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I should be making noise about the Good Food Guide and the Gourmet Traveller Awards. But yesterday I temporarily blinded myself while converting my formal front garden into a kitchen herb and salad garden. A twig has created an abrasion over one-quarter of the cornea of my right eye and I can hardly open my left eye making it difficult to even watch TV.
Congratulations to Eating with Jack who was the first to blog the results in the early hours of the morning.
I’ll probably be back blogging and responding to comments on Saturday (I’m hoping I’ll be able to make my flight to The Royal Mail Hotel at Dunkeld on Friday but I may not.)
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{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
Did the searching for you:
http://www.tomatom.com/2007/05/melbourne-beats-sydney-hermano-2/#comment-7820
# Snacker Says:
June 22nd, 2007 at 5:37 pm
I ate at Tetsuya
Oh you poor old sausage! It’s likely to be akin to the frustrating temporary blindness Mr Stickyfingers suffered after having laser eye surgery. Hopefully it doesn’t also reduce you to becoming - as Dr Smith would have said in ‘Lost in Space’ - a “bumbling booby”.
I feel for you in the saga of your misappropriated words. As a commercial writer I regularly find my words revised and twisted into the opposite of what I have stated, and is why I often have scant regard for printed opinions which potentially have been heavily edited by management.
Don’t beat yourself up Ed, these upmarket Food Guides are in my opinion, generally for those who aren’t sufficiently enthused by gourmandising to also read food media or blogs to form their own collection of impressions. During my business career I have seen that for the most part, the GFG is heavily thumbed by those seeking a venue for an impressive business meal - funded by the company account - or for a special occasion rendez-vous. For these people, an accurate precis is never as important as the potential cachet of having attended a noted venue.
As for Vue, since I walked away from the stressful, expense account gilded management positions, I can no longer afford it. I loved the old Carlton digs, but I imagine that now Shannon - with the backing of venture capital - is free to play and experiment to his heart’s content, some dishes are possibly ‘a bit hit or miss’ - no?
Hey Ed
Bugger about the eye, I was thinking to myself that its a shame you dog Mungo, can’t take a photo of you with your patch, to get back at you for the lamp shade photo a few months ago… i’m sure it would help the hits??!! hehehehe
Sorry shouldn’t make fun when you can’t defend yourself
Jack
Wow that sucks. You’ve had a bit of a bad run with your dog and now your eye! I posted on the Age good food guide last night too - I think I posted it at about 10pm last night so I just beat Eating with Jack! haha
Ouch!
Ed
sorry to hear about the eye, that’s up there with blistering the tongue or breaking the fingers.
I think I already mentioned in another thread that I ate at Vue last week (not the first time, but the first in some months). Of the 5 mains and “1″ dessert we had I’d have to say the first main was borderline (scollops) and the second was a dud given it was a foie gras and ham terrine. All the others were what you would expect for a 3 hat joint, but there was some concern after the first two. Based on the 66% success rate it would be hard to keep the 3.
Now I’m wondering if we should have gone to the press club?
Gregg
It’s a shame about Vue. I haven’t eaten there for a wee while, but when I have I’ve found the service to be nothing short of perfect. Our waiter was relaxed and easy going with us, but starched and formal with a nearby table of old fossils. A good sign I reckon.
As for the GFG, we buy it every year as a reference, and tend to ignore the opinions. It’s also good for a sweep - how many times will the word “might” pop up this year?
It must be tough for writers when they see their work twisted by the time it gets to print. I mean, look what they do to Lethlean’s work. Take his latest review
Oops…
It must be tough for writers when they see their work twisted by the time it gets to print. I mean, look what they do to Lethlean’s work. Take his latest review: http://www.theage.com.au/news/restaurant-reviews/sarti/2007/08/27/1188067011910.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1
The guy writes like an angel, but some pesky nameless editor has added six colons and 8 semicolons. To a 1,000 word document! At least they went easy on the unneccesary brackets this time. There are only five instances this week, but they often make his work almost unreadable. I think they even photoshopped his picture to make him look smug.
I would have thought getting your eye better would have been top of the to do list. Makes my death by influenza pale into insignificance. Could some of you clever boulevardiers give us the benefit of your opinions on marketing, spin and food? I have spent most of my life outside capital cities but in the last decade have lived in Sydney and now Melbourne. I recall one night at Moran’s place in Potts Point before he moved down to Circular Quay where I had a most forgettable meal. And I thought of marvellous food in Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory and a wonderful place in an old shop front in South Townsville. But no Good Food Guides for them and no hats except to protect them from the blazing summer sun. So please, oh wise one’s, tell us about spin - and how many percentage points should be deducted for same?
Blessings and bliss - and praying that Ed is not one-eyed!
Sorry to hear about your eye, gardening is dangerous!
I read all the comments re: Vue and I ponder. Tall poppy syndrome, the darling of last year is no more.
C’mon, let’s give Shannon and team a bit of a break.
I haven’t been to Paris and have not had the opportunity to eat at any “Michellin” restaurants, so for me Vue I feel is the closest I feel that I have got.
The same as Tim stated, the wait staff were proffessional and polished yet quite relaxed with us yet we also had a couple of old diamonds sitting next to us and were very formal.
For me, Vue was all about taking my palette on a journey, and for me Shannon Bennett may not be Marco Pierre White or Joel Rubichon but he is world class and he’s ours.
At least he has the balls to experiment and try different things.
Hope the eye gets better Ed.
An eyepatch would have completed that Blofeld look just nicely.
It might have been worse - you could have been gardening in Sydney and have a funnel-web latch on your finger…oops, I can see from your comments, one did.
Yeouch!! Sorry to hear about the eye and pain, hopefully it’ll heal up real quick and you’ll be back to your busy schedule! Can’t wait to hear more about this herb garden, though!
Hope your eye gets better soon!
I too have been keen to know what other people thought about VDM. When I went there (mind you it was a while ago), I thought it was truly fantastic, and didn’t really get what everyone else had been saying about the service being arrogant. The sommelier at the time (I don’t think he works there anymore though) could not have been more friendly and informative.
Matthew, thank for digging.
Stickyfingers - don’t worry I’m well used to being edited although do still get annoyed when it is to the opposite meaning. I think I’ve abandoned guides for blogs anyway.
Jack, I’ve actually been using my injury to my advantage impressing people by claiming I was punched by a chef.
Tim, all those colons and he’s not even talking about offal.
Interesting to hear all the diverse opinions. The eye is healing and the offending tree has been neutralised.