Food critic Anton Ego in the Disney film Ratatouille Walt Disney / Everett

[HOST INTRO] Edible Idaho producer and print journalist Guy Hand has written on controversial subjects in the past like clear-cut logging, mining pollution and factory farming.  But none of those stories prepared him for the perils of writing restaurant reviews. In this installment of Edible Idaho, correspondent Guy Hand drops us into the boiling pot of food criticism.

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(Message machine): First saved message. (Restaurateur) Hello Mr. Hand, this is . . .

(Hand) Two years ago, when I started writing the Idaho Statesman’s restaurant reviews, I knew the job would be challenging.

(Restaurateur) On a personal note, that review was disrespectful, it was rude . .

(Hand) But, I quickly learned that restaurant reviews can provoke more vitriol than what might seem to be more serious subjects.

(Restaurateur) So, don’t ever call us, don’t ever come into our restaurant and do not leave cheap compliments on my message machine.  Thank you.  (Hang up, message machine): End of message.  Delete press seven . . .

(Hand) Now, critics are obviously as deserving of criticism as the establishments they criticize.  I accept that.  But why would I get a more passionate response for a story, say, on undercooked risotto than one on the lead poisoning of North Idaho children?

(Daigle) Everyone eats and so everyone thinks that they’re an expert in food.

(Hand)  That’s Rachael Dagle. Both she and Amy Atkins of the Boise Weekly do restaurant reviews. They say those reviews elicit the most emotional responses of any subject in their paper — both from restaurant owners and customers alike.  But why? Amy Atkins:

(Atkins) Well I was going to say the difference definitely with, take for example a movie, then tell someone what a terrible movie they thought it was, Cameron Crow probably isn’t going to hear that.  But when you say something about a restaurant, you may know the owner, you may be friends with someone who works there and so those things become not just the idea that well, I’ve eaten there and I thought it was fine, it seems to have a far more emotional impact.

(Hand) To me it seems also that food is so connected to memory and family and that just invests so much more emotion than say than even a movie because it goes right to the childhood memory.

(Daigle) And not just childhood memories. Depending on your mood and your experience and the people you’re with in a restaurant, that can really make a meal or if you’re breaking up with your significant other over dinner you probably won’t go back to that restaurant.  The opposite is also true, if you have maybe it’s a first date and you’re really connecting with someone, the food might seem far better in retrospect.

(Atkins) I agree.  I was going to say we fall in love over food.

(Hand) We also fall in love with food and with restaurants.  It’s a relationship very close to a love affair.  So, a bad review is like me telling the world your girlfriend is a bad kisser.  No wonder critics get angry phone calls, even death threats.

Peter & Hilary Blatz at their Cottonwood Grille

(Blatz) It kind of hits you where you live whereas something like improper mining at a place in CDA far, far away from you — although it’s a very important issue — is not as front-of-mind for most folks.

(Hand) That’s Peter Blatz.  He and his wife Hilary own the Cottonwood Grille, one of Boise’s high-end eateries — and a restaurant I gave a less than glowing review six months ago.  I thought it only fair to find out what they think of reviews and reviewers.  Hillary Blatz:

(Hilary Blatz) The responses that we saw after the review came out, we saw it on both sides, we saw people we came out and you know they walked through our doors because they wanted to come and support us, but I also saw the other side of it too where there were people who agreed with the reviewer.  So it’s challenging, it’s challenging for all of us.

(Hand) It’s certainly challenging for me — a reviewer who cloaks himself in anonymity while doing a review — to sit face to face with people negatively impacted by his not-so-humble opinion.  What is humbling is Hilary and Peter Blatz’s generosity of spirit.  Rather than leaving a nasty, ripe-for-radio phone message, they did something far more affective at silencing criticism. They listened.

(Hilary Blatz) How did we react to the review? I think we took a step back, we wanted to look at the whole establishment and say hey, we need to step it up.  We need to do better.

(Peter Blatz)  We’re doing some painting, we’re changing out some artwork, we’ve done huge changes to our menu.

(Hand) Now, these are things they’d likely do anyway, but Peter Blatz adds you shouldn’t get into the restaurant business if you can’t handle the heat.

(Peter Blatz) We’re very competitive by nature.  You push a chef and he does better.  You push a restaurant and I think it either perishes or it improves.  And you know that’s the part of this business that keeps us running around.  If you like that and you can live with that pressure to always perform you’ll thrive in this business.  You know, some people don’t want that many gray hairs, and I can’t blame ‘em.

(Movie music)

(Hand) It would be self-serving and too neat a conclusion to suggest that the restaurateur and critic’s relationship is always beneficial.

(Server)  Do you know what you’d like this evening sir? (Aton Ego)  Yes, I’d like you’re heart roasted on a spit.

(Hand) Instead I’ll leave the pithy philosophical summation to a more worthy, if fictitious restaurant critic, Anton Ego, from the animated movie Ratatouille.

(Ego) In many ways the work of a critic is easy.  We risk very little but enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgement.  But the bitter truth we critics must face is that in the grand scheme of things, the average piece of junk is probably more meaningful than our criticism designating it so.

(Hand) I should mention that on the day I met with Hilary and Peter Blatz, the Boise Weekly gave the Cottonwood Grille two glowing thumbs up.  I, perhaps not surprisingly, still get hate mail on a regular basis.

(Hand) For Edible Idaho and Boise State Radio, I’m Guy Hand.

The Boise Weekly Website

The Cottonwood Grille Website

The Ratatouille Movie Website

This entry was posted on Monday, April 5th, 2010 at 5:00 am and is filed under Edible Idaho Radio. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.