Chefs, like artists, are sensitive as hell.
Ask Graham Elliot Bowles of the whimsical River North eatery that's made him a star at Lollapalooza as well as a colorful fixture on "Top Chef Masters."
Tuesday he went hard on Chicago Magazine because he didn't like its review of the cuisine that'll be served at the three-day music festival happening in August.
His words cut right through the bone in a Twitter message directed at the magazine:
"Three words of the day: FUCK CHICAGO MAGAZINE."
Dayum.
After a few hours, the magazine snarkily responded:
"Only if you buy us dinner first."
Then they followed up with a less abrasive tweet:
"We appreciate @grahamelliot's opinion on our opinion. He's doing his job, we're doing ours. No need to make it out to be more than it is."
I've seen some chefs vs. food media fights, but this one is just a little strange.
UPDATE: Ummmmmm, and now his retorts here and here:
"Bought you dinner/drinks last night, which your JV Yearbook team promptly 'reviewed.' Stay classy Chi Mag!"
"Misquotes, inaccuracies, pseudo reviewing of tastings/samples of menu, topped w/ overall crappy writing."
I feel we have been here before.....
ReplyDeleteWatch out for the Yelp reviews...some people don't learn.
ReplyDeleteI must say that reading the Chicago Mag reviews I thought that some of their points were well made: I can't see how some of that food can be eaten easily standing in a park.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, we don't know the whole story of it: maybe the Chicago Mag got an exclusive to report on the food, and although there is no obligation there to write only positive reviews, this may have been the expecations or what had been agreed upon before.
Who knows?
I stopped using yelp a long time ago. They cancelled the link to my negative reviews (strangely enough, they did not have a problem with my positive reviews).
When toiling in the restaurant trenches, nothing is more abhorrent, more boring, more flaccid, than programmed cynicism. Wait! No – you know what? There’s something deeper, more repugnant; a quality so malignant that people literally waste years of their precious lives in its delusive grasp: Self-Importance. If we were to fuse these shining traits in an unholy marriage not unlike Frankenstein or Will Smith’s Wild Wild West – we’d only begin to scratch the surface of the article in question.
ReplyDeleteWho cares if we’ve tweaked the food offerings at Lollapalooza (whose home lies in Chicago), with an amazing lineup of Chefs that represents…wait for it...Chicago? And seriously, why worry about the tens-of-thousands of dollars these independent restaurateurs are putting on the line by trying to make a music festival even better by serving inspired food? Pretty blasé when compared to the collective inhale of the entire city, holding its breath for a "writer" to critique/rate sampling portions of the food that will be offered.
Aside from meddling with the parasitic formula that affords her a job in the first place – Cassie Walker has donned the garb of a fourth-rate Joan Rivers covering the Daytime Emmy’s. What was supposed to be a fun gathering of Chefs, foodies, bloggers, writers and musicians celebrating the fact that our town now sports the best food offerings of any music fest in the country, sadly turned into a opportunity for a catty, reckless blog post fueled by a sick self-importance for insidious and prosaic journalism.
GE