Kitchen Con: Writing on the Restaurant Racket

T White

ISBN 10: 1845962206 / ISBN 13: 9781845962203

Published by Transworld Publishers Ltd, 2006

2006. Paperback. Good to very good. Some light shelf wear. . . . . Books ship from the US and Ireland. Seller Inventory # KST0013103

Synopsis:

Trevor White's hilarious account of life as a restaurant critic is also a social history of restaurant criticism and an exposé of the restaurant business. The author reveals how diners are routinely ripped off by self-styled artists and greedy restaurateurs, while arguing that anyone can become a food critic - all you need is a pen and an appetite.This defiantly populist critique of restaurant culture redefines the dining room as a place in which humans can be greatly satisfied, rather than an artist's studio. From the world's first restaurant to the most fashionable kitchens of London, Paris and New York, Kitchen Con is a book-length tribute to dinner but also a scathing attack on gourmet dogma.Written with style, humour and breathtaking candour, Kitchen Con lifts the lid on the culinary cartel in a whirlwind tour of the world's great restaurants, before turning its attention to the greatest con of the author himself. No one is spared in this riveting tale of life at the heart of the restaurant racket.

From the Inside Flap: A DELIGHTFULLY SCATHING AND HILARIOUS EXPOSÉ on the ever-more-outrageous restaurant racket. Pull up a chair with food critic Trevor White at the most sought-after restaurants on the planet, where salmonella and staggering prices abound. “Some restaurants are owned by thieves. Others are staffed by the criminally insane. All are reviewed by the sort of people who believe that no good meal is complete without a sorbet to cleanse the palate, and that Michelin stars keep the sky from falling down.”

Intelligent, witty and dry to the bone, Kitchen Con is not merely a memoir, or a scant polemic about well-known culinary egomaniacs. It is a gastronomic road-trip of global proportions, where snail porridge, food rage, rebukes, rebuttals, social oneupmanship and ingenious plots for revenge compete for the attention of Ireland’s most notorious restaurant critic. And no one is spared. “Restaurant critics are like very bad lovers. They only come once a year, they don’t care if you’re not ready, they leave without saying a word and then they tell everyone what you did wrong.”

Bibliographic Details

Title: Kitchen Con: Writing on the Restaurant Racket
Publisher: Transworld Publishers Ltd
Publication Date: 2006
Binding: Soft cover
Condition: Very Good