If You Can’t Stand the Heat, Get Out of the…Well, You Know…

A Welsh court has heard evidence that the chef of the River Cafe, Brecon Beacons, “snapped” after hearing influential restaurant critic A. A. Gill refer to the food he was served as “disgusting.” Charlie McCubbin then assaulted an employee. Mr. McCubbin told the court he subsequently apologized and the employee, Keith McVaigh, said he did not want to press charges. Mr. McCubbin’s attorney defended his client’s actions by explaining that in addition to the high stress of preparing food, the chef had to deal with the knowledge that Mr. Gill was in the restaurant. Mr. Gill is known for his rather ascerbic comments concerning eating establishments, such as this one for an unlikely dining spot.

It’s like eating a home-economics history project, a National Trust re-creation. This restoration or reconstruction of both building and menu is a mule born gelded, a sterile exercise that bears nothing, fires blanks, leads to nothing but more of the past. It’s an exercise in sentimental hindsight. To remake the past, either as a carpet or a pie, is not to relive its glory, it’s to deny the present its moment. There is no vivacity here. No optimism. No elan or panache. No fecundity. This food is just a passing regret, the taste of loss in an edible museum.

More here  on the McCubbin court appearance from The Independent.