No Reservations

A lot of people swear by this show.  Probably because it showcases things everyone likes: good food and interesting locales.  And Tony Bourdain can be pretty funny sometimes.  But for me, the show is somewhat hit or miss, particularly with his most recent seasons.  It just seems like he's been playing it safe, going to places he went to on his book tour, staying close to NYC; and even his travels to more exotic locales seem a bit off.  Rome seemed overdone, Harbin and Liberia both felt a bit disconnected.  I don't watch the show religiously though, so maybe I've missed some really great episodes, but for the most part, it doesn't seem like he's been really getting into the food culture of these places.

But last night's trip, a celebration of their 100th episode reminded me why I even watch the show.  I actually only watched half the episode before I went to sleep, so maybe the second half was terrible, but the first half is exactly what I think most travel food shows should try to emulate.  I think too often in most travel/food shows, the showcase is really just the sampling of different foods or a different cultural activity.  No Reservations is definitely victim to this.  It's rare that shows really explore what food actually means to the people in the region, and to challenge the evolution of food's role in society.  Maybe last night's Paris trip was different because Eric Ripert accompanied (and who doesn't love Eric Ripert), which set the stage for a highly decorated French chef going back to his roots and discovering a changing food culture.  Whatever the reason, I thoroughly enjoyed the dialogue and debate about what a good restaurant and what a good food experience really means to people in Paris. 

Apparently French cuisine is morphing from its classical fine dining stereotype to more casual, comfort food.  And one of the most interesting debates from the episode revolved around Eric defending his Michelin stars, defending essentially what makes him such a respected chef around the world.  But I think at the end of the day, even Eric acknowledges the changing shift in food in Paris (and what is occuring a lot in the U.S. today too), where fine dining doesn't mean it has to be a Le Bernardin type experience.  It can be created by a chef who only makes one prix fixe meal a day, for one seating, for 25-30 Euros.  Joel Robuchon explained it when he talked about how the market is actually better now than in the past (despite claims otherwise), because it is so much easier to get fresh ingredients.  Michelin-starred restaurants were the ones who could get those ingredients before; in this day and age, everyone has access to great ingredients.  And I think this is why French people are finding a liking to more affordable, casual dining. 

This isn't to say that I agree or disagree with what the episode examines.  But I do believe that people place too much emphasis on the Michelin rating.  Eric Ripert himself even said that the guide was really just to help promote tourism in a country, so that people know what is good and what isn't.  And what has happened is that such a premium is placed on those 1-3 stars, and while the restaurants are undoubtedly good, there is great food that can be had at better values.  And there are chefs who don't believe that you need 5 waiters to 1 person to get the ultimate dining experience.  That it can happen in an atmosphere similar to someone's kitchen.  So much of the Michelin star is branding, similar to the way Whole Foods and Organic are brands.  I think people need to start finding their way beyond these labels, and it was just eye-opening for me to hear it come from such well-respected chefs who really made their name and money off these labels.

I think that one of my biggest problems culturally with the U.S. is how we eat.  In the Paris episode, they go to a butcher who does his own charcuterie; they go to restaurants who go next door to get the cheese plate, to get the fresh fish.  In Asia it is the same.  I think I read in some travel magazine that fish in the U.S. could be served a week old in a 3-Michelin starred restaurant, but in China, if it's more than a day old, they'd throw you out of the room.  There was another article in the NYTimes that talked about the ratio of processed food eaten by each country versus fresh food, and the U.S. is by far one of the worst countries.  And this is incredible to me because we are such a wealthy and developed country.  Where are our cheese makers?  Our butchers?  Our bread makers?  Where is the dedication to a craft that is so important in our lives?  Maybe it's because we don't value food in this country.  And what hurts us is that where there is good, local food, there's the branding issue of Organic, Whole Foods, Free-Range, etc.  It's associated as a premium product, and it is priced accordingly.  People take this slow food movement very seriously, too seriously in fact, because it ends up being one of those things that people get snobbish about.  No, Whole Foods does not always have the best produce or best meats.  No, Organic doesn't always mean that it's higher quality.  But people try to do this because they don't know how to emphasize the need to bring in local products and fresh ingredients.

The U.S. is seeing the same shift that No Reservations highlighted in Paris, but I feel like it's being done in such a different way because our food culture here is so different.  What's funny is that in Paris, it sounds like it's being done in an unpretentious manner, by people who just really care about food, whereas here, it's this new thing that people can be snobbish about and charge a premium for.  I think maybe if more chefs tried to make their top restaurants more accessible, to turn away the greed and fame of a Michelin star (as it seems they are doing in Paris), maybe that's where it can start.