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List Price: $29.95Amazon.com's Price: $19.77 You Save: $10.18 (34%)Prices subject to change.
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 647.95
EAN: 9780471292777
ISBN: 047129277X
Label: Wiley
Manufacturer: Wiley
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 368
Publication Date: September 22, 1998
Publisher: Wiley
Sales Rank: 687496
Studio: Wiley
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
Meet the people behind the restaurants and the reviews, and learn how their insight can help turn your next meal out, into a world-class dining event.
For generations, chefs, restaurateurs and food enthusiasts have watched their world revolve around a small but enormously powerful cabal known simply as 'restaurant reviewers.' In their new book, Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page leave the kitchen for the dining room, to shine a light on the world of the culinary critics, shadowy figures often dining incognito, whose public judgments can make or break a restaurant. Drawing on interviews with the nation's most important critics including Ruth Reichl of the New York Times, Phyllis Richman of The Washington Post, and Dennis Ray Wheaton of Chicago Magazine, as well as celebrity chefs and restaurateurs, Dornenburg and Page serve up a rare look into the reviewing process, and reveal some of the pros' secrets for creating—and enjoying—a four-star dining experience.
Chefs and restaurateurs are offered inside information on how to create a 'four-star' dining experience. - First time exposure of the mysterious food critic.
Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page (both of New York City) are the authors of the best selling titles Becoming a Chef and Culinary Artistry. Their first book, Becoming a Chef, won the 1996 James Beard Award for Best Writing on Food.
Amazon.com Review:
Having written about all it takes to become a chef in Becoming a Chef, and about how those chefs do their work in Culinary Artistry, James Beard Award-winning authors Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page have turned their attention, with Dining Out, to the subject of restaurants and restaurant critics. Restaurant owners, chefs, and critics alike get their turn to discuss the mercurial world of restaurant criticism--is the restaurant critic a valiant consumer advocate or a villainous ruiner of careers and businesses?
Dornenburg and Page interview 61 members of this 'food intelligentsia' and offer the reader a snapshot of the process on either side of the kitchen door. New York Times critic Ruth Reichl notes, 'I wake up in the middle of almost every night before a review is printed, agonizing over where the mistakes are.... I knew if I had called a turnip a rutabaga, my career was over.' And chef Norman Van Aken says he believes 'wholeheartedly in the idea of critical analysis, whether for books, movies, or restaurants. I just wish the public would understand that there are bad reviewers as well as bad reviews.' Through interviews and research, Dornenburg and Page explore what it takes to become a critic, how the critics themselves feel about their power (not to mention what the restaurateurs feel), and the changing nature of what makes a great restaurant.
The book is packed with great quotes from chefs and critics, and peppered with sidebars on such handy topics as how to work with a wine steward in a restaurant to achieve the wine experience you're looking for. A lengthy appendix lists critics' favorite restaurants in more than 20 cities, and the beautiful black-and-white photographs by Michael Donnelly evoke both the fun and serious sides of restaurant life. Dining Out will appeal to foodies who delight in the behind-the-scenes stories of both chef and critic, and to anyone who's ever wondered just who those restaurant critics are, anyway.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Illuminating and entertaining, with more drama than opera!
As someone who follows the restaurant scene with the same level of enthusiasm that some teenagers follow Jessica Simpson, I got caught up with all the brouhaha around the debut of the new New York Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni. This got me curious about restaurant critics and their methods and whether anyone had ever studied the subject, which led me to the one-of-a-kind book Dining Out by Dornenburg and Page. I found it incredibly illuminating, not to mention entertaining. The authors dissect ... Read More
Rating: - A great look at what Ruth Reichl and other top critics do!
As a fan of both Tender at the Bone and Comfort Me With Apples, I've been looking forward to learning more about Ruth Reichl's life as one of America's most influential restaurant critics. This book was a fun look at what Ruth and other top critics do for a living: the secretiveness (and how she used disguises and credit cards with different names), the challenges (such as the weirdest things they've ever eaten, which range from fried worms to braised goat penis!), and the highlights (such as Ruth being ... Read More
Rating: - A fascinating insider's look at restaurant reviewing.
I became intrigued by the life of restaurant critics after reading former New York Times restaurant critic Ruth Reichl's wonderful memoirs "Tender at the Bone" and "Comfort Me With Apples" and wanted to learn more about the ultimate profession for people who love to eat (but don't necessarily love to cook). Ruth appears on the cover of "Dining Out" (wearing a beautiful black hat whose brim covers most of her lovely face), and there are lots of photographs of her on the inside as well where she shares some ... Read More
Rating:  - Nothing to get excited about
In college we all sit around late, drinking, and complaining. This volume shows that chefs do that too. I found very few secrets or even good ideas. But I did find a lot of chefs crying about being misunderstood by the public and the reviewers. I guess speaking with the authors was cheaper than getting a therapist. But the authors' style is consistent. Still that uncritical idol worship.
Rating: - One of the best books ever written about the restaurant biz.
"Finally, the best insider's view of our business for the discerning restaurant goer. Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page do a wonderful job of exploring the 'behind-the-scenes' side of professional cooking. As New York Times restaurant critic Ruth Reichl would say, 'Four stars!'" --DANIEL BOULUD, RESTAURANT DANIEL
"Dining Out is an intriguing foray into the secret and powerful world of restaurant criticism. Michael Donnelly's photographs confer an element of high style and high drama to this intelligent ... Read More
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Dewey Decimal Number: 647.95
EAN: 9780471292777
ISBN: 047129277X
Label: Wiley
Manufacturer: Wiley
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 368
Publication Date: September 22, 1998
Publisher: Wiley
Sales Rank: 687496
Studio: Wiley