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Times Critic Flushes Romera's $245 "Neuro-Gastronomy" Sludge
By
Garth Johnston
Published Jan 18, 2012
Modified Jan 18, 2012
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By
Garth Johnston
Published Jan 18, 2012
Modified Jan 18, 2012
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The Times is not done kicking around "neuro-gastronomy" restaurant Romera! First, former food critic Frank Bruni took to the paper of record's op-ed pages to say the Spanish doctor's joint suffers from "food psychosis," and now the paper's new critic, Pete Wells, has filed his own one-star dig at the spot. And? "To eat at Romera New York is to be told repeatedly that you are in the presence of greatness, while the evidence of your senses tells you that you are in the presence of, at best, okayness."
Yup, poor neurologist-turned-chef Miguel Sánchez Romera ("I am a doctor who cooks, not a cook who doctors food.") has not had a good run with the Grey Lady. Of course, it doesn't help that the man who created "gastronomic waters" also serves two dishes that "come on plates in which powdered spices or vegetables have been applied in a tight geometric grid; these are called Romerian mosaics." And the digs into the very expensive ($245 for a full tasting menu) don't stop there:
As a place charging this kind of money must, apparently, Romera New York arms its tasting menu with caviar, foie gras and truffles. I’d gladly have traded all of them for carrots and beets that tasted like carrots and beets, instead of the washed-out facsimiles that appeared with one of the Romerian mosaics. The same dish featured raw spinach coated in a yellowish goop of cassava and a slowly creeping sludge of lukewarm vegetable broth.
I never finished that dish, not once in three attempts. There was one night when nearly everything was tepid and much of it went back to the kitchen only half eaten. Nobody seemed to care or even notice. The show was in progress, and it wasn’t going to be stopped by the reactions of mere customers.
Mmm, nothing like yellowish goop with slowly creeping sludge to push a person to make a reservation! The Dream Hotel, where the Romera rests, must be a nightmare today.
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miguel sanchez romera
neurogastronomy
pete wells
romera
Garth Johnston
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