Letters

I am a head chef in London. I read your articles on the Internet, and it is interesting that you have similar hurdles as we do, with customers only wanting to pay certain prices and chefs moving in to branding their names. Also with the demise of our Michelin star-rated restaurants, we are also going through a skill shortage, and due to the fact that there are so many jobs, it is very difficult to get people to work under the kind of pressure that is required for you to understand and then respect food.

TONY KEENE

Via e-Mail

*

I have fun going to farmers markets and using the produce I find there in my own kitchen. So the food I get at a restaurant has to be better, more inventive and more artfully presented than anything I could make myself. Unfortunately, that means that 80% of restaurants in LA are either not worth going to or are too expensive for what you get.

BIANCA SCHWARZ

Los Angeles

*

As a diner in the Los Angeles area, I wanted to present a few ideas that have made the L.A. dining scene what it is (both bad and good):

Diversity: There are so many excellent ethnic restaurants. They offer great creative influences for everyone, but the price difference is staggering. When I compare what I get for what I pay at those restaurants, it puts many places featured in your round table at a disadvantage.

Wine and Liquor: Wines and liquor in most restaurants in L.A. are rip-offs. Any restaurant owner that is charging a 150% to 300% markup for the privilege of ordering a normal bottle of wine must think his patrons are either too stupid or too apathetic to care.

MICHAEL FRASCHILLA

Via e-mail

*

We love the L.A. restaurant scene as is. Great restaurants for reasonable prices with casual dress the norm. I grew up in New York and hate having to dress up unless I feel like it. We also love the variety of ethnic food available.

As for Piero Selvaggio wondering why it has become fashionable to bring your own wine: We do it all the time, for several reasons. The first is that we know that the wine we bring is one we know and like and is available. Many times we have gone to a restaurant that didn’t have the wine we picked from the menu. The second reason is that we hate to pay double and usually triple markups for wine. If we bring a really nice bottle of wine, even with the corkage fee it works out cheaper than buying the same wine off the menu. We don’t mind spending money to eat out, but we hate to get robbed.

JANET AND JOHN CAREY

Via e-mail

*

There needs to be more positive reinforcement in the media when talking about the food in this city. The critics The Times uses are incompetent. This is unfair to the readers. Not to mention almost disrespectful and patronizing to a lot of professional and amateur chefs. You should use different chefs (from the Who’s Who to the up-and-comings to housewives and students) to venture out and write columns of their own. And then you would have a totally new perspective on the way food is being incorporated into the lives of the public in general.

NICOLE DUNKLE

Via e-mail

*

Don’t be intimidated by Wolfgang Puck’s comment that “if the Los Angeles Times doesn’t go out and say that we have better restaurants than they do in Chicago or San Francisco, how is anybody else going to believe it?” Mr. Puck seems to be under the impression that the Times should function as a local business advocate rather than a newspaper. Perhaps the sports section, to show its hometown support, should report that the Dodgers are the best team in the National League. Chicago and San Francisco do have better restaurants, as do New York, New Orleans and soon, if not yet, Las Vegas.

JON HAYMAN

Santa Monica

*

I work at one of the restaurants from your round table article, and I definitely agree with everything that was said by the chefs. The hard part of being a cook in a restaurant is the money. The thing I have wanted to do my whole life is to be a chef. You’re in a kitchen throwing things together like an alchemist and serving it to the people and they love it. It’s instant gratification.

But the industry is showing early signs of self-destruction. The infrastructure is falling apart. The waiters don’t care about the food because they are more concerned about their next audition at Paramount. The heart of the kitchen--the young cook--isn’t getting paid enough. I’m not talking about getting paid $50,000 a year, I’m talking about enough to live comfortably. If you write another article, ask those top chefs to send you their top line cooks instead.

ARI ROSENSON

Via e-mail

*

For all the money spent to open a restaurant, why is there no consideration of the acoustics of the room? I don’t think it’s fun to have to yell at my wife just to carry on a conversation. The food is usually superb, that’s not in question, it’s just that the wonderfully eclectic appetizers, fine for the martini bar crowd, don’t seem to bear any flavors or textures in common with the entrees.

With the notable exception of Piero Selvaggio’s Valentino, 90% of the wine lists in this town are too young to drink or too ridiculously priced. We bring our own wine out of self defense. Knowing that we have drinking and driving concerns, why don’t you offer more wines by the glass?

Perhaps, more than anything else, the wait staff doesn’t seem to eat at the same restaurant that they work in. They read or recite the list of the evening, but when questioned as to flavors or wine direction, they don’t ever seem very sure of themselves. Is anyone training them to serve us?

Yes, we’ve eaten at Taillevent in Paris, but we’ve paid more here in L.A. for less.

JEFF MCGRATH

Via e-Mail