Spilling the beans

Journalist/writer Imogen Edward-Jones has dug her fork in  deep and dredged up the dark secrets of the culinary trade: morsels of information all diners should know before they step into a posh restaurant. She uncovers some dirty tricks – from restaurateurs’ huge mark-ups on popular cheap wine to how head chefs use the same spoon to sample each plate before it leaves the kitchen (Yes! The horror! The same spoon, without even wiping it!) 

And there’s worse. You know the piece of parsley that sits pretty on the goats cheese? Chances are it’s in place because the chef licked it and stuck it there.  

To get these secrets, Edward-Jones interviewed top restaurant owners, chefs, sommeliers and kitchen staff, many of whom were willing to spill the beans on the trade’s unsavoury practices. 

She mixes them all into a single 24-hour narrative, told by a fictional restaurateur who owns three fictional establishments, Le Bar, La Table and Le Restaurant, not far from each other in central London.

This isn’t Edward-Jones’ first industry exposé. Her previous books include “Hotel Babylon” (24 hours at a top London hotel), “Wedding Babylon” (the excesses of the wedding industry), Beach Babylon (the beach-resort industry) and Air Babylon (travel). 

Because everything happens in a single day, the accounts in “Restaurant Babylon” feel particularly horrifying.  Our restaurateur-host wakes up to a nasty online review, which is quickly buried by his public relations people who come up with a few hundred false “positive” reviews to bury the genuine stinker. An elderly customer dies at the table amid a full lunch service. Another enjoys a blow job under the table. A food critic arrives unannounced just as the kitchen staff engage in a bloody knife fight in the back. A lackey gobbles drugs he finds in the chef’s jacket then freaks out while cutting cauliflower. 

But pungent though the details are, none of this is anything new. Anthony Bourdain’s “Kitchen Confidential” lifted the lid on the anarchy backstage in the culinary trade more than a decade ago.

Does “Restaurant Babylon” delve any further into the rotting heap?

Not really. Years have passed but things haven’t really changed. The books offers a few tips for protection. Always remember to check the bill; even top restaurants are known to sneak in extra items. And be wary of “menu specials” – often just stale ingredients rehashed for a quick buck.

 

 

Restaurant Babylon

By Imogen Edward-Jones

Published by Bantam Press

Available at Asia Books, Bt585

Reviewed by S Indramalar