jlawrence01 wrote:If you sit around in a roundtable for two hours with a member or members of the media, the ONLY things that will generally be reported are those things that will arouse some controversy. The ten or fifteen POSITIVE things you say will be ignored or deemphasized and the one thing that you critisize will get all the attention.
The real loser in this whole game is NOT the chefs. The real loser is the print media which no longer controls the discussion of the restaurant scene and is rapidly becoming obsolete.
Kennyz wrote:It's entirely possible that GEB said something like, "I love blogs. I really love LTHForum. It has done so much for me and for our diners. That said, there are some aspects which I do find quirky..." Even if the reporter wrote the whole thing, it's also entirely possible that the editors shortened it to include only the controversy.
JeffB wrote:In the end, who cares what chefs have to say about journalism, or criticism, or food anthropology, or documentary, or whatever happens here. They cook food for a living for chrissakes.
JeffB wrote:In the end, who cares what chefs have to say about journalism, or criticism, or food anthropology, or documentary, or whatever happens here. They cook food for a living for chrissakes.
Mhays wrote:And I hear you, but let's remember that chefs are not really FOH guys, . . .
eatchicago wrote:The old-media school of restaurant reviewing has one foot in the grave . . .
Ursiform wrote:I know there are some rather thoughtless reviews on Yelp, (ie; I KNOW Asian food and this isn't "true" Korean type of things) perhaps he was speaking with those in mind?
MBK wrote:i i think the web gives people a chance to be anonymous in their posts;
eatchicago wrote:Ursiform wrote:I know there are some rather thoughtless reviews on Yelp, (ie; I KNOW Asian food and this isn't "true" Korean type of things) perhaps he was speaking with those in mind?
Perhaps, but the whole point is that he/we/everyone has the ability to call out those thoughtless reviews, right on the same page for everyone to read!
Kennyz wrote:The more I think about this, the more I find a need to remind myself that we are much more likely to be misled by the media than by chefs. Obviously, I wasn't there, but re-reading Chef Kim's comments, I imagine a dialogue something like this:
Reporter: What's your biggest pet peeve about diners?
Kim: Really, nothing I can think of. Diners are what allow me to do what I love every day.
Reporter: OK, but if you had to pick one thing that you wish they wouldn't do, what would you say?
Kim: Well, I'm not even sure this is worth mentioning, because on the whole I think blogging and sites like LTHForum are good for our business. But it's a 2-sided coin. Yes, I was thrilled with all the initial positive reports we had on LTHForum, but it also made me a little nervous. I mean, we'd only been open a few days, and even I wasn't sure whether the kinks had been worked out. So, when I started seeing all these people coming in to take photos and write notes about the place...
dddane wrote:...and another aspect that Graham Elliot probably doesn't care about, but really should if they have a true interest in food and not just making money.. there are hundreds (maybe thousands) of restaurants that would never ever make it into a Chicago Tribune review, or even TimeOut. what about "the little guys" ?? what about Harbour Point, which is in a blighted sh*#hole area but might have good food still? did the Tribune write a review on them, or did people run to LTH and find them?
dddane wrote:MBK wrote:i i think the web gives people a chance to be anonymous in their posts;
i somewhat disagree. depending on the specific site, that may or may not be true. but i think just about anyone with 3 brain cells could do some google searching and find my real name and half the posters on this site. and yelp actually requires you give them a real name. i don't really believe in the illusion of privacy and don't totally mind this. you might then think "well it's still not a real person"...but Graham Elliott had your name on the reservation (and probably your credit card name too), so if they really wanted they could go patch that back to a real person and real experience in their restaurant. i think the anonymous vs real person factor is one thing that sets these sites apart from other review sites that are not even bothered with (metromix, citysearch, etc).
aschie30 wrote:On a related note, did we get some sympathy from Paul Kahan?Paul Kahan wrote:Paul: Well, they do it for sports. I mean think about talk radio. This online stuff is like culinary talk radio.
Bill, Bill, Bill. Speaking as one of those people with cameras that put you on the map, you're not doing yourself any favors.
KatyK wrote:While I regularly read this blog
KatyK wrote:Wouldn't a chef's cooking put him on the map and not someone blogging about it with a camera