Big critic moves, Adjepong steps out, Delfina at 20, Grace as zombie, Michelin Italy, and more...
Family Meal - Tuesday, November 20th, 2018
Hello Tuesday,
None of the articles below have anything to do with Thanksgiving, so for SEO purposes this week, I just want to tell you: “Last-Minute Thanksgiving Recipes You Can Make With the Ingredients in your Refrigerator in 10 Minutes or Less.” Thank you for hearing me out.
Let’s get to it…
The Media – Big news out west: “The Los Angeles Times has hired two critics to bring weekly restaurant criticism back to the pages of the paper after a months-long void following the death of Jonathan Gold. Bill Addison, the national food critic at Eater, and Patricia Escárcega, a food writer at the Arizona Republic and former restaurant critic at the Phoenix New Times, have been named to the positions. They will split duties, filing reviews on restaurants throughout Southern California (and occasionally beyond) with neither one limited to a geographic area or type of cuisine. Both will review anonymously…. In addition to the new critics, The Times also announced Friday that it has hired Lucas Peterson to launch and appear on a number of new food video series; he will write food and travel articles for the paper as well.” Press release of sorts here, including mini profiles of each hire.
And on top of all that, Gustavo Arellano is joining the LAT Metro desk as a features writer, occasionally contributing to the food section.
Your move, Lucchesi.
As for what’s next at Eater, EIC Amanda Kludt says, “We'll obviously continue to cover restaurants on a national and local level. It's core to our mission. But employing an itinerant bard and critic was a one-time deal.”
The Lists – And speaking of critics, Pete Wells just posted his NYC top 10 list in the NYT, and Providence Cicero’s best new restaurants of Seattle (and Bellevue) is in the ST this week.
Michelin Season: Italy – Announced Friday: One new three star entry for Italy, Uliassi in Senigallia, along with “29 new one-star restaurants making the list, but no new two-star restaurants to report. That now brings Italy up to a total of 10 three-star restaurants, 39 two star restaurants and 318 one star restaurants, meaning the country owns a combined total of 367 stars, second only to France.” New additions listed separately in Fine Dining Lovers here.
“Stretched Thin” – This Melissa McCart longread in the Post-Gazette is mostly about Pittsburgh restaurateur Mike Chen’s struggle to staff his kitchen in the face of changing immigration policy, but whether or not you’re not up for a policy read, it’s definitely worth a click for the many gems from Taiwan: “While a monk chanted, Mr. Chen cupped a pair of crescent-shaped moon blocks in prayer. He silently asked for direction: Should he open a restaurant in Squirrel Hill where diners could see hand-pulled noodles and soup dumplings as they’re made? Then Mr. Chen raised his hands above his head and tossed the blocks to the ground three times. Each time they landed, they indicated — with one rounded side, yin, and the other flat side, yang, face up — yes. Mr. Chen gave thanks. A year later, in February 2013, Mr. Chen opened Everyday Noodles on Forbes Avenue.” Your life coach offer that much clarity?
The Profile Treatment – From Maura Judkis in the Washington Post: “Participate in a thought experiment for a second: What if your life were as good as Eric Adjepong’s? You’d be a chef who was plucked for the latest season of ‘Top Chef,’ potentially on the verge of becoming famous. You’d have a catering business and the confidence that, after a national platform like the Bravo show, investors and a restaurant were sure to follow. You’d have a clever and gorgeous wife who gave birth two months ago to a beautiful daughter, whose good looks are not a genetic anomaly because — as if all of this weren’t enough — you, yourself, are so good-looking that you were named to People magazine’s list of the sexiest chefs in America…. Eric Adjepong is the kind of person whose life seems so perfect you’d want to hate him, but because he’s so charming, you never could.”
Nah. I hate him. Let’s hate him.
The Profile Treatment too: Restaurant edition – Happy 20th anniversary to the crew at Delfina in SF! Eater’s Caleb Pershan has the two-decade roundup here, complete with Craig and Annie Stoll’s love story (“‘He had long hair — I just dismissed guys with long hair… Then finally he cut his hair off, and I noticed him.’”), startup story (“After striking out with 17 banks, Annie and Craig secured a loan for $100,000… They used their credit cards as collateral.”), critical first impressions (“the restaurant was a ‘shrieking hell hole,’ as San Francisco Examiner critic Patricia Unterman wrote in her review), gentrification causation questions (“Citing decades of gentrification in the neighborhood — of which its dining scene might be a consequence and a cause — city legislators placed a legal cap on the number of restaurants in the Mission this year.”), then and now pictures, and more.
For Design Fans – In Chicago: What if Grace, but a teensy, tiny bit different? Yes! Here’s Yugen, where, in order to give chef Mari Katsumura a fair chance and a fresh start, owner Michael Olszewski kept the chairs, carpet, basic layout, and artwork of the former occupant in place. To be fair, Olszewski’s involvement means every single article about Yugen for the foreseeable future is going to mention Grace no matter what, but forcing media to take notes while sitting in those chairs and looking at that art opens Yugen up for a lot more nostalgia-laden comparison than might otherwise be warranted (or wanted). Good luck!
And Last but not Least – By now you’ve probably seen Kevin Alexander’s “I Found the Best Burger Place in America. And Then I Killed It.” piece in Thrillist, but ICYMI: Alexander topped his epic 2017 “Burger Quest” list by naming “‘Nick’s’ Cheeseburger with Grilled Onions” at Portland, OR’s Stanich’s the best burger in the entire country. And then… “Five months later, in a story in The Oregonian, restaurant critic Michael Russell detailed how Stanich’s had been forced to shut down. In the article, Steve Stanich called my burger award a curse, ‘the worst thing that’s ever happened to us.’ He told a story about the country music singer Tim McGraw showing up one day, and not being able to serve him because there was a five hour wait for a burger. On January 2, 2018, Stanich shut down the restaurant for what he called a ‘two week deep cleaning.’ Ten months later, Stanich’s is still closed.”
Some wonder whether Alexander is giving himself too much credit here (Pete Wells is loathe to ascribe cause of death to critics: “What's peculiar about this piece is that the author is ready to enter a guilty plea when the story he tells is so full of other far more likely suspects that there's barely room for them all.”), but either way it’s well worth a read, and if you get too sad, you can always cheer yourself up with a bit of quirk in the comments section.
And that’s it for today. I’m off to research turkey soup dumplings, cranberry sauce custard-ish buns, pie-sized egg tarts, and whatever other Hong Kong touches I can bring to the table before or after the big day over here. If you’ve got Cantonese Thanksgiving tips (and I know you all do), please send them my way.
Happy Thanksgiving all! Even Eric Adjepong.
I’ll see you here Friday for next Family Meal.
And don’t forget to follow me on Twitter and Instagram, and send tips and/or “The Best Wine to Bring to Thanksgiving that You Can Buy at Your Local Grocery Store for under $20” to andrew@thisfamilymeal.com. If you like Family Meal and want to keep it going, please chip in here. If you got this as a forward, sign up for yourself! Most archives at thisfamilymeal.com for now.
P.S. For reference in LA:
Bill Addison: Twitter and Instagram
Patricia Escárcega: Twitter and Instagram
Lucas Peterson: Twitter and Instagram
Gustavo Arellano: Twitter and Instagram
Word of warning: Arellano retweets bad gifs on Twitter like my kid handles sheets of stickers. All of them, all at once, covering everything, until they are all completely used up or he has gotten bored. Enjoy!