That if you review restaurants you should not also write news stories and fillers about them. Stephen Downes works with the Digital Technologies Research Centre at the National Research Council of Canada specializing in new instructional media and personal learning technology. For all that, Dani Valent was prepared to ‘cop the extra spin cycle, though’. But they also need a good palate that has been honed by an ability to cook well a big range of dishes in many styles, and many visits to significant eating places in Australia and overseas. I’m not talking about a critic’s being recognised once he or she walks into a restaurant whose owner or chef he or she has socialised with. A coterie of Australian chefs and restaurateurs are seen to be equally riveting within our borders. The same sources say veteran B.C. Saying the “unsayables” especially in the small incestuous Melbourne food scene – thank you Stephen. This encomium — if I may be Greek about it — for Calombaris and his latest venture effulged ever more brilliantly, sounding to me more like a hyperventilated media release than a restaurant review. The role of mentor is itself multi-faceted, ranging from sharp critic to enthusiastic coach, but outweighing these is the personal dimension, the presence of the entire personality rather than some domain or discipline. Stephen Ibaraki Interview with Stephen Downes, Jan 19, 2015 [0/54]. When you had a reputation, journalists wanted to support you. Restaurant should get low mark just for that,! The record for the most meals eaten by a food critic is 46,000 by Fred E. Magel of Chicago, in 60 countries over a 50-year career. I asked him if he employed consultants to boost media attention or if there was a specialist on staff. Several years ago, Downes gave his take on why restaurants didn't make him welcome: ''They're afraid of a fair and objective review rather than the unconditional support of many other so-called critics.'' It logs the movements of Melbourne’s most fashionable chefs, announces the openings of new restaurants, the closures of old ones, the arrival on markets of ‘gourmet’ ingredients (they are usually ultra-expensive, not especially good, and offer poor value) and the flash shops in which you may purchase them, and advertises the jobs that fall vacant in top restaurants. A week after opening, Daniella Miletic wrote in the Age that the 31-year-old chef was creating a ‘level of hype usually only afforded to the city’s more senior, renowned chefs’. Aided and abetted by copious plugs written by others in glossy food magazines, similar boosts in daily newspapers’ weekly magazines, an editorial in the local Moreland Leader and a plethora of cyber postings by excited food bloggers, the Hellenic Republic would have needed to become Stalin’s Russia to fail. They attached their wagons to someone they could mould into a star. Especially about the article’s author. He’d had so much good publicity already, he said, and he and his partners really wanted only good publicity. At the time Downes said the ''Crown job had no bearing on my review''. I asked him how he saw the link between the public relations industry and food journalists. He was buried in Liversedge Cemetery, Liversedge, England, United Kingdom. Conversely, if the review is allowed, then the restaurant must cop it sweet unless there are inaccuracies in the review like stating the contents incorrectly. The high gloss sparkle of white tiled walls. Your support has been nothing short of amazing — we couldn’t have got through this year like no other without you, our readers. Stephen passed away in 1959, at age 46. How well? Re: The Cape Town Open Education Declaration Normally I would expect to enthusiastically add my name to a document supporting free access to open learning resources. In the past, said Hewitson, restaurant reviewers were usually full-time journalists employed on other sections of their papers. Contact us on: [email protected] or call the hotline: +61 (03) 8623 9900. Good news, glossy news, celebrities and gossip are seen to be, for the moment, what garners readers’ loyalty. That invitations to public relations events to promote eating places should be comprehensively declined. Many Melbourne activities can be premised on its rampant snobbism and ghettoes. View the profiles of professionals named "Stephen Downes" on LinkedIn. One PR consultant told me about a bar client that preferred publicity in the Age over the Herald Sun because the former brought in a better class of person. Moreover, there would be a ‘minimum spend’ of $2000 ($125 a head), and they would have only two hours in which to enjoy themselves: their table would be needed at 9 p.m. Some celebrity chefs of international stature—you know their names—generate as much publicity and attract as much reader attention as the most drug-addled pop singer or Hollywood starlet. So, critics who may be trusted must have eaten widely. Plates were not changed, so red meat went on seafood slicks. Second, food journalists who enthuse are, generally speaking, more attractive to big publishers and editors than real critics. He partnered crab with chocolate, mustard with ice-cream and liquorice with ravioli. Stephen Downes dishes the dirt on the food industry: who's in the pocket of the spin doctors, who falls for the hype, and who's banned Downes … If you have nutrition or food limitations, please let them know and they will gladly try to accommodate you in any way possible – even if it’s off the menu. Get Crikey FREE to your inbox every weekday morning with the Crikey Worm. I scored Reserve 16 out of 20. For more than three decades I reviewed restaurants for Australia's best newspapers. In the old days, restaurant decors were simple and undesigned; people ate out for the food. Unfortunately, though, in recent years tens of thousands of words written by food ‘journalists’ simply promote fashionable restaurants and their owners and chefs. A journalist’s word is worth much more than an advertiser’s. That’s the theory, at least. Slow-cooked pork in celery was a watery but passable stew, and the offerings overall amounted to home cooking you did when you didn’t want to cook. More Than Apps and Gadgets, Dec 10, 2014 [0/39]. Not everyone can be a mentor, not every mentor can take on too many prodigies, and of all the roles described here, that of the mentor is most likely to be honorary or voluntary. Lobster pots for light shades and a distinct smell of burning charcoal in the air. I said I wouldn’t spend my own money there because Melbourne offered better Greek food in more comfortable and more hospitable surroundings elsewhere. Gastro-gossip-column stories about Coda’s opening broke even before he had left his preceding employment. Equally, for the most part PR operatives understand the role of the few journalists who, as one put it to me, ‘want to write something truthful and interesting’. Volume 68 Number 4, 2009 is out now. Get started BillionGraves FREE. Their promise is membership of a putative elite group. Calombaris’s new restaurant subverted hospitality, I argued, by telling diners that they had to leave at a specified hour and by threatening to fine them if they cancelled bookings too soon before they were due to sit down. The standards required include a love of food, not celebrity, some food preparation training and experience writing reviews peer-judged before being left to pontificate. (To its credit, the Herald Sun publishes precisely what I think about restaurants without editorial interference. I’m a restaurant critic living on food stamps. Who pays the bills? And, you can join his mailing list to ''fight for common sense''. Nando’s. I judged that it had just cleared the bar. But his backers, Sportsbet, were nervous about it and had decided to ban me. They accelerated in the first half of 2009, and as soon as Coda fired up its burners it was booked out well in advance. View the profiles of people named Stephen Downs. I can't remember ever judging one outdoors. Stephen Downes is a commentator in the fields of online learning and new media. This concoction, which was served to me early in 2009, was a gastro-funambulist; it teetered, a slight degree of burntness having been roasted into the apple. The place was ‘bustling and buoyant’, its bar did not take reservations, and you had ‘best go early unless you want to be elbowed by someone taking pics for their blog’. Stephen King has had an uncanny ability to hit the commercial bull’s-eye from the beginning of his career. It’s the shiny-page syndrome. And wine is served from “aluminium tankards”, which Dubecki considered to be a “nice touch”. And, if that’s the case, why? Restaurant owner works with work colleague of reviewers, hmmm! For the print media, there was everything to like about a bloke of Greek descent who was young and cooked outrageous food. And that it was only because of my gustatory experiences that I would have had the courage to say it was unsuccessful, if I had thought so. Detailed analysis of a main course of suckling pig accompanied by a smear of roasted apple, caramelised eggplant and pistachio crumbs, for instance, is a challenge. But perhaps those who advertise and their agencies see it differently, and their views can affect what is published. PRAYERS are too late for Collingwood after the team crashed out of premiership contention against Sydney Swans. First, it’s far easier to gush than to criticise. (Ms Dubecki, it should be added, was at the time the paper’s fairly new restaurant critic.). Other fascinating information has come to hand and that involves doing a spellcheck of Bernardi: the first option is ''barnyard'' and the second option is ''barnyards''. Strangely, last week's edition mentioned his reviews were moving to Saturday's weekend liftout, where he opined about Andrew McConnell's Moon Under Water in Fitzroy. There are several factors that account for this relentless positivism. Along with Paris on a Plate , and To Die For , it has also won prizes at the World Gourmand Cookbook Awards. Several smaller firms also spruik eating places of all sorts. A code of ethics for Australia’s restaurant critics and food journalists needs to be written and adhered to. Join Facebook to connect with Stephen Downs and others you may know. Fairfax employs Dubecki to write a weekly gossip column in the Age about the hospitality industry quite separately from her critiques. Stephen Downes: dishing the dirt on food critics "When it comes to legitimate restaurant reviewing, many journalists have dropped the ball." People in the media supported him, he said. Calamari had delicate flavour but had been grilled too long, in my view. Stephen Downes dishes the dirt on the food industry: who's in the pocket of the spin doctors, who falls for the hype, and who's banned Downes from the premises. I buy and use the SMH Good Food Guide because it is well organised, consistent, indicates what type of restaurant is where and what is on offer. I’m talking Psychology I. It’s a one-way street; once gushing publicity builds up momentum, no publication can afford to turn off the tap: it cannot admit suddenly, even if it is the truth, that it has made a mistake. As a food punter who reads reviews, what you are saying does give me pause. Advanced Australian Fare, a history of the development of restaurants and cooking between the Melbourne and Sydney Olympics (1956-2000), won the top prize at Australia’s Food Media awards in 2003. Her next paragraph said Coda had got ‘Melbourne foodies talking’ and that much of the ‘buzz’ was because D’Sylva’s career was interesting. (For several years before I began reviewing I lived in France at a time when Gallic food ruled the world. Why did he think he was getting so much wonderful publicity? Adam D’Sylva is the chef and a partner in Coda, a CBD restaurant that opened in early June. No to both questions. But take Fairfax’s recent review of current culinary darling and Masterchef star George Calombaris’ Hellenic Republic, based in Brunswick, Melbourne. Acids—they’re in wine—and metals can react to make bad-tasting babies. Stephen Downes is Australia's longest-serving restaurant critic. An informant made a booking for his birthday—a party of sixteen. We look forward to seeing you bright and early with your need-to-know talking points and tidbits for the day ahead. (The reviews I have quoted are typical and their style is ubiquitous.) Moreover, you’d look an idiot if you found faults in a restaurant you had lauded. It alarms me, for instance, that in conversations I’ve had lately with ordinary eaters-out they consider me to be ‘part’ of the hospitality industry, the sector that promotes eating places. In April in the Herald Sun I failed Hellenic Republic, giving it 24 out of 50. Not, you’ll notice, about the journalists treating PR as an objective source of information that needed testing. You’ll not find a harsh word in most writing about food. The same names recur vomitously. Now, who’s got it right? With the exception of Tetsua’s, I tend also to disagree about the chef’s hats. Enter your email address and Crikey will send a Verification Code. Lethlean did the same thing before her. How is it done? Their success suggests that many reporters are both compliant and complacent. At the height of his unpopularity, more than a dozen restaurants banned him. Glossy magazines such as delicious, Gourmet Traveller and Vogue Entertaining + Travel and specialist newspaper sections prefer positive summaries to sharp analyses. Photograph ©Tony Knox 1991 . Through his blog, Downes blew off steam about waiters wanting to serve him the fly rather the soup. Downes has explored and promoted the educational use of computer and online technologies since 1995. A couple of comments on the other list are well worth while. He would like to see newspapers explain the process of reviewing. Specialist food publications have developed a kind of optimistic fizz about all aspects of eating, drinking and ‘gourmet’ produce, which is supplemented by ladles of easy recipes, exclusive ingredients, industry tattle and famous chefs. They never employed public relations consultants. Criticism is comparison, and there was almost none in this assessment—even implied. There's an abundance of comfy PJs to assist with an early night. Setting a reading intention helps you organise your reading. Or, on the other hand, is it possible that the job itself has changed? View Stephen Downes’ profile on LinkedIn, the world's largest professional community. The rest I decide for myself, and enjoy doing so. The government's $97.5 million push to make us … Many editors have either forgotten—or never known—this fact. What? These days it was ‘very much about the new flash thing’. In Melbourne alone, Virginia Hellier Consulting, Dig Marketing, Harvey Publicity, and Trumpet PR + Marketing serve many restaurants. After more than three decades of reviewing restaurants am I taking the job too seriously? Desserts were “fabulous”. Now Melburnians have embraced the flash, as the success of the most publicised restaurants attests. Steve Downes (born June 28, 1950) is an American DJ and voice actor.He is best known for his work as the voice of the Master Chief in the Halo video game series. ‘From the day Coda opened there was a backlog of food pundits queuing up for a barstool …’ They were ‘hot on the scent’ of its tapas-sized plates. It is no wonder that Ola Restaurant at Turtle Bay Resort was a previous Honolulu Star-Advertiser Ilima Critic’s Award Winner for Best New Restaurant in 2006. A crab dish was “deliciously punchy”, another offering a “luscious, textural hat-doff”. What, if any, is the nature of the relationship between the owner of a restaurant and his or her chef and the reporter writing the review? Third, and of greatest concern, is a growing chumminess between some food critics and the people whose work they are supposed to be independently assessing. Stephen Downes, Food Critic -- Australia. To connect a sign in method the email must match the one on your Crikey account. The reading and eating public lose out in two ways – inaccurate glowing reviews that leave you wishing you were eating somewhere else and not hearing about the somewhere else serving wonderful food because the reviewers just don’t go where they are not known. Herald Sun food critic Stephen Downes lifts the lid on the very secret world of food reviewing -- an industry that now runs on spin and hype. Because his group was larger than ten, they would be served a ‘banquet dinner’, the restaurant insisted, meaning everyone would choose from a menu that the restaurant mandated. But the Magpies' chaplain, Major Brendan Nottle, will share his words of wisdom at the annual Scots' Church grand final service tomorrow at 1pm. Those kooky little red anodised aluminium pitchers used for cheap table wine nowhere else in the world.” (In the March edition of Gourmet Traveller magazine, Lethlean found Hellenic, “absolutely infectious”.). The Good Food Guide’s young chef of 2008, he had left the kitchen where he formerly worked only four months earlier. Then there are myriad regional food critics, ranging from Nancy Leson in Seattle, to Pat Nourse in Sydney, Cooper Adams in Albany, and Stephen Downes and John Lethlean in Melbourne, who pen weekly and monthly reviews of the best of their respective cities. These days, though, there was much more competition and so much money was spent setting up restaurants that ‘you can’t afford for [them] not to work’. This is certainly a cause I have worked toward all my life, one that is expressed in the statement of principle on my home page, one that characterizes the papers I write, the software I code, the speeches I give. When we booked, we were told we had to sit at a communal table. It’s trusted. Downes gave the 2004 Buntine Oration and was a presenter at the February 2007 OnlineConnectivism Conference. Hellenic Republic was noisy and uncomfortable. Reviewers are supposed to be reporters, and by its very nature what is written on editorial pages is believed by readers to be unbiased, independent and unaffected by anything other than serious-minded fact-finding and analysis. If you haven’t joined us yet, fetch your first 12 weeks for $12 and start 2021 with the journalism you need to navigate whatever lies ahead. It is fair to say that countless chefs and restaurateurs wanted Downes' head on a silver platter over the decades, banning him from their establishments and even sticking his photo to the wall to help staff identify him. Hellenic’s customers were more diverse than most, which implied that you or I could go there and not feel out of place. It’s why short-story contestants have numbers not names—why you see wine bottles wrapped in brown paper at competitions. No judgements and no criticism are made. You know them. As a consequence, there was ‘far too much closeness’ between reviewers and the restaurants that fed them material. I saw the French classics authentically prepared in homes and ate at some of the best restaurants.). Stephen K Downes Property Director at Accord Projects Greater Sydney Area. Was it too burnt? We end up doing our own research thank you very much and vote with our wallets and stomachs. First, it identifies a need for learning objects and describes their essential components based on this need. Just fill out the fields below and we'll send your friend a link to this article along with a message from you. Stephen married Florence Downes. Websites mentioned Coda almost instantly, it seemed, and the Deck of Secrets site ran three long paragraphs that, again, amounted to enormous promotional puffery. A spit-roast of “yielding, gelatinous flesh is revelatory”, and although a moussaka was too rich and a touch too salty for one or two people it “works splendidly as a … side dish for four”. Wonderment is what readers want, and the print media are afraid to provide anything else. Church elder Robert Lowe encourages attendees to wear their team scarf - that's if Magpie supporters can bear sharing a pew with Hawthorn and Sydney colours. Don’t let anyone tell you different. The bête noire of Melbourne restaurateurs Stephen was an important part of The Age team, however major disagreements with the upper echelons of the paper led to his eventual retirement from that august journal. He would like reviewers not to be staff journalists and to demonstrate greater independence. (The following few hundred words summarised the chef’s career.) He worked as a disc jockey at Los Angeles, California Album-oriented Rock radio stations KWST (1978-1981), KEZY-AM (1981-1982) and KLSX (1994), but is best remembered working evening drive at KLOS from 1982 to 1991. They should give detailed explanations of how they have reached a conclusion, given a rating or a score. The Fairfax Press, and especially the Age, is seen to write the gospel according to food. So celebrities are created by the repetitive use of certain chosen names and eating places. And he is convinced that food journalists give preferential publicity to restaurants backed by professional PR. The axing of Downes, the critic who chefs loved to hate, could open the door for Simon Plant and Wendy Hargreaves to spread their culinary wings. We were put on one for eighteen, even though several tables for two, which we’d requested, were available throughout our entire meal. You sat on rush-woven seats with two-rung backs. We spoke by phone a few days later. Oyster Little Bourke, for instance, should ‘never have been reviewed’ by anyone at the Age while married couple Necia and Frank Wilden were, in Necia’s case, a co-editor of the Good Food Guide and, in Frank’s, a co-owner of the restaurant. Those who write about them obviously have to meet either with these people or their representatives. But Downes, a former Sunday Age restaurant critic, landed in scalding water when the ABC's Media Watch revealed he was writing complimentary reviews of Crown restaurants after being paid by the casino to write about the eateries in its media kit. But I couldn’t have passed it had I not had many years of experience. Does one side know the other? His motto is: ''Common sense lives here.'' “Coda is pumping.” Its French and Vietnamese culinary elements were “frottage rather than fusion”. This is an edited extract of an essay that first appeared in the latest edition of Meanjin Quarterly. There are 100+ professionals named "Stephen Downes", who use LinkedIn to exchange information, ideas, and opportunities. She was Coda’s ‘instant fan’. The last thing newspapers and magazines want is to lose circulation. Wine in metal??? Have the relationships between some journalists and restaurateurs, their chefs and their professional marketers brought that about? When a review is published, not only the restaurant’s but also the reviewer’s reputation is on the line. In the late 1970s and early 1980s no chefs were more important in shaping the high quality and character of Melbourne’s restaurants than Jacques Reymond and Iain Hewitson. Here at Crikey, we saw a mighty surge in subscribers throughout 2020. It also allows me to fail them when they deserve it, something you will see in no other Australian publication.) He rose to prominence by presenting ‘molecular’ cooking—something I confess I find a vacuous and undefinable notion. For a professional, the journalistic aims contained in that last sentence should be second nature. The personal experiences of the reviewer(s) I tend to ignore. Because I am banned from one of the restaurants in which Adam D’Sylva cooked, I thought I should ask if I’d be shown the door at Coda. But critics work—or should work—for their readers, determining the best eating at the best price. The following month on the Fairfax Digital Executive Style website, John Lethlean, who preceded Ms Dubecki as Age restaurant critic, began his piece: ‘Subtle, Aegean blues.