Via The Grinder comes a recent article by food author and The Next Iron Chef judge Michael Ruhlman. While the article itself discusses issues that have been tossed around enough—"amateurish judgments and shrill opinions" and the like—hometown chef extraordinaire Chris Cosentino steals the show with a bit of hilarity:
"They have free reign," cries Chris Cosentino, chef-owner of Incanto, in San Francisco. "They can say whatever they want and all you know is they call themselves garlicboy32." One of his regular taunters, SFGirl, drives him crazy.While we would love to know more about this SFGirl person, we can't help but think that, compared to other cities, San Francisco's major amateur food critics are relatively responsible. Sam at Becks & Posh, for example, has a strict code for her reviews. Meanwhile, Ms. Tablehopper—while not a blogger per se—has stated that she just doesn't do negative reviews because they are not particularly helpful. We've even got some excellent chef-bloggers of our own. So where's the problem? ... Oh, right. There's that faceless army of menaces unique to the Bay called Yelp. Makes you wonder if more restaurants will ban Yelpers (and garlicboy32) from the premises."But Chris," I say, "You yourself have a blog."
"I don't use my blog for critiquing!" he shouts back.
· And the Internet-Restaurant War Wages On ? [The Grinder]
· Bloggers v. Chefs [Restaurant Hospitality]
· Yelp Wanted: Oakland Cafe Bans Yelpers [~ESF~]
