because there is obviously a difference between doing the work of a critic and doing the work a cook. When Marco reads the critic of a movie, does he expect the critic to be as good as the actors in the movie? I know people try all sorts of tactics to discourage views that are not favorable to themselves, but that logic of criticizing the assessment of a critic is infantile at best. That said 90% of the restaurants of this globe do have kitchen brigades that cooks average food that is inferior to what most can cook at home.
-You tend to like the “old stuff” (classic food, etc). Aren’t you afraid that this “frozen in time” mentality is a roadblock to enjoying novelties? I love novelties. They just need to be great. The problem is not with the ‘old’ Vs ‘new’ stuff rhetoric. The problem is that, most of the “new stuff” is just about making money and do ‘lack soul’. But if a ‘new stuff’ has soul and happens to be genuinely impressive, I will be very happy about it.
-There is an educational dimension to your blog? Why is that? I think it is important. I see many people going to restaurants with unrealistic expectations and that is because of the lack of information on what to expect when dining out. Even myself, I sometimes forget that restaurants are manned by human beings. The other day, a friend had to remind me that it was naive from my part to expect some restaurateurs to maintain a high level of cooking performance if there is no incentive. So true. What peep would be motivated to cook well on a consistently basis with no incentive?
I know, the incentive is supposed to be the money you are paying for your meal, but the average biped does not “walk” that way. You paying for your meal…that, they take it for granted.
-In some of you reviews, you criticize those who have a beef against restaurants frequented by tourists. Which comes as a surprise considering that you invest lots of time finding genuine food. The sight of tourists in a restaurant should normally be an alarming sign to someone like you. When you do not know your food, you tend to be distracted by things that have nothing to do with food. The tourist which presence you are futilely distracted by … is probably a well traveled foodie who is more passionate and knowledgeable than you about food. Touristy or not, if you know your food, you will know if your food is good or not. That’s all that matters. The BS about tourists is the usual crap coming from clueless people who think that food is great or not depending on who is in the dining room.
-How difficult was that, for you, to decide sharing about your foodie adventures? For someone who comes from very humble backgrounds like me, the hardest part was to learn to respect the other foodies out there. When you were born in a fishermen village and have spent your childhood extracting the most out of a simple piece of fresh fish, you tend to lack respect to ppl who seem to run without having learned to walk. In the beginning, reading things like ‘the squid was excellent because it was tender’ or the ‘abalone was the finest because it was melt in your mouth tender’…and that ‘this squid or that abalone was bad because I’ve eaten more tender versions of it’ ..reading that kind of crap was really frustrating for me. I kept saying to myself “how come they pretend they like something and they do not even bother finding out, at the source, about how a fresh piece of abalone or squid looks/smells/feels in its ””just-snatched from floor of the-sea” condition. And those folks kept feeding my sarcasm: some having half of the vegetables and meats featuring among ” things they do not like”, others rushing to restaurants with no clue of how the restaurant operates (you know, the famous ”the portions are too small”….at a gourmet restaurant..c’mon!!!!!!!!!!), some expecting bistrot ambience at gourmet restaurants, others comparing low level cooking skills to top level ones only because they have no clue of the efforts and true technical depth that sets apart the great from the just ok, ..in a nutshell, a collection of complete mess. Naturally, the cooking skills of of those critics is limited to boiling some egg, making an omelette. So with time I learned to tolerate such individuals, I learned to accept the idea that they are entitled to their opinion even though they have zero knowledge of what they are talking about.
–What do you think about cooks who suggest that they could not care about critics and opinions? That they work only for their customers? I doubt those cooks would like the opposite scenario of no one talking/caring about their work. And what’s a critic? Guess what..he’s a customer. He is just sharing his opinion about what he has enjoyed. Exactly as any other customer would do, unless those cooks consider ‘customers’ as those who are not entitled to an opinion. Spitting on a ‘sea of free advertisement’ (that’s basically what we, food bloggers, are; that is basically what food journalism is, too) provided by people paying with their hard earned money, that is everything you want except brilliance. Clearly, suggesting that you could not care about critics is a plain stupid declaration.
–Is that true that the restaurant world manipulates the food blogging scene? Life is a manipulation. Virtually everything is a manipulation. Take my own blog: I believe in what I do, which means assessing my food from the perspective of a normal diner paying for his food and rejecting ‘ fame through food blogging’ as any normal diner should, but at the end of the count it is still manipulation as in the concerned situation, I am manipulated by my belief that this is the right thing to do. So, I do not care about manipulation. All I am asking the restaurant world is to remember that normal diners (which count for the majority of their clientele) are paying to enjoy good food, and they (the restaurateurs) are paid to deliver it.
-What do you say to people who finds reviews of food to be exaggerated? By nature, an opinion is an exaggeration because it is a perception. You are basically saying what you think of what you’ve perceived as facts. An opinion about someone else’s opinion is a double exaggeration because you are not even talking about your perception of facts, you are talking about what others have perceived.
–Why do you rarely state that this or that restaurant deserves this or that X award/rating, etc? There’s a huge difference between people who have cooked for a long time (like me) Vs those who are judging the restaurant world with no experience in a kitchen. A huge one, and that is not a reproach, that is not to elect one opinion as better as another, not at all, that is just an observation. People who have cooked since a long time tend to be very careful about comparisons. They wait and wait and wait until they gather lots of evidence / material before risking comparisons, because they know that what most are basically doing is judging tastes/opinions of others but that beyond that, there are so many factors that only them have experienced with (mood of the cook, produce that is one day great, another day impossible to get, etc). Those who are not sensibilized to those realities judge hastily as you and I would judge anything we are not that knowledgeable about. At the end of the day, everybody is entitled to an opinion and it’s up to their respective audience to do the rest.
–The problem with most diners, nowadays? They should consider dining out only upon ensuring that they are really familiar with the type of cooking offered at the restaurant where they are heading, as well as the true purpose of that restaurant. You hurt both your wallet and your intelligence when you dine out with ignorance at the core of your actions/judgements and you can’t hide that: if you go to a bistrot expecting fine dining, if you are eating a properly well executed classic dish but you were expecting, without knowing it, sparks of modern cooking, you really sound as stupid as those who go to the sea and can’t stand water. Ask aunts, uncles, grandmas/grandpas, people familiar with textures and tastes of past generations cooking to cook /show you/educate your palate about the classic dishes you are interested to try at the restaurant, then your opinions will have better substance. But do not go to a restaurant simply because it is highly regarded by others. Before expecting something to be great, you should first know what you like, if what you like is really something you are familiar with/have understood/appreciated to greater extent. I love food, have familiarized my palate with food from all around the globe, from various generations, and yet there are food of which I give no opinion (for eg Russian, Romania cuisines), food that I do not assess because they have either flavors that are acquired taste for my palate or simply because I am not fully familiar with all its nuances. I can’t judge that because I have no real reference, no real experience, no real knowledge with that sort of food. Once you know, you’ll really know what is bad and what is really good, or else you are making a fool of your ownself.
–Did you experience with restaurants that you suspect of offering fake dining experiences? Fortunately, they do not abound but YES, I know of some restaurants that can’t be serious at what they do. I always give them 2 to 3 tries, just to make sure that it’s not my mind playing tricks, but you feel that kind of things right from the 1st visit…you feel it when a restaurant has nothing to do with what you’ve read in the reviews…they tend to keep having nothing to do with what is reported online even after a 2nd, even a 3rd visit…you know right away that is a fake restaurant, dispatching its better cooking staff when a food journalist is dining in the house but not capable to deliver consistently.
–Is it true that they segregate diners at most restaurants, for eg the better looking ppl are provided with the best seats, etc – Many restaurants do that. But that does not bother me at all as it’s the food that matters to me. If your food is bad and you segregate diners on top of that, then you are a dump!
–What to look for, primarily, in your reviews? the NUMBER rating! Two dishes can be well conceived, flawless and the words I’ll write on both cases will naturally reflect the relevant situation. No need to put down one great dish because another one is better. So how will you know that one is still superior to the other? The number will talk for it! 10/10 – Exceptional (level of daring deliciousness that is rarely fullfilled, a benchmark in terms of taste), 9/10 – Excellent (flawless, delicious, daring but not a benchmark), 8/10 (Very good), 7/10 (Good … but at a 2 or 3 star dining level, this is not enough to me and means “not recommendable”). Anything below 7/10 is bad.
–What do you value primarily in the evaluation of a dish? The TASTE! All my life I have focused rigorously on taste enjoyment via my own personal research for richer/more vibrant flavors and with personal routine of dining practices such as (1) never sampling anything that could alter taste perception within the 5 hrs prior to a meal…so no coffee, no tea, nothing acidic..etc (2) closing my eyes and totally freeing my mind from any apprehension on the first bites of sampled dish. There are many other little practical techniques (that I use) in order to try to enjoy the dish with the closest neutral perception possible, but you get the idea.
-You grew up in a small seaside town of the Indian ocean, relying on the sea for food. That seemed to have shaped your …particularly hard … assessment of seafood dishes in general. You can live by the side of the sea and do have no interest in what comes from it. It just happened that I was fortunate enough to have no allergy to seafood and a decent palate as well as a profound passion for quality seafood because dazzling seafood kept coming from that sea. Nowadays, in the West, you have all that buzz about the great tuna of this place, the superb oysters from that other place, and all the bla bla bla that comes with it. But it is mostly seafood that they had to freeze at some point, then thaw it to feed you. So nowhere near the dazzling freshly caught seafood that never ‘saw a freezer’ of my childhood in the Indian Ocean. Therefore, when I stumble upon great seafood, you will feel it in my review. Seafood is the most ‘sacred’ food, for me, which means that I tend to be more impressed by a Chef cooking great seafood. But of course, great food is great food, so if you cook great meats and vegetables, I will be as impressed, naturally.
–Will the gimmicky looking food items automatically suffer from poor ratings since I prefer elaborate, refined and rich classic fares? I do not care about the looks. The food needs to taste great, that is all I am looking for.
–Will the food evaluation suffer from its price? Absolutely not! I am rating the deliciousness level of the food (10 is exceptional, 9 is excellent, 8 is very good, 7 is good, anything below is bad), not its value for money. That said, if a dish is of great value for money, I will mention it.
–Should we expect French fares to be better rated that others? That would be a mistake. Food is tasty or not, regardless of its origins. The African food item that my palate identifies as the tastier that it ever sampled, deserves a 10 as much as its Japanese, Chinese,Quebecois, French, Thai, Burmese, Haitian, Latin American counterparts.
–Will classic fares benefit from more reviews than the latest experimental cutting edge food? I am big on classical French/African/Oriental/Caribbean fares, classic French bistro, modern haute French, bistro Moderne. But sometimes I get bored and love trying out molecular / experimental cuisine too. So Yes, this blog will rarely focus on the latest.
–What to avoid as a food critic? Do not try to cheat (for eg, trying friendly critiques, seeking for exchange of favors, etc). That will show up: people eat out a lot nowadays, so they will quickly find out about your little games. For eg, I once trusted a food columnist who raved a lot about a specific Chef. My friends kept telling me that there was a huge gap between what she was raving about Vs reality. I wanted to see for myself. I went eating at the restaurant of that Chef . He was the only one cooking on that day. And I discovered that indeed, that food columnist was just promoting that Chef since the latest was not even capable of cooking very basic fares. Also: if you are allowed privileges that others won’t get … people will quickly realize that they can’t trust you. For all those reasons, I prefer staying anonymous, avoiding close relationship with the restaurant world, so that my experience reflects the reality of the most.
–Common misconceptions? Thinking that someone who rates a dish as excellent, or who raves about a Chef … is suspicious. That’s a big mistake that the most tend to do. Although understandable (I am the first one who find that ‘hard to believe’ sometimes ;p), we must be honest: when a dish is excellent to our standards, it should be said. If 10 dishes out of 10 were flawless, you should say it. Thinking that others might find it ‘fishy’ is right there a manipulation of our own experienced reality.
–How do you react when something you found great is perceived as not that great by someone else? If we are sharing the exact same dish, at the same table, at the same moment, there’s no reaction to have. Just means you and I have different tastes. If you went at the same restaurant on a different day, it could also mean that you were probably served by a different cook. Or if it is the same cook, then he was probably in a different mood, etc. Either way, it is subjective, therefore it does not mean much in absolute terms.
–Is it easy to write reviews? Food assessment is one thing that virtually everyone will tell you that it is easy to do, and yet few are able to do it properly. Take any write-up of the major food journalists of this globe: they are able to give a 10/10 to French food, but when it comes to ethnic food, the best they can score ethnic food with is, at best an 8/10. That is due to a lack of competence: they do not have the proper skills to understand that the best of ethnic food is as great as the best of Western food. Since they do not have the proper skills to understand that, their last resort is the impression that they have of the food they are eating. When you are ignorant and incompetent about something, your way out is to rely on impression. So their impression is that western food is superior, ethnic inferior. They do not do that only with ethnic vs western food. They extend that incompetence to modern Vs traditional food. Just look at how they are generous in their ratings when they eat something novel. As if traditional food stops being great as soon as they meet modern cuisine. We are talking here, about the best experts and professionals of food criticism. You can imagine the rest. As a straightforward answer to the question “is it easy to write reviews”, I think the most accurate answer to that question is this: About anything is easy when it is done without rigor. If writing about restaurant was just a matter of sitting at a table and contenting myself with describing my food, then I’d not do this. What attracted me into writing about dining is all the discipline that is involved: how far can I control my human emotions and judge my food as accurately as possible? How far can I detach mysefl from the surrounding distractions around my meal? How far can I resist to popular perceptions and freely express what’s on my mind (see previous question)? How far do I know myself to provide opinions on a given type of food: for eg, I sometimes see people judging food that they just don’t like in the first place. That is easy to spot: the person, whatever he or she eats, is never capable of appreciating one single dish of that given type of cuisine. That is absolutely normal: I, too, have some types of food that I just can’t appreciate. What is not normal though is to judge a type of food you can’t like since your perception of it is already biased. I only review cuisines that I understand and appreciate because I can then accurately tell you which dish I found good or bad. The cuisines that I do not like, I simply describe them and also wait to be enoughly familiar, knowledgeable about them before providing my readers with opinions on them. I also follow very strict practices that I believe are essential for your judgement about food to be accurate such as never eating anything and drinking only flat water within the 4,5 hours leading to a meal that I want to review. It is a nonsense to review a dinner without any ethic, method.
–What to look for in a food critic? Her/His dining history / experience and pray that (1) he/she is honest about it and (2) she/ he has a good palate! No more, as food is…obviously..personal (subjective).
–Montreal is the city which restaurants you know the most. To you, how does Montreal fare on the International restaurant scene? Montreal is an amazing city, full of great things such as a cultural and artisitic scene of world class standard. BUT the food at its restaurants, though generally not bad, remains a world away from this globe’s finest food cities. There are, currently in Montreal, only 5 to 6 Chefs of whom I can safely say that they have the proper skills and discipline to really shine in any of this globe’s best dining cities. But that’s out of 6000 cooks and more! So, for now, Montreal is clearly an overrated dining city. Montreal restaurant scene will never compete with the finest food scenes abroad as long as they overlook true skills, which is essentially what has been the problem up to now: the rare times I stumbled upon a world class Chef, in Montreal, he/she either had to leave the city or lower his/her standards. There have been some few of those exceptional Chefs who did insist on maintaining their standards high, but their dining room is oftently empty. So most inevitably opt for the easy way around, cooking what sells most (simple bistrot fares, etc) and they are not to be blamed. They have mouths to feed as anyone else.
-Your biggest disappointment about the Montreal restaurant scene? The usual problem you see everywhere else: some brilliant Chefs who lost the passion of the craft, lacked discipline, got the big head, fooled themselves into believing that they are stars, and are now performing the role of restaurateurs who can’t seriously deliver. That is the problem when you can’t bother learning to walk and are already busy running. Those folks think they are Alain Ducasse / Joel Robuchon / Gordon Ramsey, but they are nowhere near. Ducasse, Robuchon and Ramsey are nowadays restaurateurs, it is a fact, but they went through long years of rigorous learning, and mastery of what they wanted to offer to their customers, they know exactly what they are doing. Consequently, People working for Ducasse, Robuchon and Ramsey are very serious, very talented, highly reliable. Which is rarely the case of most of those ex-brilliant Montreal Chefs who were lured into turning hastily into restaurateurs (most have poorly skilled cooks / brigades working for them ). The other major problem of the Montreal restaurant scene are the prices (in relation to what’s offered): in Montreal, a starter of pan sear foie gras will cost you, in general, in between $15 to $25 (which means in between eur 10 to eur 17). In comparison, a piece of foie gras of that same size would cost you less that 5 euros in San Sebastian. In that 5 euros, do not be surprise if a free glass of wine (Txakoli) is included. In Montreal, your glass of wine may vary in between $10 to $15 on average.To make matters worst, during my stay of 2 weeks in San Sebastian, I have eaten foie gras at least a dozen of time and 99% of what I was eating was always perfectly cooked and featured dazzling livery flavour. In comparison, if I take the 15 years of dining in Montreal, I’d be generous if I’d tell you that 50% of all foie gras dishes I had in town matched what I had in San Sebastian. We are talking about something as very basic as pan sear foie gras here. I know some people are busy selling Montreal as a great food city on par with this world’s best food cities, but I think that is a huge mistake as this simple comparison between Montreal and a true food city like San Sebastian demonstrates . Again, the food is generally not bad at all, in Montreal, and there are indeed couple of world class Chefs and restaurants, but we need to be rational: the reality is that we are a world away from this globe’s finest food cities where world class Chefs can’t just be counted on the fingers on one hand (the case of Montreal’s current food scene).
-When you know the restaurant scene of a city, Montreal in your case, is is tempting to mock those who are lured to believe that they’ve tried the best of your city while you know well that they are delusional? No, that would be a mistake. When you do not know a place, you tend to follow what’s best sold to you. Since what’s best sold does not always mean that it’s what’s best done, most people will somewhat be inaccurate in their assessment. We all are victims of that situation. Even when you use caution: for eg, when I visit a new city, I pick 2 tables recommended by the usual advertisements for tourists, 2 tables from the network of local foodies that I’d approach, then 2 based on online reviews I believe to be trustworthy. And yet, it is not a perfect process at all. The only thing that I avoid is to listen to celebrities: they seem to uniformly appreciate everything. Which is fine, and I wish things were like that, I too would love to believe that everything is positive, but that is unfortunately far from being realistic. Mind you, it is rare that a restaurant would treat a normal diner the same way they would treat a celebrity, so right there it’s useless for me to know what a celebrity thinks about a restaurant.
–Nowadays, you go to NYC to enjoy great food as Montreal’s food scene appears to you as not great enough. Was that always the case? And what can make Montreal a great food city again? No, it has not always been the case. In between 2009 and 2013, Montreal was a true world class dining destination (I have a nice post about that era, that you can peruse here). In those days, a very charismatic and highly skilled local Chef, Martin Picard, made the local food scene exciting. He came with APDC, did put it as well as Montreal on the the map of the culinary world and Montreal happened to have world class Chefs pivoting around that, such as Chefs Olivier de Montigny/Marc De Canck of La Chronique, Claude Pelletier of Club Chasse et Peche, Benoit Lenglet of Au 5e péché, Jean-Paul Giroux of Cuisine et dépendance, Martin Juneau of Restaurant La Montée De Lait. You also had Bronte (now closed since a long time) of Joe Mercuri, Michele, his brother, who was “on fire” in his heyday at XO Le Restaurant (he is not there anymore) or Chef Chef Jean-Francois Belair who has worked wonders at Le Marly (a restaurant that is now closed). After 2013, it went downhill. La Chronique continues to be great, but APDC and all the rest are not as great as they used to be. Certainly not the world class food city that Montreal was in between 2009 and 2013. Not even the shadow of that. To make Montreal a great food city again, you cannot count on luck. Montreal was lucky to have an exciting Chef like Martin Picard who was able to lead other talented Chefs in their quest for excellence. But that was pure luck and just circumstance. The local tourism authorities will need to find other creative ways than just paying plenty of food bloggers and food journalists to chant what is basically a glory pertaining to the past. (This Question was added to the Q&A after 2013, obviously)
–Talking about trends, do you understand the voices of those who argue that haute dining is generally intimidating, too stuffy to be enjoyable. It depends on what you expect from a restaurant. The only expectation that I have over haute dining is a certain level of cooking brilliance, meaning a touch/ a depth of flavor/technique/craftsmanship that is not ordinary. Therefore, when I go to a haute dining venture and the cooking has no depth, that it stands as ordinary as everyone else would have cooked at lesser restaurant levels, then I am frustrated and I will perceive the relevant haute dining experience as worthless. Sadly,that happens a lot at plenty of haute dining ventures because many restaurants are busy selling concepts rather than delivering great food: for example, it is sometimes trendy to try to impress the diners with concepts like ‘cuisine à quatre mains’ (four-handed cooking). For someone, like me, for whom the finest cooking should be about a highly skilled Chef expressing his personal touch, four-handed cooking is a laughable concept. But many people buy into that, so you get the sort of ‘impersonal’ cooking (meaning food that 100 of other cooks could have delivered) that is generally found at most fine dining restaurants. Unless there is a personal touch on display (for eg, the Santini family at Dal Pescatore, Bernard Pacaud when he was still active behind his stoves at L’Ambroisie), haute dining remains, for me, generally worthless. Affordable food that tastes great and that is enjoyed in lively environments will always be a safer bet (compared to haute dining).
– You are a big fan of Perico Legasse, the food journalist of France’s magazine Marianne. Where do you part ways with him? The question of food journalism is one piece of my long time aversion to food critics in general. Many food journalists think they are the hot stuff, based on sole restaurant write ups or books of recipes or making friends with cooks. The reality is that they are paid to create nothing, write about whatever most non remunerated individuals could have expressed, they are saving no life, and worst: they bring absolutely nothing! Ludicrous. So, when I found that Mr Légasse went beyond the usual ‘self-adulation through heavy penchant for stylish writing and other megalomaniac symptoms ” of some of them, my eyes opened. I was impressed by his way of genuinely defending the notion of ‘terroir’. Many talk about those things such as ‘terroir’, but it’s usually wind. They talk about it a bit, here and there just to capt media attention whenever that serves them. But I have never seen someone so engaged, so tenacious about it. His battle against the EU’s protected designation of origin is epic. He is among the few fighting against the danger of loss of authenticity. He is not just a food journalist, he is a genuine activist and I can’t think of anyone else as involved as him in whatever he defends. Many are afraid of associating themselves with him as you will rarely see him referred on a food blog or other restaurant related web sites. That tells you a lot about the agenda of those people. It is the generic agenda, the agenda of the sameness, the ‘safe mode’s applause’. That said, I do not always agree with Perico, which is normal. For example, he is strongly against molecular cooking style. For me, all styles should co-exist next to each other. I am not a big fan of cooking that heavily relies on spectacular scientific experimentation neither, which does not mean that I can’t appreciate it, but it deserves to exist and be encouraged as cubism, fauvism, mannerism, baroque…all deserve to exist as eclectic forms of arts to be respected in their own ways.
The most entertaining food writer of all time ? It is utterly boring and useless to talk about food. Useless because taste is subjective. Useless, because what I ate today, cooked by Chef Joe, at restaurant XX might be totally different from what Chef Joe will cook tomorrow at that same restaurant for many reasons that will vary from the mood of the Chef, etc. I still do it for the sake of sharing with those who do help me to find nice eateries. That said, one food writer got it. He got the fact that writing about food is useless and boring and he took that opportunity to entertain people. He did it way better than anyone else. The late AA Gill!
Your #1 TV Food Personality of all time ..Batali? Ray? Beard? Fieri? Ramsay, Boudain, Zimmern? Zimmern, hands down! Can you imagine the palate of Chef Andrew Zimmern. I doubt there is one single texture and flavour that his palate is not familiar with. He went everywhere and tasted everything. And he is so down to earth. Just a natural!
(This Q&A is regularly updated. Last Update: October 2021)
An anonymous Montrealer's Michelin Star dinners 