May 2008

Front Cover:
Chefs Pride

Features:
Herbs & spices
Chocolate
Pork, poultry and game
Kitchen equipment

Q & A:
Chui Lee Luk
Claude's, Sydney

Culinary Clippings Headlines:
Breaking with tradition
Olympians train hard, in the dark
Fonterra's Olympic promotion
Why Erfurt?

Regulars:
Product News
The Shadow
Chef shuffle
Food & Wine

Reviews that bite

In Britain, restaurant reviewing has long been a form of theatre. Traditionally, if an English critic is unhappy with their meal, they'll go straight for the jugular. Often the put downs are so outrageous that no one takes them too seriously. Of course, it's no fun being told your food tasted as if it were boiled in effluent, or that your restaurant should be converted into a car park.

Despite the bad blood between British chefs and reviewers, there have been few successful defamation cases. The reason for this is simple: the British courts protect the media's right to freedom of expression.

In this country the opposite is true. Leo Schofield was the first reviewer to get stung by the law when he claimed a restaurateur “killed live lobsters by broiling them alive”.  That slur cost Fairfax $100,000.

In 1993 John Newtown was successfully sued by the owner of Sydney's Blues Point Cafe. That one cost Fairfax $180,000.

Some restaurateurs believe overly harsh reviews are unnecessary. Yet they need the critics as well. Good reviews mean more covers and when times are tough, as they are right now, restaurants need all the help they can get.

Alex McDonald,
Editor