Esquire's 40, Somms out, Michelin quarterlies, NFT Qs, Media moves, and more...
Family Meal - Friday, November 19th, 2021
Hello Friday,
Two quick programming notes to start:
First, a reminder that per usual, the Family Meal which went out to paying subscribers on Tuesday is now available for everyone as a copy / paste below. If you want to get Tuesday’s on Tuesdays…
And second, with Thanksgiving next week and all of food media morphing into one big Butterball hotline, there will definitely be no Family Meal next Friday, November 26th.
Here’s hoping you enjoy / manage / make-a-shitton-of-money-on-what-should-be your holiday, everyone!
Let’s get to it…
The Somms – A little over a year after Julia Moskin’s NYT exposé on the Court of Master Sommeliers said, “Twenty-one women told The New York Times that they have been sexually harassed, manipulated or assaulted by male master sommeliers… a continuing problem of which its leadership has long been aware,” the SF Chronicle’s Esther Mobley reports: “Six master sommeliers will lose their prestigious wine titles following investigations into sexual misconduct allegations, pending appeals — notably San Francisco’s Fred Dame, who has been called ‘the godfather of the American sommelier community,’ and two other local figures: Robert Bath, a professor at St. Helena’s Culinary Institute of America, and Matt Stamp, co-owner of Napa restaurant Compline. The Napa-based Court of Master Sommeliers, Americas, the influential organization that can make a sommelier’s career, announced on Wednesday that it will also move to terminate the membership of Fred Dexheimer, a wine consultant in Brooklyn; Drew Hendricks, who had been director of business development at Pioneer Wine Co. in Texas until November 2020; and Joseph Linder, a sommelier in Seattle.”
Lots of details in the piece, but the one that stuck out most in an article about how six men have been publicly punished: “22 master sommeliers were under investigation.” In a follow-up article, Mobley says of the sixteen not purged, “The court said some of those people will need to undergo training or temporary suspensions, but it did not reveal details about the repercussions.”
The Big Lists – Esquire is out with its 40 “Best New Restaurants in America, 2021,” compiled this year by Omar Mamoon, Joshua David Stein, Jeff Gordinier, and Kevin Sintumuang, who would like you to know that if you notice some geographical lopsidedness in the list, it’s only because: “New York is undeniably back.”
Remember LA? (Hi, LA.)
In order, starting at the top (#1), they are:
Dhamaka (NYC); Ever (Chicago); Helen (Birminghan); Hestia (Austin); Horn Barbecue (Oakland); March (Houston); Owamni (Minneapolis); The Harvey House (Madison); Cadence (NYC); Shawarmaji (Oakland); Irwin’s (Philadelphia); Oyster Oyster (DC); Iris (NYC); Myriel (St. Paul); The Anchovy Bar (SF); Nana’s Bakery & Pizza (Mystic) / Dimo’s Apizza (Portland, OR) / La Natural (Miami); Degust (Houston); En Passant (Chicago); Roots Southern Table (Dallas); Miss River (NOLA); Bacanora (Phoenix); Esmerelda (Andover, VT); Moon River (DC); Gage & Tollner (NYC); Rosella (NYC); Pearl River Deli (LA); Contento (NYC); Abacá (SF); Andros Taverna (Chicago); Oma’s Hideaway (Portland, OR); Fat Choy (NYC) / Aunts Et Uncles (NYC); Imperfecto (DC); Les Trois Chevaux (NYC); Vaga (Encinitas); Mark’s Off Madison (NYC); Kasama (Chicago); Fritati (NOLA); Fish & Bird Izakaya (Berkeley); Seafood Sally’s (NOLA); and Havens (Kihei, HI).
NB: There are actually 43 restaurants listed because Nana’s, Dimo’s, and La Natural are all tied at 16th under the subheading “Pizza Across America” (“across” meaning bi-coastal), while Fat Choy and Aunts et Uncles are tied at 31 under the sub-heading: “Crave-worthy vegan in NYC,” which is… weird.
Congrats, all! And congrats also to Esquire’s Chef of the Year Sean Sherman (Owamni); Rising Star of the Year Shenarri Freeman (Cadence); Pastry Chef of the Year Serena Chow Fisher (Marlena); Beverage Director of the Year Amy Racine (Iris); and Pop-Up of the Year Bridgetown Roti.
The Evolving Lists – “Michelin… recently announced that it would start breaking with tradition by revealing some of its New York selections throughout the year, versus annually.” Missed this when the news came out on November 10th, but Eater’s Ryan Sutton says the guide “kicked off the new policy by unveiling six new selections.” Those are Les Trois Chevaux, Le Fanfare, Takeda, Torien, Yellow Rose, and 63 Clinton, but Michelin isn’t saying if they will get stars or bibs or anything. Just teasing their imminent inclusion. At the same time, “the inspectors also added a few quick ‘reviews’ about the culinary offerings at each venue in a downloadable Michelin smartphone app.”
“Fleek!” TikTok’d the Gen Z food gods. “A downloadable Michelin smartphone app!”
That Fast Casual (IPO) $$$ – Headline in CNBC: “Sweetgreen shares surge 76% in salad chain’s stock market debut.” Details via Amelia Lucas: “The stock opened at $52 a share, giving the company a market value of more than $5.5 billion. The company priced its initial public offering at $28 a share Wednesday evening, above its marketed range of $23 to $25 per share. Sweetgreen sold 13 million shares, raising $364 million for the company.” Not bad for a company whose promise is measured in lessening losses (only down $87M this year compared to $100M at the same point in 2020!).
The NFTs – Story I want someone else to write: What does crypto mean for restaurants? Feels like there’s a lot of… chatter. And it’s making me uncomfortable. Spike Mendelsohn is constantly on Twitter getting all excited about spending time in the Colonoscopy Chicken discord chat room or whatever (don’t correct me). Tom Colicchio seems to think recipe ownership can be solved by the blockchain (can’t foresee any issues there). And the NYT’s Kevin Roose tweeted yesterday about how $40M is nothing in terms of new crypto wealth — “We haven't even really started to get our minds around the amount of wealth crypto has created, or what will happen when it's deployed.” — which made me wonder: What / where are all these digital visionaries / lottery winners eating? And which parts of the industry will capture some of that wealth and how?
My thoughts on all this are blueish-grey. Yours?
The Media – On Twitter this week, Raphael Brion announced he is “headed back to The Infatuation as Senior Editor overseeing the Austin site (@InfatuationATX), [and] Nicolai McCrary is also coming back as staff writer.” His thread links to a WSJ piece reporting on JP Morgan buying The Infatuation back in September, and says, “now that the Infatuation has a business daddy… there are some expansion plans in mind. Specifically for Austin, it means relaunching the site. With a lot more resources to cover the city’s food and drink in a much bigger way.” Guessing that’s not stopping at Austin… We shall see.
The Media Too – Big news in online glossy land from former Plate editor Chandra Ram: She’s the new Senior Digital Food Editor at Food & Wine. If you somehow missed her tenure at Plate, her personal website is a useful intro, and she goes by ChandrasPlate on both Twitter and Instagram. The rare food media personality who has formally studied journalism, cooking, and wine!
And last and least – DJ Khaled voice: DJ Khaled! I wasn’t going to write about DJ Khaled launching a chicken wing ghost kitchen concept because I don’t like to be sad all the time, but news of this made it to SNL’s Weekend Update, and I somehow missed the part where Khaled said he wanted his “restaurant” to be able to deliver wings to boats via jet ski? A clear sign that woke environmentalists are winning the battle of America, and an idea that Colin Jost says, “Khaled came up with with help from his longtime business partner, cocaine.”
And that’s it for today!
Except of course for Tuesday’s paid subscriber Family Meal which is copy / pasted below as usual. If you’d like to get Tuesdays’ on Tuesdays…
I’ll see you here Tuesday for next Family Meal.
Oh, and: Don’t let your application get lost in a Thanksgiving haze! Whatever you think of awards — and the Beards in particular — there is not a lot to lose in putting in an application for the 2022 James Beard Awards. Even if you’re not thrilled with where your restaurant is right now, it’s practice. Just do it. The deadline for submitting entries (Media Awards) and recommendations (Restaurant and Chef Awards and Leadership Awards) is Tuesday, November 30, 2021* at 11:59 P.M. ET. Details here. Win. Lose. Withdraw in angry protest. Whatever. I think you’re great.
And don’t forget to follow me on Twitter and Instagram, and send tips and/or a downloadable Michelin smartphone app to andrew@thisfamilymeal.com. If you like Family Meal and want to keep it going, become a paying subscriber! If you got this as a forward, sign up for yourself!
Here begins the Family Meal that went out to paid subscribers on Tuesday, November 16th, 2021. If you’d like to get Tuesday Family Meals on Tuesdays…
Humm's line, Foody's cut, Belcampo's trust, Via Carota's blackmail, and more...
Hello Tuesday,
Food media is in full Thanksgiving mode lately, and non-turkey news has slowed way down. I think, based on this shorter one and what I’m seeing online, I will probably take at least one of two days off next week, so as not to crowd your inboxes with shoehorned mediocrity.
As always, if you see things I’m missing in the mix, please send my way!
Let’s get to it…
PB&H – On Friday, Richard Eden, a reporter for Britain’s Daily Mail, wrote that Claridge’s hotel in London was “involved in very tense talks with its star chef, Daniel Humm, because he wants to turn the restaurant's menu entirely vegan. 'It's a hotel nightmare,' an insider tells me. 'Bosses are terrified that Humm will leave if his demands are not met, which would mean they would be without him during the Christmas season, their busiest time of year.”
Welp. By Saturday, Claridge’s said on Twitter that Humm’s last service in charge would be NYE. His restaurant “Davies and Brook will continue to operate under his direction until the end of December 2021, and we will update on future plans… in due course.”
For his part, Humm wrote on Instagram: “The future for me is plant-based. This is our mission and what we stand by as a company, and at this time this is not the direction that [Claridge’s] feels is right for them. It is with sadness now that we’ve mutually announced that we will go our separate ways at the end of this year.”
NB: No one seems to be questioning whether the stated reason for the split is the actual reason? I have no special knowledge of these moves, and the given rationale is certainly plausible, but I, for one, have occasionally been shocked to learn that despite PR spin, it turns out money is sometimes a factor in big name chefs leaving — or being pushed out — of hotel deals.
The PPC – A startup recipe website launched Friday to allow recipe creators to sell their work piecemeal (at a buck a recipe) or in bundles, with “Foody” taking a 20% cut (and credit card companies getting their usual 2-3%). The site makes the bold claim that “Creators on Foody make 10X+ more per recipe than a typical cookbook deal,” which is based on some optimistic math on its creators page (and a supporting evidence cameo from Nick Kokonas).
Per Becky Duffett in Eater: “At launch, the site is also featuring star chefs. Some you might expect, such as Brandon Jew of… Mister Jiu’s, Evan and Sarah Rich of Rich Table, Shelley Lindgren of A16, Laura and Sayat Ozyilmaz formerly of Noosh, and top chef alum Tu David Fu. There are also home cooking personalities, including Amanda Haas, who once ran the Williams-Sonoma test kitchen. The wild card is chef Jeremiah Tower, formerly of Chez Panisse and Stars, who seems to have stepped out of semi-retirement to shop some recipes on the web.”
If you start selling on it, please let me know how it goes!
The Trust – The SF Chronicle’s Elena Kadvany has another long look at the demise of Belcampo, the push to scale that came before the crash, and the loss of trust that rippled beyond: “Belcampo’s fall from grace has reverberated throughout the industry. After the closure, there were so many customer questions about sourcing that [Berkley shop Local Butcher’s] Aaron Rocchino had to address it with employees at a staff meeting.” That reminded me of this great New Yorker piece from Ian Parker last week, about Midwestern organic grain fraudster Randy Constant. That article contains my new favorite deadpan of the year: “To run a fraudulent organic farm inside a federal prison suggests an unusual appetite for risk.” Recommend.
And last and least: The Tick Tock – An Eater NY roundup mentioned in passing that Via Carota’s TikTok handle had been taken by a prankster who is apparently trying to trade @ViaCarota for “cacio e pepe for life” and organizing bizarrely conventional social media giveaways like “dinner on me at Via Carota for the most liked comment” on a post. I’m not a bit TikTok-er, but that led me to some wild articles last month about the VIPList handle in NYC, which consists of two early-20s women who have parlayed over-the-top reviews of NYC restaurants into six figure “consulting” jobs...
Here’s Rebecca Jennings in Vox with a perfect little note on a hit the two have been taking from critics: “[they] are not, in fact, NYU girls, but do somewhat fit the stereotype.”
And here’s Katie Way in Vice discussing the haters under the fitting headline: “We Got Dinner With The VIP List. Cry About It.”
The Internet, man. So hot these days.
And that’s it for today!
I’ll see you back here Friday for next Family Meal.
If you got this as a forward and you want this newsletter to come out swinging after the holiday…
And don’t forget to follow me on Twitter and Instagram, and send tips and/or cacio e pepe for life to andrew@thisfamilymeal.com. If you like Family Meal and want to keep it going, become a paying subscriber! If you got this as a forward, sign up for yourself!