Add Trotter, or my kid is a three star Michelin chef

 

 
 
A few more odds and ends on Trotter:

1) Several friends pointed me toward Kamp's post on his NYT piece on Trotter. It offers some useful supplements, in particular: 

The Times article focuses on the extent to which Trotter, whether through stubbornness or the simple passing of time, has been eclipsed by younger, more marketing-savvy chefs. But one conclusion I came to, which didn’t make the article, is that perhaps he is his generation’s version of André Soltner, who ran New York’s Lutèce and couldn’t be bothered with being anything more than the chef-owner of one great restaurant.

2) Another reader points out that this image, which dominates the print version of the Times piece, was taken in 1991 for the New York Times, which did not use color before 1993 in the Sunday sections. I had observerd that "the big B&W pic seems to be laying it on a little thick, considering that it was taken in 1991, when color photography was widely available." It's good know this, though a NYT file foto is not the only way to go to illustrate this article. (See, for instance, the online version, which flips the old B&W and recent color images. It would be interesting to do a study of the layout differences btw the print and online DI/DO -- they frequently feel like different animals.)

3) Yes, I read The Perfectionist. Yes, Trotter has high standards for himself and his crew. However, it seems that not getting three stars in the USA is going to feel different to everyone from Trotter to his dishwashers and purveyors. In France, it seems as if getting into Michelin at all is a big deal. Obvs, three stars are better than two, two are better than one, etc. The notion of a resto being entitled to three stars, to being snubbed if it does not get one, seems to be one that could only come from a country that also retails bumper stickers like the on the right of this graf. I not a Michelin inspector, but in my day job, I do have to do some evaluating, and I see a lot of the sensibility expressed below. In a country that does not have home schooled honor students, getting only two Michelin stars might seem like less of a tragedy. 

Comments

[Marco]

I like the expressions on the faces of the high school students in the color photo of Trotter in Chicago. They look like they have just been told that the main course today will be soy-ms. turkey burgers without cheese or any other toppings.