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Soleil Ho - Food Writer and Contributor to the San Francisco Chronicle


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gets off to a remarkable start, wholly apart from her Chez Panisse review:  Five reviews covering seven restaurants, and three other ("meta")essays, as well!  Unfortunately, the Chronicle won't let you access more than a handful, so I haven't been able to read most of them, but those I have read make me very eager to follow her and check out some of the restaurants she loves.

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I subscribe to the Chronicle and the no-stars thing feels like a cop-out to me. We'll see how long it lasts.

Every review is a judgment made by the author regardless of the metrics used in the assessment, and "we're not using stars" is kind of ironic given that she's being paid to provide her informed opinion.

You'll probably want to read Corey Lee (Benu) on IG:  

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1 hour ago, TrelayneNYC said:

I subscribe to the Chronicle and the no-stars thing feels like a cop-out to me. We'll see how long it lasts.

Every review is a judgment made by the author regardless of the metrics used in the assessment, and "we're not using stars" is kind of ironic given that she's being paid to provide her informed opinion.

Oh, Trelayne, this makes me sad coming from you.

I could have made a big splash in the restaurant world fifteen-years ago by assigning stars to restaurants, and having everybody running around, saying this-or-that is a DCDining 3-star restaurant, but I decided that I had to live with myself, and being true to my beliefs is more urgent than elbowing my way into bogus notoriety.

Today, literally today, I was walking around the Hall of Presidents in the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, walking through time, seeing portraits of each of our 44 Presidents. Some, I liked more than others - some, I liked a lot more than others, but never did I walk around, pointing, saying, "Taft is an 86, Wilson is a 91, Clinton is a 73, Kennedy is a 94" etc. That's about how much sense assigning numerical ratings or stars to non-quantifiable entities such as restaurants makes.

Countdown to a Supernova

Aria Trattoria

Trummers on Main

For some remembrances: Criticizing the Critics

And in case you're bored: DonRocks' Greatest Hits

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18 hours ago, TrelayneNYC said:

I do like her writing style and a couple of her spotlights are on our list.

Still disagree with her on the stars though.

Her opinion of Chez Panisse is spot on. Alice Waters was running a coffee house until Jeremiah Tower came to town. Of course, she plagiarized everything he did, but somehow that fact has been lost to time...

  • Haha 1
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