Food Critic Whets Appetites at Chat 19 Speaker Series

Laughs and Food Tips from Alan Richman

by Susan Stewart Smith

(October 12, 2005) “I am a horrible person to go to dinner with,” said Alan Richman, who never gets a good table, never complains to a waiter and always makes his dining companions order what he tells them to.

But restaurant critic Alan Richman, whose work appears regularly in GQ, Bon Appetit and other foodie bibles, isn't bad at lunch. Speaking at the October 6 installment of the Food & Thought luncheon-and-lecture series at Chat 19 restaurant, Mr. Richman offered a smorgasbord of dining tips and celebrity chef critiques, seasoned with weird food stories.

In the name of research, Mr. Richman has eaten guinea pig and “spicy beef penis,” though not at the same meal. If that put some listeners off their Chat 19 salads, they weren't admitting it.

Food critic Alan Richman signs a copy of his book for Larchmonter Kate Kelly at the Food & Thought luncehon on October 6.

“I thought he was fantastic,” said Larchmont resident Karen Flynn. “He brought humor and a quirky viewpoint. You really would not feel too intimidated to invite him over for dinner.”

If you do, don't expect any help in the kitchen. “I'm a terrible cook,” said Mr. Richman, who lives in Mamaroneck with his wife Lettie Teague, executive wine editor for Food & Wine magazine.

Mary Ann Mumma, Larchmont resident and Food & Thought board member, especially enjoyed hearing about the restaurants the food critic likes. “It’s great to hear about places I’ve been and places I’d like to try,” she said.

Locally, Mr. Richman likes the Village Luncheonette in Mamaroneck. “They poach a good egg.” For a last meal, he might go to Vetri in his native Philadelphia. In Manhattan, he likes Chanterelle - “the best of the small restaurants” - and Montrachet, among others.

Mr. Richman told the lunch crowd that he mourns the trend toward brand extension among chefs. He believes some culinary superstars have more restaurants than they can adequately supervise.

Of Jean-Georges Vongterichten, owner of Jean-Georges and the Spice Market, Mr. Richman wrote in GQ that “while he's maybe the greatest chef to work in America, his restaurants are no good.”

Alain Ducasse's kitchens, on the other hand, work “because his staff is like a Marine Corps.”

Mr. Richman got his start reviewing for a newspaper in Montreal, where he doubled as a sportswriter. Between hockey games, he ate in “French restaurants where they put cheese on everything.”

As a neophyte dining on classic cuisine, he figured out what he was eating by looking it up in Larousse Gastronomique, the definitive culinary encyclopedia for those in the food world. That kind of research is no longer central to the job.

“It used to be that reviewing restaurants was about seeing who's doing the best job on famous dishes,” he said. Now, in the age of fusion, there are no rules, only impressions. Mr. Richman has many:

• “Desserts are getting awful in Paris. Everybody's making desserts out of vegetables.”
  
  
• “The French Laundry (Thomas Keller's California restaurant) is much more charming than Per Se (Keller's new Manhattan outpost).”
  
  
• “There has never been better crème brulee than at Le Cirque.”
  
  
• “David Bouley is the greatest single stand-in-front-of-the-stove-and-cook chef I’ve ever seen.”

More of Mr. Richman's thoughts on food are available in his book Fork It Over: The Intrepid Adventures of a Professional Eater.

The food critic was the first speaker in this fall’s Food & Thought lecture series. The series continues on November 3 with Mary Brosnahan Sullivan, the director of the Coalition for the Homeless in New York City. The New York Post named her one of the “Fifty Most Powerful Women in New York.” She will be followed by movie producer Leslie Holleran on December 1. Ms. Holleran, a Larchmont resident, is currently working on the movie “Casanova,” which stars Heath Ledger and will be released in mid-December. She will tell subscribers what drew her to the movie business and about the making of “Casanova.”

Susan Stewart Smith is full-time journalist and Larchmont resident.

For more information about the Food & Thought series, or to attend either of the next two sessions, email FoodandThought@optonline.net or call (914) 833-9738.