San Francisco chefs turn tables on reviewers

Nation's Restaurant News, Oct 4, 1993 by Alan Liddle

"Service was very pleasant, but there was no butter plate and I got a little bit upset when I saw that our waiter was sitting at the table next to me."

A restaurant review, you say?

No. A review of attempts by restaurant reviewers and food writers to serve a room full of chefs.

It's more than likely that many chefs fantasize that they might one day get the chance to turn the tables and critique the cooking and service of restaurant reviewers.

So when you consider that several San Francisco chefs recently had such an opportunity - and that it was arranged in the name of a good cause - it's easy to see that it was a dream come true.

None of the chefs attending the recent Planned Overage Dinner at Tante Marie's Cooking School had been savaged brutally in the press recently. But the chance that one or two might vent some collective hostility at the critics added drama to the affair.

As it turned out, there was little conflict. Just good food and some fun at the expense of the restaurant writers and critics who dared for cook for the chefs.

Among the chefs on hand were Roland Passot, La Folie; Christopher Majer, Splendido's; Tom Fox, Corona Bar & Grill; Fazol "Faz" Poursohi, Circolo; Gerald Hiragoyen, Fringale; Luca Loffredo, Prego; Marco Mariselli, Ciao; and Elizabeth Falkner, pastry chef, Elka.

Indeed, the spirit of the event had been positive from the start. Marketing and communications consultant Faith Wheeler, formerly of San Francisco's Spectrum Foods, described it as a "thank you" for the chefs who had participated in the first six months of the Planned Overage program. Planned Overage asks chefs to commit to creating a specific number of "extra" portions daily to help feed the hungry.

Wheeler, one of the program's organizers, said the 30 participating restaurants had donated approximately 18,000 quality portions - not leftovers or fare hastily thrown together from prep scraps - since the program began earlier in the year.

Michael Bauer of the San Francisco Chronicle is among the biggest supporters of Planned Overage. Depending on the tone of Bauer's review of a restaurant, different chefs have described him as "knowledgeable," "ignorant," "right on" or "destructive."

Willing to put his kitchen mittens where his mouth is and hopeful that publicity about the event might encourage other restaurants to join Planned Overage, Bauer signed on to prepare the main course. His creation: mustard pork stew with fall vegetable polenta.

Reviews of Bauer's dish were mixed but generally favorable.

The names of the reviewers are being withheld - not only to protect them from possible retribution by crazed critics - but also because we don't know which of them actually wrote the observations obtained by Nation's Restaurant News.

"Second course: "Nice hot plate, but the waiter didn't clean off the side of the plate. Smells very good. The Italian guy [chef] next to me tells me he wants to hire the chef for his restaurant so he can take a few days off. No reason for corn and potatoes with polenta."

Another chef wrote: "The entree was an inspiring introduction to fall flavors. Turnips, beans, pork, potatoes and corn on a steaming hot polenta made me happy to be alive in September. However, it's unfortunate that the polenta was a little runny and lacked seasoning and the pork was overcooked."

Among the other dishes created by media types were ham and cheese risotto balls, Janet Hazen, San Francisco Focus magazine; duck liver pate with tomato aspic and miniature mudslide and avalanche cookies, Narsai David, KCBS radio; and fresh fruit crisp, Lynn Forbes, San Francisco Examiner.

Jim Wood, Examiner food and wine specialist, contributed an impressive array of wines for the dinner and served as a server.

Jennifer Tornatore, a self-proclaimed "volunteer foodie," prepared a gelato to accompany Forbes' crisp and worked with Dan Bowe, a San Francisco chef and consultant, who provided professional assistance to the reviewers who would be chefs.

MacArthur Park restaurant manager Paul Diaz supplied smoked salmon.

As can be discerned from the comments that appeared higher up in this report, the wait staff - which included Chronicle staffers Tom Sietsema and Karola Saekel - also took some knocks. But the chef-reviewers had some good things to say about service and servers as well.

"I was impressed by the waiter's dissertation concerning the conception of this dish," said one chef-turned-critic. Added another: "The waiter has the best tie in the city."