Wednesday, 04 February 2009
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John Lethlean leaves The Age
... for The Australian???
In his restaurant gossip column Espresso, inside Tuesday food supplement Epicure of 23 Dec 2008, John ends with the below:A parting word of thanks
ON A personal note, this is my last Espresso column for Epicure after nearly 11 years of attempting to bring readers an insight into the restaurant scene of Victoria and abroad.
Indeed, this week's review of Mirka is my last for The Age too. It has been a privilege to work for Epicure over that time.
Thank you for reading.
According to 1001 Dinners, he was escorted out of the building, and Necia Wilden, his co-editor for the Good Food Guide 2009 as colleague in Epicure, has also resigned.
Word has it (see Tomatom) that they're both going to The Australian. Hmm...
John Lethlean used to be the reason I subscribed to The Age, but his reviews of late have been weird, to say the least, and the Good Food Guide 2009 was quite frankly a disaster. At first I was still so confident about it that I went (and dragged all my friends with me) to Punch Lane, which was awarded one hat this year. Needless to say it was a total disaster. Now, it would be unfair to judge on this event alone, but I'm not the only one who's noticed the drop in the quality of the once-great JL's reviews, many a loyal reader within my circle of friends have felt the same way too. (Okay, so it's not the fairest sample, but what can I do - conduct a survey and write a thesis?)
In any case, I'll be interested to see how it pans out. Good luck to them.
Footnote: the writing in Epicure for Espresso and restaurant reviews suck at the moment, but there's always hope for one to improve their writing skills. Let's just hope integrity holds (or exists in the first place). We shall see...
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Comments (4)
Epicure is the only thing I look forward to on Tuesday mornings.
I also agree with you in that the Good Food Guide 2009 was a bit of a shocker. Some of the places that got given two hats were where I'd experienced sub-standard food and appalling service. I don't think that JL wrote the guide on his own though, a panel of reviewers did the hard yards too. Having said that though, yes, I agree, his last few reviews weren't lacking... like he just couldn't be bothered.
I read Larissa Dubecki's first review in Epicure this week. She's got a fresh and more youthful approach and while she's no JL, I'll nevertheless keep tuning in.
Probably a bit late, but I think the problem doesn't lie with John Lethlean personally, but more with the whole team and the way they review food. I've had some great and also mediocre experiences at the Hatted restaurants in Melbourne. However, when I dine at Sydney hatted restaurants according to the Sydney Good Food Guide, the same inconsistency also applies.
Even the Melb and Sydney Coffee guides weren't completely accurate vs my multiple visits to the same shops.
And Stephen Downes from Herald Sun definitely is biased towards certain restaurants, although still 'relatable' somehow.
Do you post on Openrice btw? I got to this blog via some forum!
Hey guys, I dunno - The GFG for Melb was one thing I used to trust, like 100% (except the Chinese restos), and I used to be a die-hard fan of Lethlean, and always wondered why he wasn't editor for the GFG - then he was, and the guide failed me for the 1st time. But anyway, guess I've learnt not to be overtrusting of guides, they are subjective after all.
@LeVelouteGants - I used to post on Openrice, but very rarely do nowadays - I find the community a bit 'different' and probably too varied for me - kind of like how the reviews on Tripadvisor aren't always reliable. It's an excellent database of restaurants though!
Cool, good to hear!
I guess on Openrice, they really need someone like you to contribute : ) I can visualise exactly why you feel that the community there might be a bit different, but I've since found a couple of people who are like minded and also very educated in food!
Great blog by the way! I don't even write mine at all anymore! But I do post on Openrice.