Editor’s Note

Apositive restaurant review written by the late, inimitable AA Gill was a rare thing. It was more fun for him to be scathing. There’s no writer quite as good at dissing bad food as the effervescent Englishman, who apparently dictated his reviews to his PA, enthusiastically spitting them out instead of ponderously tapping them onto a keyboard.

I think this method shows in his lively reviews. About 66, a restaurant in New York billed as a “fusion of modern design and haute Chinese cuisine”, Gill wrote: “To say the food is repellently awful would be to credit it with a vim and vigor and attitude it simply can’t rise to.

“The bowls and dishes dribble and limp to the table with a yawning lassitude... Tell me, off the top of your head, what attributes should hot-and-sour soup have? Take your time. It was neither. Nor anything else much.”

When asked why he didn’t do constructive criticism instead of his eloquently verbose, unapologetic skewering, he said: “There’s no such thing. Critics do deconstructive criticism. If you want compliments, phone your mother.”

Having the gumption — and reputation — to say how he really felt about the places he ate at was an enviable skill that makes his stories stand out.

New York Times food critic Ruth Reichi said whenever she felt bad about slamming a restaurant in a review she looked at a photograph of a young couple she kept on her desk to remind herself that they might read her review to decide at which restaurant to spend their small savings from their monthly salaries.

She felt a responsibility to this imaginary couple to give them the real story.

Though it might be fun to write scathing reviews, there’s nothing negative to say about the restaurant and art experience I wrote about for this issue. It lived up to its Instagram hype.