I have profound respect for Keith McNally's abilities as a restaurateur, but his open letter to Eater and the New York Times alleging that Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni is sexist is simply way off base. McNally notes that Bruni has never given a female chef three stars and is therefore sexist, and furthermore that this alleged sexism is the reason Bruni gave McNally's latest restaurant, Morandi, and its chef, Jody Williams, a bad review. On a zillion levels this is preposterous. First, anyone who has ever dined with Bruni (I have had a couple of meals with him in the company of women) would tell you he adores women. Second, can anyone point to a female chef in New...
Continue reading »
With all the negative chatter about Morandi, I wasn't sure what I was going to find when I met a friend there for lunch today. The only thing I knew going in was that Morandi chef Jody Williams is a very good Italian cook. So it wasn't a total surprise that for the most part I had a very good meal. The gorgonzola and pear focaccia would make a fine light lunch all by itself. Add the fried artichokes, and you've got a great lunch for two. Of course we had to keep ordering. Williams's meatballs, studded with raisins and pine nuts, remain cloudlike and deeply satisfying. The hangar steak was fairly ordinary, but the polenta that it was precariously...
Continue reading »
