10 worst dining trends of the last decade

[MrsCat 6]

I must be really out of touch, I don't know what most of these things are.

10 worst dining trends of the last decade

What follows are the 10 worst restaurant trends of the decade, culled from interviews with chefs, consultants, even the owners of a food bookstore in Maine. I couldn't include every gripe -- mache, water sommeliers, organ-meat entrees, unisex bathrooms, bacon tattoos on chefs, over-flaunted kitchen burns, chefs tables ("usually they're done as an afterthought, and it shows") -- but here's what leaped out, in order of annoyance:

10. Fried onion blossoms - A "personal pet peeve," said Rita Negrete, senior editor at Technomic, a food industry research firm. Oh, Rita -- that is so far from personal. We like to believe the fried onion blossom could be done right -- i.e., not sweaty, or greasy, without slivers of onion behind monstrous tan shells, served like county fair food on porcelain -- but we haven't seen it yet.

9. Molecular gastronomy - As Chang pointed out, not all trends start bad. That said, "few chefs know how to do (molecular gastronomy), to make food fascinating and delicious at the same time," Steel said. "Do I see it as a trend that will last? No. As inspiration, maybe. But something feels disconnected when a chef has to buy a machine costing tens of thousands of dollars to cook. If anything, it's ebbing and will spark a return to beautiful and simple ingredients."

8. The $40 entree - Not just at establishments sporting Beard awards and gravitas. At your neighborhood bistro. Enough.

7. The communal table - Said Michael Schwartz, the chef/owner of Michael's Genuine Food & Drink in Miami: the communal table "assumes people who don't know each other want to sit together."

6. Proudly obnoxious fast food options - Carl's Jr.'s Big Carl burger (920 calories). Hardee's Monster Thickburger (1,420 calories). KFC's Double Down (bacon and cheese between fillets of fried chicken serving as bread). A dare? A brazen red-state response to blue-state delicateness? The genius was to market them not as mere meals but extensions of your civil rights.

5. Knee-jerk online reviews - Extreme Yelpers and likewise. "In particular, the opening-night blog reviewers," said Don Lindgren, co-owner of Rabelais, a food-centric bookstore in Portland, Maine. "You can't judge a restaurant from its opening night. It may be exciting to be there early. But to review it based on that first day is crazy and wrong."

4. Foam - It's suds. We guess we taste the kiwi-caramel tones. (Wait, no, we can't.)

3. The menu as book - There is nothing wrong with "artisanal" or "local," or " Vermont-raised," and nothing wrong with identifying the source of the goat milk you are being served, but when menu items grow to entire paragraphs, it's a bit much.

2. The chef as media ####### - They cook, of course. They also sell shoes and star in reality shows. Sometimes they cook. Rocco Di- Spirito, a middecade pan flash, is arguably the finest example. "There are celebrity chefs who manage to stay chefs and run excellent restaurants," said Zagat, "but there are times when you wonder what a chef is supposed to be doing. TV brings people into their restaurant. But when do they find time to cook?"

1. Deconstruction - Said Joyce Goldstein, a San Francisco-based chef, cookbook author and restaurant consultant: "I do not want a poached egg on top of carbonara sauce and the pasta on the side. I don't want the ingredients laid out before me anymore. I want a chef to show me how it is brought together. Cooking has become an intellectual thing, but it's not a sensual thing. We have all gotten so smart about food, we are losing touch with sex appeal. Everything else is getting so exhausting -- a lot of chefs saying, 'Look at me,' and 'Look at this technique,' and, next decade, I would prefer not to look at them for a while."

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainmen...06.photogallery

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Here, here!

...although I kind of like the communal table idea in certain venues.