Quality Control
By Andrew Zimmern
Well, I never thought I would live to see the day when Sean Penn, Javier Bardem, Benicio del Toro, Jonah Hill, Jack Black, Seth Rogen, and I would all write the same film-centric blog post, but here it is . . . . More intriguing to me was something I read in a Kate Rogers blurb in the current issue of our magazine writing about The Green Room. She wrote:
“Every so often, a lively debate flares over restaurant relativism. Bloggers and commenters—god love ‘em—tend to stoke the fires. You know, delis in Minnesota can never compare to delis in New York. Wolfgang in Minneapolis is nowhere near as good as Wolfgang in LA or even Wolfgang in Vegas, on and on and on. But what happens when the restaurant in question is in Waconia? Does the scale slide from city to country standards just like that? Yes. Though the bravado-filled NYC and Chicago v. Minneapolis disputes are often redundant and wearying, they do offer a yardstick to measure the scene we care about most: our own.”
I like Kate’s writing, and she is a young, talented, and smart woman who knows her stuff . . . and I love this kind of conversation. And when I read her piece, I wanted to call her right away and hash out the nitty gritty of the issue she raises. The way I see it, and I am one of the food pundits she refers to as a fire-stoker, there is only one version of excellence, and it isn’t relative at all. The scale shouldn’t slide for anyone.
The JGV concept at The Chambers Hotel needs to held to the same level of evaluation as the Waconia joint, good is good. Period. And the Puck concept at the Walker needs to be evaluated in relation to other local restaurants but also to its organization's standards as a whole, like any other restaurant company. Sliding scales, grading on a curve, and the like is what we do best around here in Minnesota, and it dumbs down the level of quality. We even do it with our sports teams, much to the chagrin of my pal Dan Barreiro, who is more irritated with the “well, we’re good enough” measuring stick we hold our Twins, Wild, Wolves, and Vikes to than I am regarding the local dining scene. Great food in Minneapolis is the same as great food in Kansas City or Guangzhou, China, and given someone less or more credit because of where they operate their business is pointless. Just one dude's POV.
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The San Pellegrino World's 50 Best Restaurant Award rankings will be announced at 8 p.m. (UK time) on Monday, April 20th. The results will be "tweeted" this year, along with other news from the night's proceedings. See twitter.com/spoonhq. Hopefully I will be on hand; I missed it last year. The party in years past has been an all-time food fest of the highest order. Nearly all the chefs on the list have confirmed that they will be attending, so London will be brimming with tasty tales and gratifying gossip. Attendees include the four-time crowned chef-owner of the best restaurant in the world, Ferran Adria of El Bulli, and come-back king Joel Robuchon. Check out the list here.
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Closer to home, the Beard Award finalists were announced last week while I was away shooting. Congrats to all the local nominees. See award nominees here. Locally, we got another three chefs in the mix in our regional award category. Isaac, Tim, and Alex all got a nod and are all deserving in the extreme. I think any one of them is deserving of the award for umpteen reasons. Isaac shouldn’t be penalized for only owning one restaurant, especially given the cultural importance and continued level of excellence he demonstrates at 112. Alex is expanding his Brasa concept, and the food at Alma has never been better . . . his level of attention to his rotisserie shop and his commitment to quality certainly could earn him the nod. Tim should have won this award for years now . . . and still should. Who knows how the judges see this? Should be an interesting year. The awards are May 4th at Avery Fisher Hall. You should be there. And for the 4th year running, I will be away shooting that week . . . I want to kill myself.
© 2008 MSP Communications, Inc. All rights reserved
Don't you hate it when work constantly interrupts all those fun activities like that. Life is so unfair!
Hope you still get to London for that food fest. Hey, how'bout I eat those pesky bugs in your place ... and get a portion of your salary.
Ground Control to Major Tom
Your circuit’s dead, there’s something wrong
Can you hear me, Major Tom?
Can you hear me, Major Tom?
Can you hear me, Major Tom?
Can you hear....
Posted by: bobby dee on March 31, 2009 at 10:35 PM
I heard chef Fillipo was let go from I Nonni. Is this true?
Posted by: Donna on April 1, 2009 at 2:15 PM
Thanks for the shout, Andrew. Awesome. Let's hash it out, though. We're at a competitive disadvantage when we play that "good is good" no matter what. Where the Yankees expect to win the World Series, the Twins are looking to be competitive. Salary caps are a factor. It's not that I'm letting mediocre restaurants off the hook, it's more that I'm trying to provide context for what a local diner can expect. What fun is going out if we're slamming restaurants for not being Prune when we can't afford to sign Gabrielle Hamilton? Especially when there are treasures to behold at a charming place like the Green Room. Context matters. And it's not just provincial boosterism talking. Anyone can win the World Series. We just have to be realistic about it.
Posted by: Kate Rogers on April 1, 2009 at 7:04 PM
Andrew,
Not to nit pick, but don't you think it's time that all of those with a James Beard vote realize that they can't split them up amongst all the MN chefs and let someone from somewhere else win who is less deserving? I think it is way past due for Tim McKee to finally win. Nothing against Isaac and Alex, they're great, but Tim is most deserving for sure.
Posted by: Gin on April 2, 2009 at 2:02 PM
I think you do need to consider that the demographics are different here and the market is different. As you yourself have pointed out in past posts, AZ, there is simply a smaller number of people in Mpls/St Paul who are interested in food and have the resources to support it. This means that restaurants here have to appeal to non-foodie types (people who are freaked out by unfamiliar ingredients and care more about quantity than quality) than restaurants in NYC/Chicago do. If restaurants don't address this, they go under. Butts in seats are what counts, right?
So I'm not saying there should be a "sliding scale", but I think when judging restaurants in a given market, we should be grading them on how well they do what they do within their particular context.
To my mind - a place like the 112 serves kickass food but can cater to those who don't want to spend much and think that foie gras is gross; I'd give them an A, because they're doing what they want and succeeding in their market. A place that maybe serves even better food but doesn't understand the market? Well... gold star for effort, but the business fails.
Posted by: Elsa on April 4, 2009 at 4:32 PM
Elsa...i agree with you....we are sayng same thing, you made my point again for me.
Butts in seats, check.
112 Kicks ass and "gets it."And if a place gets a golkd star for food but cant keep doors open then they did something the market didnt respond to (aquavit syndrome), but it doesnt mean the food wasnt SUPERB! Sliding scales dont work, and anytime i hear someone say "well, its really excellent for this town, or for this area" i cringe. Good is good, period, it either is a great place to go (for either food, ambience, vibe, service, fun, price-value etc) for some or all of these factors or it isnt.
Posted by: AZ on April 5, 2009 at 9:34 AM
Good is good. That's right. And whenever I'm in Europe I always bitch and complain that I can never get any good BBQ. They just don't know how to do it right.
I prefer to think of it in terms of getting surprised. And this comes down to expectations. I've worked in enough restaurants to know what it takes to provide a nice atmosphere, good service and good food. We all know when someone is doing everything right and with that I can agree with Andrew.
When I go to a place where I expect to pay $100+ for two, I have certain expectations. When I go for Vietnamese, I'm there for just the food, the conversation and a $25 bill.
A perfect example would be Wild Rice in Bayfield, WI. People had told me it was good. But it's rural Wisconsin ... when I'm in rural areas, I pray for food that doesn't suck and a friendly atmosphere. I was COMPLETELY blown away and willing to pay $140 for the two of us.
When I've been back to Wild Rice, I bring along the same expectations I have when I go any other expensive, fine dining restaurant. Except I will also fondly remember getting blown away.
That's got to figure in somehow, dunnit?
Posted by: The Big E on April 6, 2009 at 2:18 PM
Hi Andrew, may neeshtana halilah ha zeh? Happy Pesach brother! One thing I wanted to point out about Minneapolis (coming back after 8 years in Chicago) is that we have no legit tapas restaurant ala Cafe Ba Ba Reeba and desperately need one here. Same thing goes for decent Chicago pizza, particularly Pequod's! Have you heard of Pequod's, the Chicago pizza joint where they purposely carmelize/burn the crust?!? Ahhh, to die for!
Posted by: Josh Laurie on April 7, 2009 at 1:43 PM
Josh,
Not sure how long you've been back, I'm guessing not long. But you should check out Tim McKee's restaurant Solera for Spanish tapas. Tons of choices and all of it great. They've recently started doing regional wine dinners, I think monthly, focusing on the different regions of Spain. One of the best restaurants in town. Check it out. I don't know of any good Deep Dish, wish I could help. Hopefully someone else can shed some light on that. But for my personal favorite, check out Black Sheep on Washington. Coal fired NY style pizza using premium ingredients.
Posted by: Gin on April 7, 2009 at 2:01 PM