Just when I thought I was tired of hearing Spain's El Bulli called "The Greatest Restaurant in the World," Adam Roberts pops in with an El Bulli review at The Amateur Gourmet whose takeaway message is, "Yes, you must eat at El Bulli before you die if you want to experience the most amazing meal ever." His review format of comic book panels interspersed with short video clips of his 30-course meal (dishes including Coconut Sponge, Rabbit Canape with Your Giblets, and Pinenut Shabu Shabu) make for a most easily digestible (pun intended) and fun read. It took Roberts five years of trying before he got a reservation; better start now! Related Ferran Adria: The New Foam Meets the...
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The Amateur Gourmet's recipe for Susan Boyled Potatoes makes a dish that is "seemingly plain on the outside but on the inside an embarrassment of riches." They're stuffed with a pancetta-enhanced cheese fondue sauce....
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Looks like Adam "The Amateur Gourmet" Roberts will be the man to watch if you want to follow along with the Food Network's Next Food Network Star show this season. He interviewed each hopeful as he or she got booted and will webcast video spots with the bootees as well as host "viewing parties" for each episode. Details on The Amateur Gourmet....
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In which Adam
"Amateur Gourmet" Roberts wakes from a bizarre dream with the urge to make a linzertorte. Enlisting the help of
Nancy Silverton, the result is ... something to sing about.
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In a post titled "Going Back," Serious Eats contributing editor Adam Roberts (aka The Amateur Gourmet) starts sounding dangerously professional when reconsidering his protocol for writing about a restaurant on his blog. On the perennial question of whether food bloggers should visit multiple times before dishing—like newspaper and magazine food critics do: What do these three experiences have to do with food blogging? Well, if that third time had been my first time at Chiles & Chocolate in Park Slope, I would have written a savage review. If the second time had been my first time, I would have written it a love letter. But since my first time was my first time, I gave it a half-hearted nod and...
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Last week, Mario Batali went a hatin' on food blogs. This week, Serious Eats contributing editor Adam "The Amateur Gourmet" Roberts defends them: [Playwright Arthur] Miller's dream of an egalitarian system for criticism—a system that "would broaden the public's awareness of how fictional, rather than a matter of plain fact, all criticism really is, which is to say, how subjective"—is being realized today, at least in the food world, with food blogs. Because of our varying voices, our palpable passions, and—most important—our lack of editorial control, we are the distant drums in the distance growing closer and closer, our torches waving, our laptops poised for posting. Mario will disagree, but I think food blogs are the best thing to happen...
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Will the heat of the kitchen drive the Amateur Gourmet to seek professional help? Find out as Adam Roberts is forced into making eggs Benedict in the debut episode of AGTV.
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As I relive all this, writing this story, I’m realizing how dehumanizing the whole experience was. Restaurant culture mirrors real-life culture, and if you have any delusions about how the world works, about absolute power corrupting absolutely, go work at a restaurant. Your romantic bubble vision of the world will burst.
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I was working as a host at an Atlanta restaurant, but I wanted to be a waiter. Not because I’d make more money (which I would) but because I wanted to be like Flo at Mel’s Diner in
Alice and tell customers to "Kiss my grits." A few weeks into my hosting stint, I overheard a manager talking about how a waiter quit and how they needed a fast replacement. "I can do it!" I said. "I learn really fast."
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I looked at myself in the mirror, and I said, "Adam, do you want to spend the rest of your life trading integrity for convenience? Stop being a chicken-stock whore. You need to pull yourself together and make this dinner count. Look up some recipes, go to the store, and have the time and patience to do it right."
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