Silverbrow on Food

An ology in cookbooks?

I've worried for sometime that my cookbook obsession has been getting out of hand. I was therefore intrigued by this programme on Radio 4 last night. It's amazing what happens when you're awake thanks to baby wailing.

The first half of the programme was about Andrea Tonner's PhD into what cookbooks say about people. I want to try to get hold of the final dissertation, sounds like interesting stuff.

You can listen to the full programme here.

Watch this man

There can't be that many 15 year olds who eat twice at Per Se, Thomas Keller's flagship New York restaurant, especially alone. So it shouldn't be such a surprise that Nick N, author of Foodie at Fifteen, got special treatment, including a signed French Laundry cookbook, at the end of his last meal.

I was reminded of Heston Blumenthal. It seems a meal at the age of fifteen was a seminal moment for him as well.

Starbucks buys Clover

I've been intrigued by the Clover since I first read about it a couple of months ago. $11,000 sounds a lot for some drip coffee, but then again, I've no idea how much the La Marzocco machines are that serve up my daily latte at Monmouth Coffee.

But as John Gapper suggests, knowing that Starbucks now owns the company takes the shine off somewhat.

I take it this is the latest step by Starbucks to regain its position as a premium coffee seller and differentiate itself from the likes McDonalds which has been encroaching on its space.

Maybe we're seeing the end of super sweet, cream laden excuses for caffeinated drinks?

Telepathy: Eating Albion gets TV deal

I have twittered about this already, but I know many of you are non-twittering luddites. So for those of you who fall into this camp, I wanted to point out that Eating Albion now has a TV deal. Yes, that is right, this turn of events was foretold, but no-one ever listens.

I know other food bloggers have got book deals, but I can't think of another UK food blogger that has got a TV deal out of their blog. Nice work young man.

Now if I could only have as much luck predicting the winner of the Gold Cup this Friday.

Alltop allgood

Take a look at Alltop Food, which one page aggregates articles written by a whole host of websites and food bloggers you probably read already such as The Amateur Gourmet, Epicurious or Becks and Posh. Rather than flicking through different screens, this pulls everything together in one place.

Alltop is a new site, setup by serial entrepreneur Guy Kawasaki, among others. It is basically an aggregator of top sites and articles by theme, or as they describe it, they're the magazine rack of the internet. So, in addition to Food other topics include Mac, Politics (a bit US-centric) and Music in addition to many others. It's well worth checking out.

Michelin 2008 tweets

I've been twittering (see the left hand sidebar) the Michelin UK 2008 results (pdf).

I'm really pleased to see The Goose has got a star, well deserved in my opinion.  Surely, they must now be able to sort out a website. Update: Thanks to Duncan in the comments, he pointed out they do have a (rather swanky) website.

It's a shame my local Indian restaurant, The Parsee has lost its Bib Gourmand, but to be honest I haven't been for a while so can't vouch for how good or bad it's been. Update: Thanks to Gavin in the comments he pointed out they're now shut.

The move to London has meant that Hibiscus has lost one of their two stars, but they must have known that was a risk.  They must be relieved though that they're on the espoir list (given the nod that they should get their second star back next year).

Could Ducasse blame his hubris for the lack of any stars for his new joint at the Dorchester, or is it simply that he hasn't been open long enough?

Letter in the JC re kosher chickens

I was remiss in not posting this sooner.

It's my letter in The Jewish Chronicle in response to an article about the supposedly high quality of kosher chickens. As you might appreciate, I had some views on that.

The original article, in the paper a couple of weeks ago, appeared to be something of a knee-jerk reaction to Hugh et al.

Neither Stephen Grossman nor Rabbi Yehuda Brodie was explicit in their rejection of the possibility that intensively farmed chickens could enter the kosher food chain. Mr Grossman said that his suppliers grow birds about 20 per cent less densely than the intensively reared birds that Jamie Oliver and Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall have been railing against.

He does not say his suppliers raise free-range hens and reject intensive-rearing farming.

In fact, at slaughter weight, Mr Grossman’s suppliers grow 14 birds per square metre. That’s not all that far off from 17 per square metre that got Jamie so exercised. More importantly, it is significantly more than the 12 per square metre, which is the maximum that Defra will allow for a bird to be labelled free-range.

Similarly, Rabbi Brodie says that a damaged bird doesn’t end up in the kosher food chain. By what measure does he mean damaged? I appreciate a bird with broken bones won’t, but what about one with hock burns, caused by sitting for extended periods in its own ammonia-laden faeces?

More organic problems

My article on organic food on the Guardian's Word of Mouth blog, received a bit of criticism for a basic error I made. I said that the Soil Association Ltd was the only body that could dole out organic certification in the UK. I was wrong and am happy to set the record straight. There are in fact nine bodies, the Soil Association Ltd being the largest of them.

In today's Financial Times, Bee Wilson writes an excellent - and well informed - piece on organic food in the UK.

I'm pleased to see she supports my thesis that the whole concept of organic food covers such a broad range of standards it is almost meaningless. Her example of milk is particular enlightening. She also makes the point that for many small producers, pursuing organic certification is often simply not worthwhile and for the more informed and careful consumer, it's not all that important.

Down on the farm

When I took some time off work, I went to South America, saw a bit of Argentina and less of Brazil. I know variety is the spice etc but working on more than ten farms across our fair land, is a new one on me. That's what Andrew is off to do. He may have lost his mind, but if he has, at least we can read all about it on his new blog Eating Albion. I bet there's a TV programme in the offing for this former C4 employee.

You can follow his route here.

The Big Food Fight - it's going to be big

Watch out, I'm about to get more preachy than usual.

Please go and watch as much as possible of The Big Food Fight on Channel 4. This is going to be important stuff.

Read about the Chicken Run here. HFW, as ever he is fascinating, but this time he's also showing us some deeply disturbing stuff.

This is about educating consumers and suppliers.

Jamie, Gordon and Hugh might be onto something - let's hope they make a real difference.

Maybe it'll be the tipping point for the kosher food industry as well. Here's hoping.

Under the ethical table

Below is my first article for Word of Mouth. You can also read it over there, by clicking here.

As I predicted earlier in the year, Word of Mouth is a welcome addition to the food blogging community. Under the stewardship of Susan Smillie it has become a great example of a community blog - one where a variety of people post, from pros like Jay Rayner and Paul Levy to more amateur folk like Andrew Barrow or Aidan Brooks, aka Trig.

As ever, I hope you enjoy it. If you feel inclined, comment below or on Word of Mouth.

According to Sarah Irving, author of a report published in the current edition of Ethical Consumer magazine: "The restaurant industry would particularly benefit from good environmental and social reporting and better transparency." She is particularly critical of restaurants for bandying around phrases 'sourced locally', 'organic' or 'free range'.

But this is not really such a surprise is it? After all, there is no broadly accepted definition of any of these terms or their benefits. According to Whole Foods, anywhere in the UK can be deemed local. Organic status is determined in the UK by the Soil Association Ltd (a body only affiliated to the Soil Association charity). And anyway, organic does not mean the same thing in any two countries. As for Fair Trade, an early Word of Mouth post touches on some points dear to my heart.

So it cannot be a surprise that restaurants are confused, given that the ethical industry doesn't know its free range bottom from its organic elbow.

The Ethical Consumer report boldly states that the restaurant industry would benefit from better reporting and transparency, but offers no argument as to why that would be the case or by what metric they are measuring the benefits.

Tragus Holdings is one of the UK's largest restaurant groups. It owns brands including Belgo, Strada and Café Rouge and has about 240 individual restaurants. It comes in for a bit of a kicking from the report, earning only 2 out of a possible 20 points.

Given the seemingly self-evident benefits derived from ethical dining, Tragus must be financially crippled, or at least diners must be fleeing? Well, no. According to their 2007 full year results (pdf), turnover was £149m. Each restaurant in the group made an average profit of £238,000. This is not a company desperately in need of salvation from greater transparency.

Loch Fyne comes out of the report with a freshly burnished halo, receiving particular praise for its sustainable fish buying policy. But that's hardly a big surprise. Its branding is all about the high quality fish, For Loch Fyne, quality and provenance is all. I don't think anyone would try to argue that is the case at The Gourmet Burger Kitchen or Café Rouge.

I think this report missed a trick by focusing on cheaper brands. Far more interesting would have been an audit of some of the top-end restaurant groups, whether those directly associated with chefs such as Gordon Ramsay and Alain Ducasse or more general brands such as Caprice Holdings.

I'd love to know how many air miles are racked up delivering their produce.

With rare exceptions, chefs are notably schtum on these sorts of issues because they risk accusations of hypocrisy. There is a good reason that Oliver Rowe was able to secure so much press coverage when he announced he was sourcing all his ingredients from within the M25.

So my challenge to the team at Ethical Consumer is to carry out an audit on the top restaurants and see how they fare and then see if the easy prey of the chains are quite so abominably unethical.

Jay Rayner talks about his new book

As jobs go, eating your way around the world isn't too shoddy. Getting paid to write about it has to be fairly close to the best job in the world, shurely?

Make-up your own mind here.

Americans driving quality kosher?

My article in the JC is already paying dividends for me.

A friend in the US, sent me an article from the Washington Post detailing the growing eco-kosher movement. I have to admit, the noun 'eco-kosher' sends a chill down my spine, but on reading the article I realised there was some depth to it.

Interestingly, this is an east-coast led movement, not kooky California. Also, it is being driven by Conservative communities. Conservative communities are not traditionalists or the most observant, despite their name - and yes, that is a loaded and very subjective statement. An example of this is referenced in the article, which notes that they are trying to develop a new hecscher that is not based on widely regarded fundamentals of kashrut, such as the separation of milk and meat, but instead are focused on the ethical rearing of animals. For those that have read my article, you will know that is something I wholeheartedly support, but as someone who is relatively observant, I find it depressing that observance and well bred food appear mutually exclusive, at the moment at least.

The same article also introduced me to The Jew and the Carrot, a blog that is pushing forward this movement of decent, healthy kosher food. One to watch.

I demand healthier

I have been known to rant a bit about the state of kosher food in the UK.  Until now, you dear reader and the long-suffering Silverbrowess are the only ones who have been subjected to my moaning and wailing.  Until now.  Because now, I have vented my fury, my wrath and my despair on the pages of that organ of British Jewry, The Jewish Chronicle.

It is my first published article and I'm rather excited.  Many thanks to the paper's editor, David Rowan and Simon Round, editor of the food page, for publishing it.

I hope it will stir things up and start a debate, although given my track-record I'm not holding my breath.

Feel free to comment here, or you can write to the JC's letter page by emailing letters@thejc.com.

You can read the article on the JC's website or for those too lazy to click a link, read on.  What follows is the article in full, as it appears in the paper.

The Food Standards Agency, the UK’s food regulator, recently published a report linking some food additives to hyperactivity in children. The Times and the JC both reported that these additives have a habit of turning up in kosher processed foods. Ingredients such as sodium benozate, ponceau 4R and tartrazine are rather less evocative than cholent, adafina and kreplach.

The laws of kashrut are determined in the Torah, and kosher can be translated as “fit to eat”. According to Nachmanides, a 12th-century Kabbalist, “the birds and many of the mammals forbidden by the Torah are predators… we are instructed not to eat those animals, so that we should not absorb these qualities into ourselves”. So, if we are what we eat, religiously speaking kosher food must not be unhealthy.

Yet as the FSA demonstrated, there is a gaping void between what we expect of our kosher food and what we get.

I have yet to find a kosher butcher in London who can assure me that his chickens are free range, or even tell me the exact ingredients of his sausages.

Similarly, if you ask a kosher grocer for their fresh-food section, your browsing will be brief. Kosher food shops are heaving with processed, packaged and often frozen items. Even seemingly fresh kosher deli products have a shopping list worth of additives.

This is not just a problem for the home cook. There is not a kosher restaurant in the UK that makes a virtue out of where it sources its produce. This is not because kosher restaurateurs are bashful, but because they have got nothing to shout about.

The upshot is that the consumer is not fully informed. Bizarrely, this is occurring at a time when there is an evangelical approach to provenance among producers not targeting the kosher market.

Any half-decent restaurant will name-check the farmer who reared the ribeye, or the river the salmon last spawned in. TV programmes are dedicated to identifying heroic food producers. Visits to farmers’ markets are de rigueur for any self-respecting yummy-mummy. In the non-kosher world, traceability is a growing obsession.

So why the gap between kosher and non-kosher food? There are three inter-connected factors which ensure a race to the bottom: limited demand, the cost of regulation, and complacency.

There are no definitive statistics on how many people keep kosher in the UK, but the number is small. There are under 300,000 Jews in the UK; even conservatively, the most who keep kosher are 150,000, a number that anecdotally seems to be falling. Those who keep “kosher” encompass a broad spectrum of observance of the laws, from those that insist on everything having a hechsher to those who simply abstain from pork and shellfish.

So, as a business proposition, kosher is not attractive. The market is small and comprises a broad demographic. Demand is relatively limited, but, thanks to the rules imposed by the kashrut authorities, so is supply, because only certain foods are deemed kosher. Prices are therefore higher than comparable non-kosher items.

The inflated cost is not helped by the levy kashrut authorities insist on imposing on producers before their products will be certified kosher. As a producer faced with these issues — limited supply, diverse demand, high fixed costs — you will look to maximise your profits by appealing to as many people as possible. You will also try to keep your prices low because things are expensive enough already. Very quickly, it is difficult to remember whether you are a widget manufacturer or food producer.

Underpinning these economic issues is complacency. There is an assumption that because kosher food fits its religious requirements it is healthy. As the FSA has demonstrated, that is frequently not the case. Producers race for the bottom to maximise their returns. Shoppers buy what is on the shelves as they are blinded by the kosher stamp of authority or have no other choice.

Observant or not, it is time those of us who keep kosher returned to the core of our beliefs and insisted on eating food that is fit to eat.

Jamie Oliver vs. Thomas Keller

It has now been announced that Jamie Oliver is the chef who will be the star-turn in the British edition of Ratatouille. In the American version, Thomas Keller voices an unassuming diner and he only has a couple of lines. I had assumed the secret British chef would do a voice-over for the same role. I was wrong, Jamie is doing the voice of the health-inspector, a pretty significant figure.

Keller is a world renowned chef cooking some of the best food available. Despite his burgeoning empire, Keller is not a populist figure, he doesn't do TV shows and he isn't shouty for the sake of the camera. Jamie Oliver is in many ways the diametric opposite. Unlike quite a few others, I admire him for what he's done but he has made his name because of the camera, rather than his food, although at last I've heard some decent comments about his restaurant, Fifteen. The only reason I can see for giving Oliver such a high profile is to sell cinema tickets, which is a shame. Ratatouille deserves to do well, not because a gobby brand is acting in it, but on its own merits. I fear that at some stage someone in Pixar's UK marketing department got scared that a film about a rat in a posh Parisian kitchen would not have mass appeal unless a famous name was attached to it. It's a sad indictment on our attitudes to food and celebrity.

That having been said, I think Jamie is a bigger risk than he might initially appear. Don't forget the recent (unfair) backlash to his school lunch campaign. I imagine those parents who are annoyed turkey twizzlers are off the menu, might also be the same people who are put off by hoity toity food and French accents.

Gethumbwini and grinding

We all have our favourite words, at the moment, mine is Gethumbwini. It rolls off the tongue and conjours up something romantic and African.

Gethumbwini is the name of a Kenyan coffee estate that according to those in the know, is growing some of the best beans available. Since Silverbrowess bought me an espresso machine a couple of years ago, my love of coffee has grown exponentially. This has been further compounded by a new job which means a morning latte and afternoon espresso from Monmouth are now daily realities. As well as imbibing more coffee, I've been reading about it as well, particularly Jim Seven. So all in, my knowledge and love of the bean has increased significantly.

I had repeatedly heard about this fruity, full flavoured coffee from the mystical sounding Gethumbwini estate. After a bit of searching, I managed to buy some from Hasbean - a fantastic purveyor of all things coffee related. The coffee arrived in rather clever foil bags with ziploc seals, ensuring, I assume, freshness.

I'm not very good at describing how coffee tastes, other than to say I know when I like something and I love Gethumbwini. There is a definite fruitiness - black berries predominate - and subtleness to it, that frankly I find it tough to explain further, other than to say, this has introduced me to the joys of drinking coffee without milk. I have also learned that there is real difference between coffees. Not simply between whether there you're having instant (shouldn't be called coffee) or espresso, but the variations between a cup of Kenyan or something from Nicaragua. The taste profiles are as varied as between a cup of English breakfast tea or Early Grey.

The coffee bean is all very well, but what I have learned is almost as important, is how and when it is ground. For years I had happily been buying ground coffee and then making a brew a week or three later. But, I had been deeply frustrated by my inability to make coffee that tastes anything like a latte from my favourite coffee shops, initially not making the connection with when it was ground. However, on further reading it became clear that grinding just before brewing was the key and eventually gave in to the allure. On the recommendation of the nice people at Monmouth, I ended up going for the KitchenAidgrinder. At last, I'm able to make a cup of coffee that tastes as good as the stuff I buy and the beauty of the grinder is that I can vary how fine the grind is, depending on whether I'm making a cup using the espresso machine (very fine ground) or my Bialetti (medium ground, not quite sand-paper).

As with many things in life, a bit of experimentation can bring great pleasure.

Campion on Bacchus vs Fat Duck

Drawing comparisons between Bacchus and The Fat Duck is not new. Charles Campion has written about his lunch-for-lunch comparison at the two establishments, from which he feels Bacchus compares very favourably.

I think the praise for Bacchus is well deserved and Campion's article raises some good points, even if he is wide of the mark a couple of times. His price comparison of the two is flawed. He is comparing Bacchus' 9 course tasting menu with the Fat Duck's a la carte. If he wants to do a like for like comparison, he should be using the Fat Duck's tasting menu which is £115 and he got the price of Bacchus' tasting menu wrong, it is £60 not £80 as he claims. Such a significant price difference between the two is right. They may use similar techniques but they are a long way from each other, reputationally and geographically. The other bit he got wrong was his suggestion that Bacchus is not targeted at fine dining. It clearly is, the prices, the wine lists, the interior design and the type of people eating there indicate it is. It may not be aiming for 3 Michelin stars, but nonetheless it is all about eating the best food perfectly, if uniquely, prepared, with an attention to detail on all aspects of how the front-of-house is run. This is no two-bit operation.

I am intrigued by how Bacchus is going to evolve. Blumenthal has received criticism for not changing his menu, he argues he is continually perfecting it. As a restaurant still developing and growing I don't think Bacchus can afford to rest on its laurels. I also think Nuno, chef at Bacchus has an itch to innovate. How that translates onto the plate is going to be interesting to watch.

Listen again to my interview with Phil Mossop and Nuno Mendes of Bacchus.

Khymos blog

It seems to be new blog Thursday.

Thanks to World Champion Barista James author of Jim Seven, I have discovered Khymos a blog dedicated to molecular gastronomy. I have also discovered that there are a whole host of other blogs dedicated to the subject.

Although the term molecular gastronomy might be so last season, Khymos is all about the chemistry of food. For those of us who rely on McGee and This, we can learn a lot from Martin Lersch, the blog's author.

We can also thank him for the recipe collection he has compiled of hydrocolloids - substances that form gels on contact with water. The collection is broken down according to the gelling agent (agar agar, gelatin etc) and includes recipes from a number of blogs, books and online sources. Looks like fascinating and informative stuff for us geeks.

Valvona & Crolla's blog

Whilst I was researching my olive oil post, I discovered that the team at Valvona & Crolla have started blogging.  Or maybe that should be they have stopped blogging.  They started in March but came to a grinding halt at the end of June.

Valvona & Crolla is a world famous, and long established Italian deli in Edinburgh.  I've never been but have only heard good things about the bounty that sits within its four walls.  They would be an intriguing addition to the food blogging world so I hope they restart.  But if they do, they really must stop linking every ingredients to their online store.  On the harder to source items, fair enough, but linking to Maldon salt in a bread recipe, is more than a little patronising and mercenary.

Despite such etiquette issues, I like the idea of seeing their forthcoming book develop on-line.  As a source of produce and knowledge, they are not far off being unrivalled.

Olive oil, the slippery slope

Michael is a friend who works for Enotria, a leading UK vintner and lives near me. As I walk past his flat, I am regularly forced to duck as a low flying and weighty, wine catalogue comes spinning towards my head. A week ago however he had something new for me, a bottle of extra virgin olive oil.

Some time ago he had mentioned that he supplies Planeta olive oil and like the whining brat I am, I asked him to get hold of some for me. As good as his word he did and I should say, he very kindly gave it to me, refusing my imprecations to pay him.

Planeta is very special stuff. As you will see from their website, their extra-virgin oil received DOP status for the 2006 pressing (my bottle is 2005), only further proof that this stuff is special - or they have very good lobbyists in Brussels.

Planeta is from Sicily and looks as sun-scorched as the land - a deep mustard yellow colour. The smell and first taste is intensely grassy and herby, but this quickly gives way to a real peppery tingling on the back of my tongue. It is far more complex than Tuscan oils which some people describe as peppery. I think they are generally bitter, rather than peppery and quite nasty. With the Planeta, as the pepper subsides, the grassy flavour lingers.

I think it is so good, that I am sitting here writing this post, enjoying a nightcap of olive oil. Most shockingly of all, Silverbrowess is imbibing as well.

Planeta is not that easy to come by, thus my need for Mike, my olive oil dealer, but it is worth getting your hands on - even if it is almost £15 for 50cl.

Unfortunately, not all olive oils are as delightful as Planeta. There is a great article in last week's New Yorker on the adulteration of olive oil. According to the article, it is a crime that is virtually a pandemic in Puglia, Italy's largest olive oil producing region. I was surprised by some of the big names implicated and it made me wonder whether bog standard olive oil is any better than Castrol GTX. I guess that means it is Planeta only for chez Silverbrow from here on in.

A response to John Whiting on blogs

This is a somewhat belated response to John Whiting's summary of my talk to The Guild of Food Writers.  There is much of what he wrote that I disagree with.  I don't think blogs are about "feeling the width", quantity over quality or a mere passing phase of popular mania.  I fail to understand John's point that blogs are harder to search than other websites.  As site is limited by its navigability.

John also tries to draw a distinction between 'ordinary' websites and blogs, a distinction that I think is irrelevant.  There is very little difference as far as the average reader is concerned between the two.  I am willing to bet that if someone googled Paris bistros (John's speciality) and came across Whitings Writings and then did a similar search for kosher food in London and came across Silverbrow on Food, they wouldn't appreciate the difference between the two sites.  I also question whether they would care whether there is a difference between the two.  What people want is good information or comment that is well written.  I know that's what John provides and I hope I get somewhere close as well.

However, I do agree that for essays blogs are not the best medium.  But I would extend the argument, I think the internet is not the best medium for lengthy Elizabeth David style essays.  But more to the point, the beauty of the likes of David is her rarity, very few people write like her or have her knowledge or food.  It doesn't matter what the medium is, few people can reach her heights.  Whether I wrote on a more traditional website or some GFW members wrote on a blog, the quality of the writing simply is not comparable.

But, we should remember that John wrote his article primarily for the members of the GFW and it needs to be read in that context.  This is something that John makes clear in the comments to his post.  The GFW is for people who write about food professionally and those attending my talk were clearly interested in what the internet can do for them.  He may well have a point that blogs are not the best way for a writer to promote themselves.  Writing a blog is very different to writing for a newspaper or magazine, the obvious differences are the style and timeliness required for a blog.  But they do have their advantages.  Blogs require regular updating and therefore require the author to write frequently - never a bad thing.  Posts also tend to be relatively brief, thus giving a reader (or potential editor) an idea of the blogger's skills of self-editing and brevity.  Given that, I suppose I better stop now.

Waitrose sticks it to Whole Foods

Waitrose has got trading standards on to Whole Foods, according to The Sunday Times. It seems that Waitrose and at least two others, have suggested that Whole Foods' policy of selling anything from the UK as 'local' is more than a little misleading. I have made no secret of what I think of Whole Foods, but it seems it will take trading standards a couple of weeks to publish its findings. I'm not sure what the law on this is, but I wonder whether trading standards will actually have much in the way of teeth to act on this. Anyway, this will be one to watch.

Sniffing out the industry

I know I am yet to post my response to John Whiting's email, but as most people would no doubt expect, I disagree with much of what he has to say, although by no means all. Anyway, that's a long way of getting round to recommending that you go and take a look at Napkin Sniffing.

It is a blog written by a British restaurant insider who wants to remain nameless and I am happy to accommodate that. It is worth noting though that in previous incarnations this person has written for old media. Interesting that they have moved on to blogs. Except of course, that on blogs they have an ability to remain anonymous and say things they might not have felt free to say elsewhere. No doubt they will get some criticism for hiding behind the cloak of anonymity, but it should also allow us outsiders to get to know what is really happening in the restaurant industry in London. I'm hoping for some fireworks.

John Whiting on blogs

I was invited by the good burghers of The Guild of Food Writers to talk about blogging. Those people in the room, who had kindly paid to come and hear me write about food professionally. Hence their incredulity that I spend so much time writing without any expectation of being paid. I can see that is rather scary from their point of view. Eyedropper gives a pretty good summary of the night.

However, I was particularly intrigued by an email I received from John Whiting. I have known, in the internet sense of the word, John for a few years. We have come across each other primarily on food forums and exchanged emails. He has been thrown off virtually every food forum for managing to infuriate one management team after another. An impressive feat that I admire him for - especially as so far he has managed not to get on the wrong side of the notoriously controlling lot at eGullet. He is also the author of Whitings Writings, a website, not a blog he would stress, that focuses on Paris bistros.

Back to that email. John had written a summary of my talk for fellow members of GFW, that I found thought-provoking. He has agreed for me to repost it here, which I have done, in full below. I am interested in readers' views on what John has to say about the importance of blogs. I'll post my views in the next couple of days.

Silverbrow’s workshop on blogging was so expertly presented that it narrowed down attention from the larger and more interesting question of websites in general — indeed, of the entire internet as the growing means of global communication. Blogging is getting all the attention because, like using a Blackberry, anyone can do it (providing they’re young enough). Newspapers and magazines are wild about blogs because they fill up the space vacated by their shrinking journalistic and editorial staff; never mind the quality, feel the width.

At the entry level, blogs are to writing as ready-meals are to cooking. They’re fine as Show and Tell for grownups, but as a carefully considered and categorically arranged archive they are about as accessible as a stack of old newspapers. And there’s a breathless air about them that doesn’t take kindly to the discursive essay. Imagine the prose of Elizabeth David or M.F.K. Fisher in blog format — it would be like dressing them in track suits.

As for finding your way around in blogs, the more sophisticated versions may have on-site Google search, but that’s useless if you don’t know what to search for. Down-the-edge indexing, if it works, just takes you to a snapshot in an endless home movie. (Political blogs are a different matter; their content tends to be both urgent and ephemeral.)

As a vehicle for your CV, contact details and samples of your work, a blog soon looks dated if you don’t keep adding to it – unattended blogs have a strong whiff of mortality. And the more you add, the more your original material gets buried. So what’s the solution? Putting together a proper website, like cooking a proper meal, is a skill that doesn’t come instantly. You must be prepared either to put in the time and effort or pay someone who knows how to do it properly — there are so many slick websites now that a bog-standard format looks amateurish.

If you go to the GFW Members’ Web Links page, you’ll find that they are all proper sites, not blogs. The only exception is Charles Campion’s, which is attached to the Evening Standard, for which he writes; it goes with the territory.

Where have all the jokes gone?

When was the last time you heard a good joke? Not received in an email or watched on YouTube but actually heard one, mano a mano. Can you remember the last time someone tried to tell you a joke, repressing the urge to laugh at their own sense of humour but revelling in the joy of the perfect punchline? I can't and it has been bothering me.

This isn't food related, granted, but we all need a bit of joy in our life.

Whole Foods and Waitrose

Some people have asked me why I have such a visceral dislike of Whole Foods. Fundamentally my issue is that Whole Foods sells a myth and so many people buy into it. The most obvious example is that despite the perception all the food is organic, large amounts of it are not.

It now turns out we shouldn't be so surprised that all is not what it seems at this bleeding-heart mecca. Chief Executive John Mackey has been posting anonymously on Yahoo finance forums playing up his own company and it is receiving lots of coverage. This kind of slightly dodgy, slightly sinister behaviour, is indicative of the wider issues I have with the company and its stores.

Whilst I'm on the topic of shops getting it wrong, I feel the need to unleash my wrath on Waitrose's redesigned store in Marylebone High Street. The place is hideous. The first thing I noticed on walking in are the copious quantities of pre-packaged fruit and vegetable in homely wicker baskets. I find it very odd, that in the heart of food obsessed London, so much of the food is wrapped in plastic, especially when they've got The Natural Kitchen breathing down their neck, a few doors up the street. If their harping on about all the market research is true, I fear for the way my fellow shoppers shop.

I have a secret to tell you

Please don't tell anyone else. This secret, it's very hush-hush and if anyone finds out, it'll all be over. Seriously. It's for your eyes only. Here, come closer. Ok, you ready? Here goes: bloggers who write about restaurants and food do so because they love restaurants and food.

I know, it's crazy but it's true. We don't invest hundreds of pounds on meals, ingredients, cook-books and cooking utensils and significant amounts of time because we hate it. Who would have thought? All the evidence points to us being evil, manipulative, malevolent and ignorant and now I come along and shatter that illusion with the truth. Amazing, huh?

Why then, are so many chefs and restauranters leery of what we do? One reason could be because they don't know who we are. If that's the case, that's their fault and their problem. They should learn, or at least get their PR firms on the case. Some of us are anonymous. I have my own reasons for anonymity. Others no doubt hide behind anonymity to shill or attack at will. But, and here's the rub, readers have brains, they can sift and they can analyse. I would be willing to bet that if a diner is savvy enough to read one blog, they are likely to read a few, in addition to the magazines and newspapers they also read, whether online or in print. Blogs do not exist in a vacuum, one bad post does not make a bad restaurant. However, five bad posts plus a piss poor review in a national newspaper, might make prospective diners think twice.

I don't wish to sound like I have swallowed The Cluetrain Manifesto, but the internet is basically a worldwide chat. There is a lot of shit out there but there are also a lot of deep and meaningfuls taking place. You won't agree with all of them, but if you look, there'll be something for you. If you love your brawn, you're going to love Opinionated About, but if fast food is more your basket of chips, you'll find Central Florida Restaurant Mum invaluable. Personally, OA is more for me, but I enjoy Florida Mum's stuff, if only to see how the other half eat.

In my opinion, the thing that scares Mario Batali and his unconnected compadres is word of mouth. When it was just the odd reviewer on a newspaper and a couple of trade mags, it was all very manageable. Word of mouth was unable to spread further than a few blocks and it was ephemeral. Now it's tougher, more complicated and thanks to Google, lasts longer.

Whereas what seems to be a younger cohort of chefs regard word of mouth as all important and have chosen to embrace us keyboard toters with relish. My podcasts with Giorgio Locatelli and Aki Kamozawa and Alexander Talbot, among others, are evidence of that.

I fail to see why people get so exercised about bloggers. Most blogs have pretty low readership figures, but our readers tend to be loyal. They post comments, send us emails and sometimes eat and drink with us. We build a relationship, in just the way that I always assumed restaurants wanted to build relationships with their patrons. Readers and bloggers alike share a passion and choose to indulge it in a particular way. Why do some see that as such a threat?

For more on this, go and see what Adam Roberts, The Amateur Gourmet has to say.

Food and Britishness

There is a thought provoking piece on The Observer's Word of Mouth blog about the connections between obesity and the rather amorphous concept of Britishness. The main argument in the post is that so many non-religious Anglo-Saxons are both disconsolate and fat because they lack an identity to unify them either to each other or to the food they eat.

Although the article is somewhat sweeping, I can't fundamentally disagree with the view that food is crucial in tying us to our roots and giving us our identity.

I don't think that encouraging Britons to bake their own hot-cross buns will boost community cohesion. But I do think that understanding one of the reasons why Britain is so fat - the dissolution of traditional culture in global consumer culture - helps explain why there is a crisis in "Britishness". And it isn't the fault of immigrants.

As an aside, I was amused that the photo at the top of the article was of a chippy and as we know well, fish and chips is hardly the most British of dishes.

UKTV Food, getting better

I've always been a bit ambivalent towards UKTV Food, the UK's answer to The Food Network. I have snobbishly dismissed much of it as far too populist, their positioning of James Martin as a hunk first and chef second is evidence of that. Nonetheless, I regularly sneek a peak and watch some of the re-runs, especially Rick Stein, Gary Rhodes and Nigel Slater's early stuff. However, some free time over the past couple of months has given me more chance to watch it and in particular get hooked on Heaven's Kitchen at Large and Market Kitchen.

Heaven's Kitchen follows chef-patron Mike Robinson as he sets up his gastropub, cooking school and outside catering business. Mike's pub, The Pot Kiln, is focused on providing great food, especially game, and good quality beer to the punters. With UKTV food making and showing the programme, it is less concerned in the drama that reality TV shows on terrestrial channels hanker after, instead, the programme simply follows life at the pub and seems to be insightful as a result. One thing that comes across particularly strongly in the programme is Mike's love of game. As a result he is often shown shooting and gutting various furry animals - on one show this week he got so excited gutting a hare that it's blood ended up on the camera lens. i find it interesting that there has been none of the teeth gnashing there was when Jamie Oliver killed a lamb on TV. No doubt this is because Mike Robinson is not a household name and that the show does not go out on a terrestrial channel during prime time. It's a shame this doesn't have a higher profile because it might help educate people to have a bit more respect for what ends up on their plate.

Market Kitchen got my attention because it is co-hosted by Matthew Fort, who has to be one of the UK's most knowledgable food writers and Tom Parker-Bowles, who's enthusiasm for food is catching. Some of the segments of the show can be pretty dull, such as which is the best griddle-pan on the market, but their cook-offs between chefs and the presenters can be quite good. Each week they have a guest chef, last week it was John Burton Race. He came across, as usual, as a grumpy git but cooked up some proper cheffy dishes. It wasn't watered down TV food. Similarly, Matthew Fort didn't pull punches when he cooked and simply hearing him talk about food is a pleasure. It is still early days for the programme but so far, I'm enjoying it. My dirty secret is that I have set my Sky Plus machine to record the show daily.

More on Fairtrade

More on the fairness of Fairtrade on Word of Mouth, The Observer's new food blog.

The more I read, the more firmly I hold my belief that the small coffee grower is towards the end of the Fairtrade chain of benefits. Whereas at the top of the chain are coffee distributors, anti-globalisation agitators and guilt-ridden consumers all telling each other what a good job they are doing.

Some very nice words from Jay Rayner

It is always particularly flattering when people you respect say nice things about you. Of all the restaurant critics, I enjoy reading Jay Rayner's column in The Observer the most. He clearly knows his onions when it comes to food (as his recent novel demonstrates) and therefore he writes from a position of knowledge, unlike some of his fellow critics. Most importantly for me, Jay is focused on the food, rather than the fripperies.

Given my love for the man, I was delighted to see I received a mention in his first post on Word of Mouth, The Guardian/Observer's new food blog. To quote him:

"Silverbrow on Food [is] the blog of an amateur cook, and Stakhanovite eater, with remarkably Catholic tastes for someone who keeps Kosher."

If Jay says I'm a Catholic communist then I am.

Despite my delight at being able to bathe in the glow of this praise, I was intrigued that the Guardian has decided to start a food blog, and am particularly interested in what their impressive roster of contributors think about hanging with amateurs. From my experience, newspapers have viewed the growth of blogs and other user generated content with a mixture of fear and awe. Of all the newspapers, the Guardian has embraced blogging most enthusiastically, nonetheless, I feel Word of Mouth is a welcome addition to The New York Times' food and wine blogs and adds further legitimacy to our corner of the internet. Unlike a couple of journalists at the San Francisco Chronicle, Jay is courteous enough to acknowledge that us amateurs do sometimes have something to add.

The iniquity of Fairtrade

Crap weather in a beautiful place has meant that I have caught up on some of my blog reading.

I was intrigued by an article in The Australian about a couple of academics taking issue with Oxfam's Fairtrade programme. Their argument is simply that Fairtrade is unsustainable and ultimately does not help the coffee growers. They have largely based their arguments on an article in The Cato Journal - the house magazine of the Cato Institute, a Washington based, pro-free market, anti-regulation think tank. Given the politics of the journal, it is safe to assume they were never going to support Fairtrade subsidies.

Whatever the politics, the fundamental point is still a strong one. As with all forms of subsidy, Fairtrade creates a false market and raises income expectations to unreasonable levels. The current system also prioritises supply over demand, there is no incentive to keeping supply down, rather the more there is, the more producers know they can sell. Clearly nature puts a limit on supply, but nonetheless the subsidy creates an unreal market. When you consider further the failures in policing the Fairtrade label as demonstrated by The Financial Times, it raises the questions whether Fairtrade is really little more than a way for latte lovers to assuage their guilt, or is it another way for anti-corporate groups to kick up more of a stink, or does it actually help the producers?

The main issue I have with Fairtrade is that there seems to be no programme to transition the growers from subsidy to free market, with the inevitability that it continues ad infinitum. If producers and their farmhands were earning living wages then maybe you could argue it has its benefits, but as the FT article demonstrates, that is not the case and anyway what is a living wage? As the Cato Journal article notes, Fairtrade makes no stipulation about what the coffee farmers should earn individually and often what they earn is paltry, as this post on the New Scientist blog demonstrates.

It would seem therefore that Fairtrade isn't helping those it is meant to. It is fair to assume that those buying believe they are doing good, but haven't done much investigation into how quantifiable that good is. It is also safe to assume that those promoting Fairtrade feel good about themselves. If they are a big corporate they must be making a profit, or hoping to, if they are an anti-globalisation organisation they are no doubt feeling self-righteous. Where does that leave the little guy?

Hat-tip: Coffee Ratings

That summer feeling?

Is ALO's Girl, I Wanna Lay You Down the best foodie/summer/feel-good song out there? I think it could be. I particularly like the lines You're smooth and creamy like peanut butter and I'm gonna flood you like a love river.

Maybe I'm feeling the effects of the first waves of summer. You can watch the video below and decide for yourself.

AbeBooks for Cooks

Browsing on AbeBooks is as close as you are going to get online, to browsing in a second hand book store on a cold autumnal afternoon. It's like having Foyles or Daunt Books at your fingertips. Unfortunately, neither of those fine bookshops have particularly good websites.

Whilst mooching on Abe the other day, I discovered that they now have a dedicated Books for Cooks mini-site. From what I have read so far, it looks like it will be a really useful resource for those of us who like our cook books: there's a newsletter detailing forthcoming books and reviews, interviews with authors, a readers forum, they even have 'humourous' (read: not very) e-cards.

There are UK and US versions of the website, with minor differences between the two. I was both horrified and amused to see what, at the time of writing, is number five on the US cookbook chart.

Those with a keen eye will notice that following Victor Kiam's lead, I like AbeBooks so much, I have started carrying their advertising.

Artisan knives

With only a cursory glance around a super or farmers market, one is bombarded with products claiming to be artisanal. I hate the word artisanal. I imagine it is meant to give the impression of rustic charm, of a ruddy faced, buxom wench, sieving her jam whilst her put-upon husband is down the mine. Whereas, if I see a product billed as artisanal, I think of a lazy producer or marketer who can't think of a decent way to label their product and convey the blood and tears that might (or might not) have been put into making it.

According to The Concise Oxford English Dictionary, an artisan is "a skilled worker who makes things by hand." An example of such an individual would be the genius that made my Artisan 180mm Multi-Purpose Cook's Knife. This knife is a thing of beauty and the one thing I would rescue in a fire - apart from Silverbrowess - if the place was burning down. Then again, it is made of such sturdy stuff, it might make it through the fire without my heroics. In fact, it is made of fully forged, folded high speed steel and is clad in soft stainless steel. It should go without saying it is handmade. That my friends, is the perfect example of artisanal.

I bought the knife a couple of weeks ago from a bizarrely dedicated and located shop, the Japanese Knife Company. Squashed between several hire car companies and a car-wash on the borders of a posh bit of London, the JKC sells only Japanese knives to the professional and amateur. They are obsessive in getting the right knife for you - which is important because these things are not cheap - and ensure that your cutting habits will change forever. For me, that meant buying a traditional Western design, rather than the more trendy santoku. Jayesh the owner, discussed with me at length what I cook, I gave him a demo of how I cut and he chose a selection of knives for me, the Artisan was the clear winner.

Ownership of this knife has not been without its problems, most notably, I discovered three blooming great chips in the blade. I feared this was a disaster but JKC fixed it, a process which took about two weeks longer than I had been led to expect. I'm not sure how the chips occurred, but breathed a sigh of relief that I was able to pick it up freshly sharpened today.

One of the best, but most immature aspects of my enjoyment, is that the blade is so finely cast, I can sharpen it on a few sheets of newspaper.

Marmite Guinness

It wasn't until now, a few hours post St Patrick's Day, that I realised Marmite Guinness is a special edition, for the special occasion.

This stuff is genius. It is a more mellow, hoppy version of normal Marmite, thanks to Guinness yeast extract, replacing 30% of the bog-standard Marmite yeast extract. I reckon it could be used as a condiment in its own right, maybe a spoonful added to a stew - rather than simply a spread for toast. There are only 300,000 bottles made, so try to get your hands on it whilst it lasts.

Kill It, Cook It, Eat It

David Aaronovitch has written an interesting post about his experiences of Kill It, Cook It, Eat It, a new TV programme on BBC Three.

The premise of the show is that we are too disconnected from the food we eat and that needs to be rectified.  Those taking part, David is one of them, watch animals being slaughtered, discuss it, let the chefs work their magic and then eat the food.  From David's post, the programme does not slip into a facile, reality-TV trap and is instead rather thoughtful.

I haven't seen the programme yet myself and am intrigued to do so - this clip is not too illuminating.  However, I was both amused and disheartened to see that Richard Johnson is the presenter.  He was presenter on BBC2's TV food show, Full on Food where he was a study in disingenuity and a lack of interest in food.  He is also the face of Bird's Eye - a company that is the last word in processed food.  I wonder how that tallies with what he's doing on Kill It, Cook It, Eat It.

Johnson shouldn't be enough to put you off, watching what sounds like a decent show.  It begins on March 5 on BBC Three at 10.30pm.

Where is the originality?

Frank Bruni, the New York Times restaurant critic has given Gordon Ramsay at The London two-stars.  In NY Times review lingo, that equates to Very Good.  When you read the review, it is clear that very good is not that good.  The meal was well cooked, with good ingredients but was uninspiring, the room was too clinical and there were some serious duff points in the meal.

However, what really interested me was Bruni's take on the homogeneity of restaurants across the globe:

...while looking forward to the seemingly inevitable day when your top-tier restaurant choices in a major destination on one continent are much the same as those in a major destination on another.

Ramsay? Ducasse? Vongerichten? Perhaps you just go with the restaurant of your countryman, supporting the home team. That’s the route suggested by the makeup of the dining room at the new Ramsay, where British visitors were abundant. It’s comforting to know that Americans aren’t the only tourists who travel far from home and then stay and sup in reminders of it.

The world's best chefs are keen to spread their brand as far as possible.  Alain Ducasse is a fine example.  He is a fantastic chef, but where is he chef of?  He has two restaurants that in theory he cooks in, Plaza Athénée in Paris and Louis XV in Monaco.  However, in his group there are a further twenty restaurants crisscrossing the globe: Tokyo, Las Vegas, the Basque region and various places in between.

Despite spreading himself so thin, he has not come in for any criticism.  True, no-one suggests he cooks at any of these places other than Plaza Athénée and Louis XV, but he is developing a global footprint.

There is a strange disconnect with this trend and the growing popularity of eating locally sourced and inspired food.  This tends to be a home cooking phenomenon, but there are a lot of chefs who have taken the concept to heart and make a virtue about the local nature of their restaurant.  The flip side, and rarely voiced side of fine-dining, is that most restaurant's could not survive without having large quantities of their food flown in from around the globe.  In complete contrast to the local evangelists, restaurants like Kuruma Zushi make a virtue that some of their fish is flown in from Japan on a daily basis.

So while at home we want to eat food grown within sight of our front door, when we eat out we seem to be pursuing an internationalists dream.  When Joël Robuchon opened his Atelier in London there was a lot of excitement, as there has been around Ducasse coming to The Dorchester.  Which is odd because in this age of cheap travel, lots of people have access to their cooking in Paris or New York, or even Tokyo.  And given the dining habits of most Londoners, they are as likely to hop on easyJet to Paris, as they are to pop into The Dorchester for a morsel of Ducasse.

So why do we care so much and see it so positively that these new restaurants will be on our doorstep?  I can only conclude it comes down to us buying into the chefs brand.  I do not mean to denigrate the quality of food or service at these restaurants, but the brand is all important.  Which means it is a very commercial enterprise.  Again, no problem with that, chefs have to make a living.  Nonetheless I feel a certain unease, expressed by Bruni above, that there is a growing homogeneity of fine-dining restaurants.  Is there any difference knowing I can get the same fantastic mashed potatoes at L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon in London and Paris, as knowing I can get the same McDonald's chips in both those location?  Aren't they just as regimented as each other?

Maybe this is the future of fine-dining restaurants, if it is I find it a bit depressing.  I like the idea that when I go overseas I am going to have new experiences not the same mash/chips I can have at home.