Page 109 - Cityview_May_June_2014

An Interview with

William Grimes,

former restaurant critic at

The New York Times

Cityview: Everyone writes, but not CV: Do you have particular culinary review can close a restaurant—not
everyone is a writer. Everyone eats—but likes and dislikes? And how might those unlike a negative theater review putting

most people aren’t food critics. What are biases influence a review?
a clamp on ticket sales and closing
the prerequisites for serving as a food a show. How did you deal with such

critic for the New York Times?
WG: I think that most critics like
responsibility?
just about everything, if it’s done right.

William Grimes: food knowledge That’s why they gravitate toward the WG: I tried to tune out that fre-
is important, of course. You need to food racket in the first place—they like quency. If you started thinking about

recognize what’s on the plate in front to eat. I’d have to think long and hard the waiters and the dishwashers,
of you, how it should be made, what’s to single out an ingredient that I do not or the investors, you would become

right with it and what’s wrong with
like. You develop a hatred for ingre- paralyzed. You have to keep in mind
it. That’s a tall order these days—in dients and dishes that show up too that your responsibility is to give the

fact, it’s impossible—when there are often—the clich́ dishes, like molten reader an honest account of the dining
restaurants serving everything from chocolate cake. But, I have to admit, experience you had. If you sugar-coat

regional Thai to experimental mo- there are great molten chocolate cakes. it, you are cheating. It is unfortunate
lecular cuisine. But you need to have I just don’t want to see them on every when a restaurant goes under. But

a background of tasting and studying menu. I’m not sure if that qualifies as a those are the rules of the game. And
and thinking about food, and making bias, but it definitely shapes my impres- most restaurants do go under, not be-

it in your own kitchen. Just as im- sion of a restaurant. If the menu seems cause of a review from the Times, but
portant is the ability to translate your to be following all the trends, I take because diners are critics, too. They

taste impressions into words. A good away points.
eat, they judge, and they spend their
critic has to make the experience of a money accordingly. In the same way,

meal come alive for readers. If you are CV: In New York City, a positive review the Times does not create a successful
thrilled, you need to get that across in in the New York Times can sustain a restaurant. Word of mouth creates a

vivid language.
restaurant for many months. A negative
successful restaurant.

may june 2014 cityviewmag.com 107