Fine-dining critic
Lesley Chesterman explains why she’s relinquishing her anonymity.
For the past 15 years, I’ve been fighting a losing battle. When I began as The Gazette’s restaurant critic in 1998, I was told by my editor that it was essential that I, to best of my ability, remain anonymous. That meant booking tables under a pseudonym (Jessica Simpson was the most frequent), avoiding using a credit card with my name on it (I always paid cash), limiting my contact with chefs (probably a good thing). Never could there be my picture next to any story written by me or about me — fantastic, I thought, as I loathe having my picture taken.
I did my best to stick to the rules, turning down TV appearances, doing my utmost to stay incognito while dining, and never having my picture taken at events. And I was happy to do it as there is no denying that the fairest reviews are written when chefs aren’t aware there’s a critic in the house. I also never believed a picture belonged next to a restaurant review, for once a restaurant reviewer begins pasting his or her picture everywhere, the focus shifts from the restaurant to the critic. When I see a critic with a picture next to a restaurant review, I see someone completely disinterested in recreating a dining experi- ence similar to the reader’s.
No doubt, the anonymous approach to restaurant reviewing is desirable, but as the years wore on, it also became less and less doable. A constant challenge was that I knew some chefs long before I began reviewing, and once a waiter has you pegged, he will blow your cover every time you show up in a new restaurant (waiters move around a lot). Also, as a freelance writer, my articles are not just limited to restaurant reviews. I write many feature stories about chefs for several publications, and though I often interview by phone, I have to meet chefs face to face as well.
However, the greatest challenge to anonymity that is unmasking countless critics at a rapid pace is social media. Unlike in the early years, today I have little control over who takes my picture and posts it on the Internet. Though I have asked people many times to delete pictures of me from websites, blogs, Twitter, Facebook, etc., eventually you don’t even know who to contact to remove an image. I accepted the fact that anonymity is a pipe dream, but I still strove for it.
And yet I finally have a reason to, as we say in restaurant-reviewing circles, blow my cover. Last month, I was asked to audition for a spot as the food contributor to a new Radio-Canada television program called Cap sur l’été that will be running weekdays from April to September. I got the job. The one big catch, though, was that I would have put my face out there. I won’t be on every day, but I will get to talk about food, restaurants and cooking alongside hosts Marie-Josée Taillefer and Marc Hervieux. After 15 years of saying no, it was time to say yes.
Why? Believe it or not, money and opportunity were not the clinchers. Ultimately, I said yes for one reason: Cap sur l’été is in French. As a Montrealer who has spent the past 45 years in this city living in the anglophone milieu and working solely in the anglophone market, I was thrilled to be asked to contribute to a program “en français.” To me, the time is crucial for Montreal anglophones to show we are a committed part of the Quebec community.
I am fluently bilingual and spend my days speaking both English and French interchangeably. It’s time to put those language skills to use, not just as a bridge over troubled waters or as a mark of today’s getting-on-with-it Quebec citizen.
Along with food itself, one of life’s greatest pleasures is speaking French. … Call it my attempt to take some wind out of the sails of the perennially depressing “Two Solitudes” situation.
I have always been proud to be one of the last Montreal newspaper restaurant critics not to display my picture in the paper. I will still book reservations under another name, and do my best to retain some semblance of anonymity. Perhaps it will make a difference when reviewing, but my guess is — considering how many chefs already recognize me after 15 years on the beat — not much difference.
Last summer, a restaurant manager came up and welcomed me by name when I sat down, and the chef served me the second course. Bummer. In the end, though, the food was weak, the service was
I will still book reservations under
another name and do my best to retain anonymity.
poor and the wine choice was lacking. So, blown cover notwithstanding, they still got a bad review. Hmm …