Virtual Palate

Latkes

©copyright MMV Christopher Klugman, All Rights Reserved

Eating Their Words

I was fascinated with the panel discussion of Toronto food writers last week at George Brown Chef School. 

Bonnie Stern

“I have a focus and I have a mission.  I want people to be cooking.”
“There is nothing more rewarding than being cooked for by people you love.”

Marion Kane

On restaurant criticism:
“It’s a thankless and horrible job and I think it attracts the wrong types – like the police force attracts thugs.”
“It’s an unreliable source of information.”
About her job as a newspaper writer:
“It’s a perfect job for somebody who’s very short and very nosy.”
“It’s a brilliant job and I get paid for it.”

Elizabeth Baird

On writing recipes:
“It’s a very intimate experience because you are at their wedding, at their bar mitzvah.”

Gina Mallet

“Women used to feed their families; now they don’t.  They go on diets and come home and look at food porn.”
“I do believe I’m trying to be the best.”

James Chatto

On being a restaurant critic:
“Is this some avant-garde style of cooking or just a desperate cry for help?”
“Once you’ve used delicious and yummy and scrumptious, there are very few options.”
“(Food writers) always hope their words and insights are so delicious and true.”
On MFK Fisher:
“She always restores my faith in the value and integrity of my calling.”
(James also likes Jane Grigson and Sophie Grigson.)

Naomi Duguid

“Food is a process and an experience.  We eat with our head; we eat with our emotions.”

John Allemang

“We define food writing very narrowly – restaurants, latest trends, what we see on tv…”
“The people who are really passionate about food aren’t expressing it.”

(The sold-out event was a presentation of Chef "General" Deborah Reid and the students of George Brown's Integrated Culinary Management program.)

©copyright MMV Christopher Klugman, All Rights Reserved