So last night me, Paula and Rebbeca (Yes, that is proper English. Thanks Mr. Bye) went to Anthony Bourdain's "No Reservations" book premiere. The event was a $200 a plate dinner. The service was bland, the meal was not very good, nor was there very much of it and the wine was poor at best.
After dinner there was a question/answer session with Tony. People were surrounding him asking him the sort of question that one asks celebrities "So, what does it feel like to be soooo cool?".
I was grumpy about the "meal" so I went up to ask him about it. As I walk up, the crowd dissipated and let me in. Mr. Bourdain looks right at me and everybody else shuts up, so I ask him:
"I am sorry if somebody else has already asked you this, but I have not been able to hear anything, but what did you think of tonight's meal?"
"It was good" Was his response.
"That's it?" I question.
"What did you think of it" says he.
At this point I was fully prepared to talk about how food in SF is about the simple preparation of quality local ingredient. And crafting meals that go well together, not about random sea foods that sound like they might be local (Dungeness crab after the season was put on hold due to the oil spill. That was either not local, or almost a year old and it tasted like it). I was going to go on about presenting a menu that consisted of nothing but fish and pork. It was going to be dazzling.
Instead I said "Rotten fish, I threw up a little in my mouth."
He told me that I need to relax, and the crowd closed up on me.
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P.S.
Ok, people,
Do you seriously think that I was trying to impress yall with a story about my urbain wit? Or that I was holding this up as a shining example of how to politely deal with things??
No, I was expressing my outrage at being served rotten food for $200. And telling a funny story about the simi-intentional things that come out of our mouths from time to time.
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P.P.S.
Giving me shit for giving somebody shit sounds more than a little silly.
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P.P.P.S
For the record not all of the dishes where bad, some of them where in fact exquisite.
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9 comments:
I just asked Mr. Bye.
He wrote, "You are correct... 'me' can never be a subject; it is always the object, the done to, the couch potato if you will."
Rebecca, Paula and I went to dinner. Not me, Rebecca, and Paula.
Funny story though.
you might have the correct english usage down but you have got very little graciousness to go with it. I also attended that dinner and found the service excellent (at least to myself and my party). I thought the food on the whole very well prepared and a good collaboration of all of the chefs involved. The only thing I thought could have been improved on was the desert course.
I think chef Bourdain's comments to you were on point. Making those type of remarks in that setting is putting your ego in the forefront. Next time when the dinner is held in your honer please feel very free to dis anyone and anything, but please don't feel obligated to invite those of us who enjoyed the evening.
When I critisise sombody I do not do it anonymously.
BTW If you had read what I said you would have noticed that I had actualy asked a perfictly nice and good question that was basicly ignored and my response was very admititly out of whack (but funny)
And no, the food was not good, and not the service was bland, unless your party as you pointed out, got better service than mine. Why would that be?
That is so heroic.
Oh, and after you left, the chef's wives got together and kicked Paula out. Make of that what you will, but all around a heroic night indeed.
Too bad about the food.
While it is a little slimy, I think I have a good idea who "anonymous" might be. Maybe the grammar was off and the word "honor" was misspelled on purpose.
But nonetheless, anonymous makes a good point, Josh. It sounds like you choked when he asked you what you thought of the meal. But your blog would also have been a great forum for you to recover from the choke and express in luscious detail how and why there was dissonance between the food served at the event and the author in question. It also raises the interesting question about whether or not the food at such an event should be in line with the theme, or whether that's too much to ask.
So I think you were probably trying to do something pretty smart by raising the question. The problem is when one part of your brain outpaces the other and the wrong words come out. Or they don't come out fast enough. When this happens in public you can look like a real ass.
This is when crowds come in and swallow you. This swallowing saves the crowd from having to listen to you choke and it saves you from making a spectacle of yourself. Crowds generally don't swallow people who are keeping them at bay with well-crafted and well-spoken words.
In other words, yeah, I been there, too. It sucks. But I encourage you to train harder.
So ya all seem to have your nickers in a twist that I wrote my first post as "anonymous" but to me "The Eel" seem pretty anonymous.
So here I am w/ a name, any better, do you know me?.
My gripe was not with your question about the dinner but with your response to Bourdain's. Time and place.
Yes, as for my grammar and spelling, it sucks, wadda ya want I'm just a cook.
Leslie
Thank you leslie. I would feel the need to explain my name, but this is my web log, and anybody who knows me knows me as the eel.
As for the comment, if you had actualy read my post you would have seen that it was unintentional, and if you have ever read or heard anything that has ever come out of writer Bourdain's mouth you would realize that he was not offened by it, so why are you?
Thats ok honey, 33 dose not last forever. As you do not feel the to explain your self neither do I. As for reading Bourdain's work I have read all of it. As he said just "relax" honey, you'll get it one of these days.
Leslie
Just wondeing, but where on earth did you get the idea that I dissagreed with his statement? I thought it was both amusing and true.
Or that at my 33, I have "missed it". No matter how old (or young) you are, there is ALWAYS more about life to be learned, and lived.
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