The Davis Wine Aroma Wheel

An agreed-upon vocabulary for communicating information about wine.

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Food Studies - An Academic Discipline

Illustrations of appetizers in the Victorian era (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Food scholarship has also been hindered by another Victorian relic, the “separate
spheres” – the idealized bourgeois division between the private female sphere of
consumption and the more public male sphere of production. While the concept
did not reflect the daily realities for most women – to this day women are major
food producers across the globe – the ideological polarization certainly influenced
the development of middle-class academia, for it effectively segregated women
professionals in less valued “domestic” disciplines, particularly dietetics, home
economics, social work, and nutrition education (along with elementary school
teaching, nursing, and library science). Conversely, the male-dominated realms of
industrial agriculture, food technology, mass retailing, and corporate management
have generally received more public respect and academic prestige.

This institutionalized bias delayed serious attention to food even after the women’s
movement obliterated the separate spheres. While more women began to enter all
fields of academia in the 1960s, it took several decades before scholars could begin
to consider the traditional female ghetto of domesticity without Victorian-era
blinders and prejudices, and even today, feminists who do treasure their cooking
heritage and skills may risk the hostility of colleagues who feel that women should
move on to more “serious” pursuits

The Only Food Writer to Win a Pulitzer Prize

Notice how Gold relates his review to LA car culture.

Last Year's James Beard Winner

Makes me want pancakes.

Karen Brooks holds one of the most prestigious titles in the food world: winner of the James Beard Craig Claiborne Distinguished Restaurant Review Award for 2017. This was her second time as a national finalist. After this, it’s all gravy.

Brooks eats, drinks and thinks about food for Portland Monthly, where she continues her journey as Portland’s opinionated, trend-spotting food critic. She pens monthly restaurant reviews, writes and photographs the print magazine’s Word of Mouth column (aka: what I’m obsessing over now), drives the annual Best Restaurants issue, contributes to various food-cover packages, and breaks news for the magazine’s food blog, Eat Beat.

A Sample Student Restaurant Review with Comments

Macaroni and cheese is an American comfort food (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Macaroni and cheese pizza from Cici's Pizza, an American buffet-style restaurant. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This is a thoughtful  approach, but it doesn’t have a ‘bang’ moment when you provide a specific that really grabs me, that makes me want to keep reading or rewards me for sticking with the review in spite of being just a little bored. Can you be more excited,  about … something?  The phrase I am going to use is “drill down.” Is there a moment at which something reminded you of earlier dining experiences or your life as a student? Perhaps, that’s my point. This is a bit of a generic review. I read it and I don’t know *precisely* who the writer is. Student? Experienced food reviewer? Guy who has never had to do this before? Is there a moment where the fact you are reviewing rather than experiencing  caused you to look at things or taste things or think about things in a new way? Arguably, if it's your first restaurant review, you will learn something about yourself. You will 'interrogate yourself,' as we talked about in class. Any light bulb moments?? You have some good detail, but the writing lacks energy and personality, both of which you have in abundance. On third read, I realize that you need to think more about the lead - Chronological approach often produces weak leads.  That first sentence does not make me want to keep reading, nor does any of the first paragraph. Don't assume the headline writer - which if you are a blogger is you - can save the story by dragging the most compelling detail or moment  out of the review and put it in the head. Frequently, a powerful head identifies the info that should be the lead. A good exercise would be for you to go through your review and identify what you think the most important bit is, the old 'Tell your roommate' approach: I went to this restaurant last night, and you would not believe the ....  We can probably find publications where the food review leads are as bland as white rice. Perhaps, the publication's reputation is so well established that readers do not need to be coaxed into stories. We will not assume we are writing for such a publication. We are fighting for eyeballs.

After seeing the same restaurant always jam-packed every time I walked down Clement Street, I decided to see what all the fuss was about.  An idea you drop. You raise the question. Answer it. The outside of Q is very unassuming and has a look that would make you think it was a nice quiet little restaurant. Specifics? Flowers? Misspelled sign? Also, you said it is always jam-packed, which suggests people waiting. Waiting where they can be seen? But, once you pass through the curtain covering the entrance, placed here, this sounds like a thesis statement - and it doesn't mention the food it comes alive with a very lively atmosphere, upbeat workers and fascinating wall decorations.  

            The dangers of the chronological approach! As a rule when I go out, I care more about food than the decor of the restaurant. Perhaps your lingering on the decoration would work if you had a transition like, "Good thing the look of the place kept our interest because the food sure didn't." The walls of Q are unlike anything I have ever seen before in a restaurant. For starters, there is a giant half moon on the ceiling, adding some mood lighting to the restaurant. Below the moon and on all the walls, there is new age art hanging on the walls. There are some very abstract pieces and sculptures hanging as well as drawn art. In the back of the restaurant is a table for a bigger party, that has Real tree? a tree growing through the middle of it. Christmas lights and bicycle chains hang from the tree. Somehow the tree table fits right in and does not seem at all out of place. Because? I have no idea what would come after “because” but go for it My favorite oddity was the magnetic letters next to each table with which you make words with while you wait for the food.

            I'm starting to think, "What about the *food*, dude. The wait staff is very friendly, and our server Alex was very upbeat. I even caught him flirting with the bartender male \or  female? and singing along to some of the indie songs playing over the speakers. Throw in a lyric here?? When we sat down, he started us with almost shot glass-sized cups of water. Knowing I wouldn't be ordering a soft drink or alcoholic beverage (still no fake I.D),  good detail I asked if I could upgrade my shot of water. Alex returned with pint sized beer glasses. Good detail

            The menu of Q seemed to have a little of everything. Alex described their eclectic menu as "American funky comfort food" with a touch of the Southwest.  They also had a very extensive wine list - a xxxx for $x and a couple of yes ranging from $y to $y. Sadly, all I could do was admire. Nice little payoff on the ID thing

            I decided to be adventurous and try something I had never eaten before; the "Slammin' Loch Duart Salmon Burger on Potato Eocaccia with chili-lime aioli and garlic Kennebec fries." Price? The chili-lime sauce put a spin on the salmon that was new and different, however I felt that it left something to be desired because ???? try for a ‘taste’ description: my tongue was. .. On the other hand, the garlic fries were out of this world delicious and rivaled the infamous garlic fries sold at the San Francisco Giants baseball games.  Good comparison

            My girlfriend how does she feel about this? Supportive? Checking out the waiter?????ordered the "Macaroni & Cheezy with tater tots. Price? One thing Q is very good at is naming their entrees. This dish wasn't the usual bland macaroni and cheese that you would expect. This dish includes herbs and spices that add an extra kick you are not ready for on the first bite. The dish works perfectly with the tater tots making it the "comfort food for all comfort food." As my sweet mama said???????

            Following suit with the comfort food theme, the desert menu offers ice cream, apple pie, and milk and cookies. Unfortunately we were too full to try to desert, but it sounded delicious from the descriptions on the menu. Any specifics?

            Because the kitchen is in the same room as all the diners, it both adds and detracts from Q's overall appeal. The sizzling sounds from what's cooking while you wait for your food make you anxious and excited for what is to come; however, the clanking of the dirty dishes and the dishwasher can get a it loud.  Good detail

            Overall, it was an Aha! Your review does NOT convey excitement. exciting experience, which provided artwork to make you wonder, and comfort food for the soul. 

Now add hours, credit card info, phone number, rating system

Summary: This is a somewhat disappointing B, but I’d like to see you let loose a little. The chronological structure doesn’t help. It suggests that nothing in the experience made a strong impact. You are simply presenting  things as they happened, like beads on a string. This is workmanlike, but not exciting. The implication is that the food was the least important part of the experience. If so, say so, which could lead to a meditation on those instances when the look of a restaurant matters more than the quality of the food. Maybe you have to admit that your have taste buds of wood and really can't tell the difference between the good, the bad and the burned to a crisp. If that's so, say so. Tell your readers to look elsewhere for that kind of judgment.

Here's a Chocolate Memory

Food Reviewer Makes Talk Talk

The review itself

Checklist for the Restaurant Review

1)    Do NOT write your review in chronological order. That is, don’t begin with a bland description of the outside of the restaurant or of the hostess taking you to your table. Begin with your most striking idea from the whole review somewhere in the first three sentences. Almost certainly that won’t be the first thing that happens during your visit. That doesn’t mean you can’t begin with a vivid description of the interior – of the cleanliness of the bathroom or the waiter's complexion or the conversation of the couple at the next table, which you will have taken the time to study - if those details support connect with your main point, if it goes somewhere. 

“Support” is an elusive concept, so I struck it through. “Connect” is better. After beginning with a positive statement (with examples), you might include detail on something you didn’t like. The contradiction is the connection. Or after praising the food, you might – without an explicit transition – begin talking about decor, which would be a natural progression as you unpack the whole experience. But I’d like some connective tissue, something at the end of that section like, “But the food is star, not the lime-green wallpaper.” Some writing coaches advise you to stay on course by putting in “scaffolding” – explicit, even heavy-handed transitions, which you remove in the final draft: “I have been writing about the food. Waiters bring food. It is logical for me to talk about the waiter at this point.”

Still, if your lead puts a stake in the ground – that is, makes a strong point – you probably won’t have much trouble playing off that initial point of view in the rest of the review. Here’s an emphatic student lead that I liked from a couple years ago:

At first impression, you might think you’d walked into a glorified soup kitchen, which isn’t half wrong. Tommy’s Joynt doesn’t have any menus or servers, and there’s a sign above a barrel of pickles that reads, “Enjoy the pickles. But please only take what you can eat – when you buy something.” The walls are covered with old beer signs, paintings of horses, and any other kind of memorabilia that has been stuck up since 1947. Yet all these distractions fade when hungry customers lay their eyes on Tommy’s meat.

Tommy’s is a meat market. People line up, look at the wall of meat options, and watch as a guy with a giant knife cuts healthy portions of all types of meat onto a plate. There’s bratwurst, knackwurst, lasagna, spaghetti with meatballs, buffalo stew, and of course the bbq turkey sloppy joe. You feel like you’re in a 1950’s school cafeteria. All meals are served on a tray with options of rice, mashed potatoes, beans, and any other side that can be scooped out of a metal tub.

2) At the end, list the basic consumer info: address, telephone number, hours of operation, reservation policy, price range, credit card policy, dress code (if any), noise level and so on.

3) Give me some sort of grading scale and use it to evaluate the restaurant. From another student, here’s consumer information – with additional information interpolated - plus a rating scale.

Out of 4 (Chili Peppers wearing Sombreros)

El Toreador:

50 West Portal Avenue

San Francisco, CA 94127

415.566.8104

Credit Cards: All major

Entrees: $8.75-14.95

Drinks: (Beers and margaritas are about $4.00- a little pricey)

Atmosphere: If you go early (around 4:30 pm for dinner), you can hear your conversation.  After 5:30 pm, forget about it.

Service: Friendly, but a little prompt.  Dishes came faster than I could eat them.

4) Tell me how much your meal costs item by item.

5) In a note at the end, tell me who your audience is even if you think only an idiot couldn’t figure it out.

6) For Wednesday bring a restaurant review to class that you think has something "smart" in it.

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