Moto, Alinea, El Bulli on ESPN

.com, anyway.

It's always interesting to me when places such as this pop-up on the radar in decidedly non-foodie places.

Gregg Easterbrook is an NFL writer for ESPN, who writes a very long column in season on Tuesdays, and usually intelligently touches on a few unrelated cultural, political, or social issues.

I don't read this very often, and didn't see last year's column he references, but here it is:

Wacky Food of the Week: Last year, Tuesday Morning Quarterback did an item on Moto, the trendy, preposterous Chicago dining establishment that charges $165 per head for meals that include edible paper and "goat cheese snow." Moto calls itself a "postmodern restaurant," which TMQ speculates means a restaurant where no food can be said with assurance to taste good or bad. Here is what Moto food looks like. Recently came word from The New York Times that Moto requires its chefs to sign nondisclosure agreements -- we wouldn't want the recipe for goat cheese snow falling into the hands of the North Koreans! The really strange thing about Moto is not the food, but that it's difficult to get reservations.

Official Brother Frank Easterbrook, a habitué of fine Chicago restaurants, reports that Moto has been surpassed in price, absurdity and difficulty of obtaining reservations by Alinea, which charges $195 a head for a menu that includes "frozen and chewy" strawberries. All this nonsense began with El Bulli in Spain, which has won several world's best restaurant awards and is where Euro-trendies expend about $300 a head for an evening of such delicacies as seaweed omelet in a martini glass. El Bulli's Web site -- which has links that are impossible to copy -- declares "a new way of serving food" in which "diners themselves participate in the process." Are there restaurants where the diners don't participate? Also, the El Bulli Web site announces that "Decontextualization, irony, spectacle, performance are completely legitimate, as long as they are not superficial but respond to, or are closely bound up with, a process of gastronomic reflection."

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/st ... ortCat=nfl

I'm actually quite fond of TMQ... except when he's railing against fine dining

Dmnkly wrote:I'm actually quite fond of TMQ... except when he's railing against fine dining

Yeah, I am too, but man, his columns are long.

He's got a pretty interesting take on football, and lots of other things too.

Brother Frank is, of course, the well-regarded Chief Judge of the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals here in Chicago and a likewise brainy, rapier-witted guy (UofC prof, too). I could see him being an habitue' of fine dining establishments.

I don't know, I think Easterbrook's column has gotten a bit stale. He's obviously more intelligent and has a more diverse background than your average sports writer, but I just can't shake the feeling that he has a computer program that just churns these columns out once he enters a few variables. "Big blitzing is bad for the defense, as reflected by ________ getting burned this week when they blitzed 7 and the opposing QB hit a single covered receiver for a touchdown!" "Coach __ really chickened out by not going for it on 4th and 5 from the opponent's 45 down by 10 with 10:00 left in the game." "Susan from the Broncos Girls cheerleaders, a special ed teacher by day, is hot!!!"

At least one segment in one of his columns a year rails on something food related. A year or two ago, he harshed on some D.C. restaurant for serving pork belly and charging for it as a top entree, because it's all fat and it was traditionally thought to be an undesirable piece of meat. On Chicago matters, he gave grief to Potbelly's in a column a few years ago because they charge the same for their PB&J as for their sandwiches with meat. He also got all over France for designation of origin issues (relating to maybe cognac or champagne) as an example of their haughtiness, only to come back the following week and incorrectly state that bourbon is a designation of origin for a U.S. product.

I think in the effort to show himself as well versed in a wide variety of areas, he usually has one or more errors of fact or judgment per column. It still can be pretty entertaining stuff, though.

Matt wrote:I think in the effort to show himself as well versed in a wide variety of areas, he usually has one or more errors of fact or judgment per column. It still can be pretty entertaining stuff, though.

Easterbrook's problem is that he thinks he's knowledgeable in a wide variety of areas in which he is clearly not. He has a variety of sounding boards that let him pontificate about almost anything. If he ever writes about something that you actually know deal with in your own professional life, you'll realize he doesn't know what he's talking about and I guarantee you'll question his opinions on everything else.

Then there is the whole Kill Bill thing.

Regarding his food criticism: Whenever I read someone pulling the everyman-shtick complaining about haute cuisine, I ask how the writer compares to Calvin Trillin, a man who actually appreciates good food but can have fun with it at the same time. Easterbrook is not even close to Trillin.

Darren72 wrote:Easterbrook's problem is that he thinks he's knowledgeable in a wide variety of areas in which he is clearly not.

That's not his problem, that's his job description. The guy's an economist.

Just remember that the world is a flat, tipping freakadox, and you'll understand everything.

JeffB wrote:

Darren72 wrote:Easterbrook's problem is that he thinks he's knowledgeable in a wide variety of areas in which he is clearly not.

That's not his problem, that's his job description. The guy's an economist.

Actually, he wants you to think he's an economist. He has a journalism degree and most of his jobs are in journalism. He has no training in economics or any academic credentials, as far as I know. He lists his areas of expertise as "Christian theology; Environmental policy; Global warming; Professional sports (American football); Quality-of-life issues; Science; Space policy; "Well-being" research".

But we've clearly gone off topic - I apologize.

JeffB wrote:Just remember that the world is a flat, tipping freakadox, and you'll understand everything.