Gossip Grill

I read recently in another New York Times Dining section article about chefs who maliciously tweet about each other and their respective restaurants. Really? Don't they have things to do? Like order the ingredients for day's special, Try out new dishes? Hire staff? Cook? Isn't that more important than roasting one;s own kind?

Bad enough the catwalks are catty and the fashion industry snips rivals to pieces. Now it's chefs. or this new breed of celebrity cook.The Times',great food writer Julia Moskin delves into this. She has found that chefs write their own blogs and tweets to protect their restaurants and reputation? Really? Wouldn't you think that cooking good food and being humble would cut it? I can understand designers like Michael Kors or John Galliano tearing each other and their creations to well - shreds. The fashion industry has had a long and bitter history of rivalry and fighting. I can definitely understand it in the entertainment business. That's been going on since before Shakespeare? But therestaurant industry? Again, really?

I don't know how we managed but we place too much emphasis onto the cult of celebrity chef. What we need to do is place more stress on how good the food is and the atmosphere of the eatery. Prima donna chefs (and there have been them since royalty employed cooks) have been around for centuries. However they contained their rants and raves within their kitchens. They did not purposely set out to ruin other restaurateurs. If they did , it was by word of mouth and only reached a few select diners. Nowadays everyone , even the Dali Lama gets tweeted. Everyone knows when a restaurant is purposely trashed for no reason at all.

The best bet is judge a restaurant by what it's given you. If the food is delicious and the waitstaff courteous and attentive , then that's all you need to make a favorable judgement. If not,then don't go back. Don't let a chef's. viciousness deter you from trying good food and wine. Ignore the gossip grills as I call them, Follow to your palate.