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At an evening
event titled "It’s a Matter of Taste"
held at the 92nd Street Y in Manhattan earlier this year,
Peter Kump’s career program students heard a panel of well-known
food writers discuss the current market and their own culinary
likes and dislikes. The panel consisted of Arthur Schwartz,
host of a popular WOR Radio program on food and author of Naples
at Table; Florence Fabricant, New York Times and
Nation’s Restaurant News food writer; Daniel Young,
former Daily News restaurant reviewer and author of The
Paris Café Cookbook; Rozanne Gold, chef, consultant
and author of several books, including Recipes 1-2-3;
and Willie Gluckstern, author of The Wine Avenger, who
frequently teaches wine classes at Peter Kump’s and elsewhere.
The discussion was moderated by Leonard Lopate of WNYC’s
"New York and Company."
Lopate opened the discussion by describing food as one of the
most difficult subjects for writers because, "Once we’ve
consumed it, it’s gone forever." Then he queried the
five participants about the role of the food writer today. Fabricant
explained that for her, the joy lies in discovery. "I can’t
keep a secret,"  she
said, and so her job, writing the weekly "Food Stuff"
column, is tailor-made for her. Schwartz agreed: "Being
a journalist is license to be a yenta. You get to poke around
and ask rude questions." Gluckstern posited that teaching
is highly satisfying for much the same reason—it gives
him the chance to allay people’s fears with information.
"Wine is terrifying for people," he added. Gold said
that she sees her work as more invention than discovery, as
she is not a reporter. (She was also, as Lopate pointed out,
the only one of the five panel members to have worked as a chef.)
The food writing market continues to grow, but Schwartz noted
that when he began his career, food writing was not a distinct
non-fiction form. He told the story of his own decision to become
a writer this way: "I went to a headhunter, and she asked,
‘How would you like to spend your day?’ I said, ‘Sitting
at home in my underwear laughing at my own jokes.’ And
she said, ‘Well, you’re a writer.’ " Fabricant
said it was her ability to reproduce tastes and her natural
palate abilities that led her to the field. Young gave his definition
of food writers: "They’re all disagreeable, picky
and no fun to have over your house for dinner."
Lopate steered the conversation to cookbooks, and all the panelists
had strong opinions. First, Schwartz took on celebrity chef
cookbooks. "Chefs don’t even read," he scoffed.
"Isn’t it enough that they can cook?" Lopate
asked more specifically about the unscientific art of writing
recipes. "Garlic in Provence is different than garlic here,"
Young explained, "but if you don’t have that reference,
what you make here will taste fine to you." Schwartz argued,
"Why should a dish taste the same every time you make it?"
Gluckstern pointed out that matching wine with food can be equally
inexact. "Many people believe that for every food there’s
a wine with the same flavor, but that’s not true,"
he said. "Big wines are horrific with most of the food
we’re eating today. They bludgeon it. And in any case,
when food goes into your mouth, the chemistry changes."
When Lopate asked the panelists what they felt inspired and
influenced their writing, the discussion turned to craft. "I
think of myself as a writer of fiction," said Gold. Said
Schwartz, "There’s a story in everything. There’s
a way of telling it so that it’s a story and not a report."
One problem in the food industry today, noted Gold, is that
"Chefs cook for chefs. Food writers write for fellow food
writers. The end users are being ignored."
The audience was then invited to submit questions, providing
some of the most entertaining moments in the evening. How does
one get a restaurant reviewed, asked one audience member. "Do
something unique," said Schwartz. "We need copy,"
added Fabricant. "We’ve got pages to fill. Send copies
of menus to critics and hope for the best." Young added
that "Critics are suckers for hand-written letters."
Another audience member asked what the hot trends would be in
2001. Said Fabricant, "The biggest trend is nervous restaurateurs,
because too many new restaurants are opening." And another
inquired as to the most disturbing recent restaurant trends.
The panelists, far from reticent throughout the evening, turned
positively boisterous when expressing their peeves. "The
peppermill," said Gluckstern. "Pepper is the death
spice for wine. One turn destroys it." Fabricant bemoaned
"wine glasses that each hold a full liter of wine."
Schwartz chimed in. "The water thing! They keep bringing
bottles of water, and all of a sudden you’ve spent thirty-six
dollars on water." Gold noted, "Food is getting sweeter,
because sugar and fruit cover up a lot of inexperience in the
kitchen. Also, enough with the coarse sea salt everywhere."
Lopate closed with discussion of a favorite New York topic:
deli food. "The best pastrami is at Katz’s if you
know how to order it," Schwartz said. Young shocked the
audience by naming a Los Angeles establishment. "Langer’s
Deli in L.A. is outstanding," he said. "And they’ve
got better rye bread as well." When the current state of
New York bagels was brought up, the group let out a collective
moan and came to an agreement for the first time that evening.
Today’s bagels, said all, are "a disaster."
When interviewed afterwards, the Peter Kump’s students
who attended pointed to the discussion of the panelists’
complaints as one of the evening’s highlights. Nathan Snow,
a career student in the Culinary Arts program, said, "For
one thing, I learned not ever to ask for pepper on my salad
because then you can’t taste the wine." They also
said the evening had been instructive, although some expressed
disappointment that Anthony Bourdain, culinary enfant terrible
and author of Kitchen Confidential, who had been billed
as a panelist, did not appear. |
