Latest / Chef's PSA Podcast / My Food Critic Experience Ep. 3

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My Food Critic Experience Ep. 3 · Chef's PSA Podcast

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Hello chefs. You're listening to chefs, PSA
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podcast. I'm your host Entre natera.
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Today we are going to talk about some experiences, I've had with
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food critics, what it was like to be cooking for food critics,
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what the process is in the kitchen, what's going through my
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mind kind of, you know, the chaos that ensues what were some
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of the things that I did to hopefully leverage things in my
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favor. Nonetheless.
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I know No, a lot of people are interested in that.
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A lot of people, you know, wonder what it's like to deal
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with food critic. So today in today's episode,
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we're going to get into all of that.
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So, I want to go back to really my first experience with the
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food critic. I was a chef at a resort, and in
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Coachella, Indian Wells, California.
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And that was really the first time that I had really been
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written about had my name in the newspaper and it was, it was a
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different feeling. Um there's a lot of stress that
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goes with that. There's a lot of source of Pride
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that goes with it at. You know, if they wrote nicely
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about you, you have this immense sense of Pride, you kind of
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stick your chest out, you, you puff up a little bit.
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I didn't get written about much in California but it was just my
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first introduction to it. So I kind of had an idea for it
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fast forward. A couple of years later and I am
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the chef at the pyramid, restaurant inside the Fairmont
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Hotel in Dallas, Texas and Now, for those people that don't
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know, the pyramid restaurant for many years, in Dallas was like
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an iconic restaurant. There's three classic French
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iconic restaurants in Dallas that have been around forever
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and that is the Mansion on Turtle Creek, the French room
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and the pyramid restaurant and so it really didn't matter who
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was the chef at any of those places.
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If you were the chef there, you were going to get written about
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and most likely a food critic would come.
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So initially right away, I met with my PR manager and they kind
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of explained to me, hey, we're doing a press release.
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We're announcing that you're the, the new chef, but you need
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to be prepared because most likely you're going to get a
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visit from the food critics from the Dallas Morning News and all
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the other food Publications. And people that are reviewing
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restaurants at that time. Actually, before we get started,
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I want to go back and clarify something.
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I said the Mansion on Turtle Creek was a French restaurant.
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It indeed is not a French restaurant.
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Aunt, when Bruno Dhabi on was there as the executive chef,
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they were doing French food but when Dean fearing was the chef
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there, they were doing Southwest Cuisine.
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So it wasn't always a French restaurant.
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I think a lot of that is determined by who is the chef?
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They've just always been known as that to fine dining
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establishment with in Dallas. So now fast forward the current
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food critic at the time from the Dallas Morning News was Leslie
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Brenner and she had a fierce reputation for being really
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harsh on Chefs. And for what I Remember, I think
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she had just come from working at the Los Angeles Times.
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If I'm if I'm correct and I might be wrong on that, but she
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had a very specific palette. She had very specific
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expectations for restaurants. And at the time, she was the
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king banker. And what I mean by that is if
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she liked you, you were on top. You were, you were going to be a
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household name in Dallas in the chef community.
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So she was the kingmaker. So I was a little bit nervous
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that she was going to come in. Fortunately, for me, Oh, my
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sommelier at the time, Hunter Hammond, shout out to Hunter, he
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had waited on her and knew who she was because he had worked
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previously at fairings under Dean fairing.
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So he had recognized her and there was pictures floating
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around of her at the time, because she was really trying to
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be Incognito, but she had written a book.
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And I believed her photograph was floating around from that
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book. So every single chef and every
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single server and the restaurant had her photograph inside their
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walls. I made a standard of case, if
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she shows up, everyone needs to know who she is.
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Now, she was going in under fake names.
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So she was never going to make the reservation as Leslie
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Brenner. She was going to make the
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reservation as you know, Mary Sue or whatever.
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So everyone knew what she looked like and they all knew, as soon
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as she comes in, they needed to alert the kitchen now and The
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Culinary team. We were on high alert.
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We always want to know. Okay, if she comes in, what is
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the plan? And we had a mitigation plan in
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place and that was, if I happen to be off because Cuz you know
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the food critics are smart, they're going to try and go on a
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Sunday when you know, when the head chef is usually off
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everyone knew, if I am off, you call me.
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As soon as you recognize her, you call me.
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I'm going to drop everything and come to the restaurant, so I
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could make sure that service goes smoothly and that the food
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is correct. So, we knew that the other thing
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that we knew is that once we recognized her that the tables
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around where she was sitting, if no one was sitting there at the
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time, we work in a mark, those tables with people that we knew.
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So, for example, she's sitting at a table, the table next to
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her, we were going to call our friend and say you're sitting
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right next to her. So you can eavesdrop on
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everything that she's saying and you're going to text us a
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play-by-play. So we already had people planted
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in the restaurant that we're going to sit next to her and
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Send us the play-by-play. So anyway, long story short, she
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shows up to the restaurant and Hunter recognizes her wide right
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away. I happen to be in the restaurant
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at the time. I'm in the kitchen and they
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alert me, they say, Hey FYI food critic is in at this table,
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boom. Now we know we go on high alert
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and this is a tense situation in the kitchen.
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This is really my first experience with the food critic,
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so I'm nervous. I want to make sure that she's
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happy with our food and at the time.
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So this is really we pre Instagram and social media and
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all that I had been working in California and food Trends back
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then were much quicker on the coasts than they were, you know,
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in Texas. So people would always say oh
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California's 5 to 10 years ahead on food Trends than Dallas.
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Texas is. So having just come from
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California and having been the chef of one of the better
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restaurants in the city and getting recognition there.
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I felt that even though I wasn't top of the Food chain in
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California. I could take that food and bring
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it to Dallas and I'd be 5 years ahead of everyone else.
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So I felt like it was easy to get noticed in Dallas at the
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time because they were still a little bit behind and I'm not
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knocking anyone, but it's the truth.
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They were a little bit behind the times and I could do my old
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shit from California and people be like, oh my god, I've never
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seen this before because they hadn't.
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So now she's in the dining room and everything is going.
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Well, I go touch the table because obviously I didn't just
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touch her table because I had to not know who she was.
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So I touched other tables and just pretended like oh hi.
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How are you? And I think I was delivering a
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souffle or something, and she started talking.
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Oh, are you the chef blah, blah blah.
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And I said, yes, we happen to have a rooftop garden at the
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time. So, I was like, oh, would you
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like a tour of the garden? So, you know, I just moved her
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and her husband, I don't remember who else was there and
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I gave him a tour of the garden. She was asking a lot of
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questions. Now, I know she's the food
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critic. I'm not sure if she is aware
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that, I know. But nonetheless, I'm playing the
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part. I'm calling her by her fake
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name, even though I know it's a fake name, I'm playing the game,
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long story short, she came in a couple of times I want to say
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she came in once or twice and everything went well where I got
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a great review. Now funny story On one of those
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visits were she came in. It was a complete disaster.
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We had run out of pasta and no one said anything.
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So the pasta was 86 and we forgot to tell the service team.
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And she happened to order the pasta.
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So it's like one of those. Oh, shit moments.
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What do we do? And so the order is n, so
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there's first second. Third course, the pasta I
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believe was on the second course and I'm freaking out because you
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know one of the sous-chefs at the time's comes up to me and
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says, Chef we're out of pasta and she's ordered.
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It's like what the fuck do we do?
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So, I'm panicking. I'm yelling at one of the cooks
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like you better hurry up and make that pasta and it better be
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cooked, right? So she's scrambling over there.
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Making pasta dough, rolling it through the Machine, we get it
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done. I don't I to this day.
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I don't know how we got it done, but by the time, the pasta
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course was fired. We made pasta somehow, you know,
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divine intervention came in and made the pasta and like I said
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we had a great review and it was interesting because you know
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subsequently after that we got a four-star review I was
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recognized by the Dallas Morning News as one of the best chefs by
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the Dallas Morning News and that was 2011 and 2012.
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By belief. So now, within the city, I'm
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getting a lot of press. So not just from the Dallas
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Morning News, but from Dallas Modern Luxury, d magazine.
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I've now ascended to the top of the food chain within the,
9:00
within the chef community and that market so things are
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changing for me, you know, now, I'm a hot, commodity people are
9:06
writing about me, other chefs are stealing my ideas.
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You know, people are watching what we're doing, Young Chefs
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want to work for me. I have a line out, the door of
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people that want to work for me now, so my life has completely
9:17
changed at this point. So what do you do when you're
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Successful? By the way, if you're listening
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to this, remember this advice, what do you do when you're
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successful, you capitalize on your success and you double
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down. So I had an opportunity to go be
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the chef partner of some restaurants in Dallas and lo and
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behold here, we got the food critic back in and I don't
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remember exactly what the rule was.
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Like, they wouldn't review you for six weeks or whatever.
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But I remember early on it was a tough go round because I had to
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The turnover, the kitchen staff. Because that's just the way
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restaurants our new. Chef comes in, most people start
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quitting, because they were loyal to the old shaft.
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They don't like change Etc. So I turned over a significant
10:00
portion of my staff. In addition to that, I have to
10:03
train new staff on a new style of food.
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So it's kind of slow to go from what you were doing at the
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previous restaurant in terms of level of Cuisine to now the new
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place doing the exact same level.
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So, you know, you got to take some steps to get there.
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But I didn't really have time because the expectation is
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you're a four-star, Chef your, you know, two years consecutive
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in the best chef Dallas. We expect you to perform at the
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highest level and I didn't really have enough time to get
10:30
the kitchen to where I needed it to get to and lo and behold,
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here comes the food critic. So you know, I thought we had a
10:37
decent night. I thought we were performing, we
10:40
used to brine our duck, you know, with pink, curing salt and
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a lot of other things. But anyway, In the review, I'll
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never forget this shoe. She wrote that the duck had the
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taste and texture of a hot dog. I'm assuming it was because of
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the pink your insults, but it didn't have the taste of a hot
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dog, it tastes like Duck. But anyway, you know, she beat
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me up a little bit and and, you know, so I went from a four-star
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Chef to a three-star chef and I got to admit that was like a
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huge blow to the ego. So it's like, how are we going
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to push to four stars that? Like, that's where we wanted to
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get to. And I'll tell you another thing
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that was, that was funny in the kitchen.
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So we have a rule when a food critic came in and and I
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remember watching the movie burnt and you know, he screams
11:28
this out, he's like there always needs to be two portions of
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everything so you got to cook two of everything.
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And the reason you would do that is because in case you mess one
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up, like, let's just say you're cooking a steak, let's say your
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steak is a little bit over, you're going to have another
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steak ready to go. So if you got to switch it out
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like Chef sees it. Hey it's, it's supposed to be
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medium rare, you cooked. At medium great.
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We have the backup one that's slightly undercooked that we
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could, we could get it to where it needs to be.
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So this time, she happened to have ordered a steak and of
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course, I planted a person next to her table.
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We're getting the text. In this particular restaurant, I
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had mirrors, so I was able to watch her the entire time and
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see what she was doing, what she was eating.
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And I'm getting play-by-play for my friend that's sitting next to
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her. What she's eating?
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What she's saying about the food, blah, blah blah.
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And by the way, it's a stressful day in the kitchen were busy.
12:17
So food comes back and you know, we have an expression, you want
12:20
to see the food coming and going and what that means is that is a
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very important person in the restaurant.
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So I am expecting every plate going, and I'm expecting every
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plate coming back. So she ordered the steak, she
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sends the steak back. I want to verify that the steak
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is cooked. And by the way, I don't mean she
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sent it back to get cooked differently.
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I mean, like, she's done eating. She wanted it to go which I
12:44
didn't know. So the server brings the steak
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back. Has it on a plate me and the
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sous chef go back there, to check the steak we cut into it.
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So this is her eaten steak, right?
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She took a piece out of it, we cut into it, we're not going to
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eat it. We just kind of want to look and
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make sure it's cooked correctly because it is the first time,
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you know, we're seeing inside the steak.
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So we look at it, we're dicing it up.
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We're looking to make sure it's perfect and the server comes
13:04
back and he says, that's supposed to be to go.
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Now, we're like, oh shit, we just got into her steak and it
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was supposed to be to go like, what do we do now?
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Thank God, we had the backup second Cooks, Take so we we cut
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it like in the same area that she had taken a bite out of it
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and made it look like it was the original one, but, you know,
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that was a tense situation. Funny story nonetheless, long
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story short, new review comes out.
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It's not as great as the, the first one.
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So, of course, that's tough on the team.
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And I think what people don't realize is every Chef is looking
13:40
for a little bit of that recognition, you know,
13:41
especially when you're climbing up the ladder and your
13:43
restaurant and your reputation. Lives and dies off what they're
13:48
writing about you in the paper. And for people that don't
13:51
understand this, let me explain to you what it's like like you
13:55
might get a review from your boss, you sit down and you get a
13:57
good or a bad review or at home when you were a kid, you get
14:00
your report card. Well, that's between you the
14:02
teacher of your parents or you and your boss, right?
14:05
The difference. When you're being written about
14:07
in the papers, number one, you didn't ask to be written about
14:10
in the paper and it's like they're reading your employee
14:14
review or your Your report card out loud for everyone in the
14:20
community to see and it's like shit, you know, when it's greats
14:24
like everyone, everyone loves being the hammer, but no one
14:27
likes being the nail, it's great when you're on top.
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It's not so great when when they're writing poorly about
14:33
you. So obviously that felt like a,
14:35
you know, it was nonetheless, it was disappointing, long story
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short, it was disappointing to get a bad review.
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Now, we've changed Concepts, we're in a different restaurant.
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We have a restaurant downstairs. We have a restaurant upstairs,
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she comes in again, we get a bad review again, and it's like, I'm
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having a bad week, she shows up at the wrong time, she shows up
14:58
on a Sunday, I'm working service.
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I actually thought the food went.
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Well, I was really surprised that she gave us a bad review
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because I thought this restaurant was better than the
15:06
one she gave three stars. But anyway, long story short, we
15:09
get a bad review and now I'm devastated because it's like I
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went from being a force. Our chef and it's like every
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review after that seem to only go downhill.
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So like I said, it's great when you're on top, but when you're
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on top and if you're not, if you're not careful, you could
15:24
quickly fall to the bottom. So it was, it was a difficult
15:28
time for me to to process because a lot of people were
15:33
saying, oh did he lose it? You know, he's not as good as he
15:35
used to be you know, blah blah blah.
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And it was it was one of these tough situations.
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So Here's what's really interesting about this time is.
15:45
So the day that I get the bad review from her in the paper.
15:49
You know we're all bummed out and a couple of my friends from
15:53
the restaurant decided. Well let's go out drinking and
15:55
we went to Casa rubia at the time.
15:58
Chef Omar floors. Had a restaurant called Casa
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rubia and Omar's a friend. I love Omar were both from the
16:04
same Hometown and, you know, I want to go eat his food.
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I went to go eat at his restaurant and so I'm there with
16:10
the ownership and lo and behold, Old.
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There's the food critic and like a couple of tables down from
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from, from where we're sitting and I thought, well, isn't that
16:18
isn't that a coincidence? You know, here, I'm having like
16:20
she probably doesn't realize what a bad day I'm having.
16:24
And there she is. You just, you just destroyed my
16:26
reputation in the paper and oh we happen to show up at the same
16:28
restaurant. Anyway, that's neither here.
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Nor there it did suck but I just thought that was funny so long
16:34
story but I go through a little bit of, you know sadness like a
16:39
lot of chefs. Do you know when you're on top?
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I love it when you're on bottom, it sucks.
16:43
And yeah, I'm definitely going through a funk and I think some
16:47
of my friends noticed that I'm going through a funk, but I'll
16:50
share this story and I'll keep it short.
16:53
But Chef John taser, who knows pretty well known famous chef in
16:59
Dallas and he has other restaurants and some Ritz
17:02
Carlton's across the country, but he's a great chef, he's been
17:05
on Top Chef, you know, he used to work with Anthony Bourdain.
17:08
He's a, he's a He's a chef chef and he gets it.
17:13
Well, anyway, I'm down in the dumps.
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He happens to show up out of the blue, like, I didn't invite him,
17:20
he just happened to show up with another friend of mine, and they
17:23
came into the restaurant. And I'll never forget this
17:26
because it was great advice. He called me up and he said,
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hey, let's go upstairs and have a drink.
17:30
So, you know, the three of us. We went upstairs and had a drink
17:34
and he says, look, I know you're down in the dumps.
17:38
I know you just got a bad review, but let me tell you
17:40
something. I've gotten lots of bad reviews
17:43
and I'm still here and you're still young in your career.
17:46
You have plenty of opportunity to rise and fall and rise and
17:49
fall again. So hey, be sad tonight have some
17:53
drinks but tomorrow, get back after it.
17:56
And it was what I needed to hear at the moment especially from,
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you know, you know, Chef that was older and wiser than me that
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I respected. So when you're dealing with food
18:06
critics, I think it's important that you have a plan, know what
18:08
you're supposed to do know who those food critics are, you
18:10
know? Maybe the photos are posted on
18:13
the wall or whatever, do what you do be present, but they're
18:18
going to write what they write. Whether it's good, whether it's
18:20
bad. Hopefully it's good because, you
18:21
know, obviously, good compounds. But if it's bad, remember this.
18:27
It's just one person's opinion about you and it doesn't Define
18:30
who you are. You need to learn from it, pick
18:34
yourself back up, and get back after it.
18:36
So anyway, that's all for today's rant Chef's.
18:40
Thank you so much. If you I want to support the
18:42
podcast. You could buy the book Chef's
18:44
PSA, it's available on Amazon. It's also available on Audible
18:48
and iTunes, the audio version of it, and you could follow along
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at Chefs PSA on Instagram and chefs PSA on Twitter.
18:55
I'll get the tick tock thing going.
18:56
But I ain't gonna do no sucker dances but we'll see how this
18:59
goes anyway. Thank you all very much and see
19:02
you next time.