Something For The Weekend #Lucky13

Chef’s Table loses its luster. Reeling from the 2025 Michelin Guide Dubai. Some stonking good Substack reads. I’m off to Veneto!

Lake Garda, October 2022, taken with a drone by me.

Chef’s Table is PR catnip of the highest order, spotlighting chefs worldwide. I waited for each season with bated breath, but my interest waned as the series eked into niches like pizza and somewhere called France.

I hoped Chef’s Table Legends would win me over by luring Jamie Oliver, José Andrés, Thomas Keller and Alice Waters into its stables. Unfortunately, I found the series vapid and, at times, veering towards propaganda.

The most intriguing stories are those that turn a rock over or steel themselves to tell a difficult tale. With the former, those Chef’s Table episodes that spotlighted largely unknown chefs (for the time) in the world’s far-flung corners felt revelatory, amplified be the production team’s cinematography.

I am talking about Slovenia’s Ana Roš in 2016 or the esoteric work of Jeong Kwan in 2017, a Seon, South Korean monk. Most people knew nothing about these talented ladies or their stories.

Now, the show’s de rigueur format feels stayed and, frankly, contrived. There is already a carousel of “aren’t they great?” profiles from Chef’s Table to Somebody Feed Phil to a glut of influencer content. Such programmes rarely veer into territory that dings their subject’s halo.

Arguably, the best programme presents the protagonists' fallibility, presenting a composite picture allowing the viewer to decide. Here is what Legends could have been.

Dabiz Muñoz in UniverXo repeatedly invited us into the (seemingly) private therapy sessions between one of the world’s most accomplished chefs and his psychiatrist. Dabiz unpacks the pressures of, well, being Dabiz. He doles out a candid bollocking to his brigade. He openly speculates about packing it all in before Netflix’s roughly 94 million active viewers—and, yes, he peppers all this between the expected, self-promoting “have you seen my restaurants?”, check out my famous chef friends and a sparkling, ‘new’ Dubai opening.

Martha is a far braver docuseries and standard bearer that puts protagonist Martha Stewart and her divisive brand front and centre. Frankly, I walked away respecting her more. Once America’s Darling, she owned her indecorous moments: extra-marital affairs, her criminal conviction and her ferocious intolerance for the substandard. I sniggered at her sharp words about blending her prosecutors, all while reminding us that she was America’s first female self-made billionaire by showing housewives how to arrange flowers and roast chickens.

Now, I’m sure both Martha and UniverXo were curated at the mercy of their namesakes. Still, each presents a holistic, not entirely flattering image of their subjects, unlike the sycophantic Chef’s Table. Martha Stewart’s unwavering convictions are, arguably, why, for good or for bad, she is who she is, and a central tenet of her public discourse. It would be disingenuous to conceal it, and the show would lose credibility without it.

So often, that’s the thing with legendary people: there is more to them than meets the eye. Stratospheric success is neither a straight line nor without failure. Legends dropped the ball and came across as a thinly-veiled, PR-studded romp masquerading as a documentary.

What didn’t we hear?

In the case of Thomas Keller, there was no mention of Bouchon’s practical collapse in the US and abroad. A French Laundry pop-up in London was publicly flogged as "tone-deaf”. Per Se was clubbed from four stars to two by Pete Wells in The New York Times, described as “a dwindling pleasure” that was “stale, stuffy and out of touch”—not to mention the health inspection violations that year. Then there are the lawsuits: a class action violating NY labour laws for improper service charge distribution (settled out of court) and a sexual discrimination lawsuit (successfully defended). We don’t need a hatchet job, but his hurdles make his text a little richer.

The Alice Waters’ episode presents her as America’s ground zero for goat’s cheese and seasonal eating; a person for whom Anthony Bourdain once said,

“…annoys the living shit out of me. I just don’t have the time or the money to get behind her vision of utopia”.

It dithered around Chef Jeremiah Tower’s tenure at (and exit from) Chez Panisse. I wanted to hear more about that. Jeremiah (and others) pointedly accuse Alice Waters of curating a self-aggrandising mythology. Samin Nosrat, author and Chez Panisse alumni, is wheeled into Legends to seemingly give testimony about the relationship between Waters and Towers, which would be fascinating and persuasive if it wasn’t complete and total hearsay as Towers left Chez Panisse some 22 years before Nosrat joined and—laughably—one year before Nosrat was even born. There is likely a more interesting story to tell, which Legends left on the shelf and out of sight.

Notably absent was José Andrés's mention of the murder of the World Central Kitchen staff in Gaza (let’s call a spade a spade). To his credit, Jamie Oliver spent some time on his beleaguered business history as a parallel to his altruism and campaigns to purge a scourge of Turkey Twizzlers and more.

I admit that not all programming must be hard-hitting and investigative and Chef’s Table is decidedly light-touch. Broadwalk Productions, the producers of Chef’s Table, may have swallowed certain conditions to get Keller, Waters and others onboard—or get their PRs and lawyers to sign off.

Chef’s Table and Legends are plainly the one-sided, top-shelf, glossy, mass market, Netflix-stamped, public lily-gilding and fluffing of a set of careers. History is written by the winners, and Chef’s Table presents the opportunity for these chefs to write their history, the one they want to tell, with passing, blushing glances towards selected blemishes under the guise of balance.

Until then, give me Martha.

---

History was made. Tears were shed.

This writing lark prides itself, partly, on being a stoic, arm's-length observer. Ascerbic at times, respected (hopefully), and always being the voice of the paying customer. But, now and then, I am stirred and moved beyond such confines.

michelinguide

A post shared by @michelinguide

Tresind Studio stepped into history to claim a coveted three Michelin stars, as Chef Himanshu Saini—together with Vipin Panwar, Chef Love Gupta and many, many others—accepted a plaque cementing their status as the world’s first three-star Indian restaurant.

Sarah Hedley Hymers

captured the moment perfectly.

hedleyhymers

A post shared by @hedleyhymers

It floored me. Readers know how much this team and restaurant mean to me. I teared up as it happened, hours later with the team after the ceremony and once more in the car the next morning.

A second special person for me is Shiv Menon of BOCA, who won Sommelier of the Year. Shiv has taught me so much about wine and his enthusiasm for the subject is both contagious and admirable. He was in Copenhagen at MAD, so he was not there to pick up his award in person—Shiv!!

bocadubai

A post shared by @bocadubai

---

Eat.

Gerbou. A restaurant, for which many words are written, that offers a modern perspective on Emirati cuisine, dividing the dining community. Some love it, some are less charitable. Gerbou was one to watch for me in 2024, but it only opened this year. I headed out for breakfast with another couple and their son, who is of a similar age to Rufus. It’s an audacious structure, purpose-built from the ground up and designed with those tell-tale finger prints of a certain Panchali Mahendra. My masala dosa was crisp and politely spiced. Rufus was placated with a sheet of flaky paratha. Mrs EatGoSee settled into a bowl of Turkish eggs stained red and ochre with a whomp of chilli oil and a balm of spiced yoghurt. A platter of braised eggs with za’atar, spinach and leeks was practically licked clean. Six plates, 11 drinks, four adults and 2 kids for 600 dhs inside an elegant-but-homely dining room warmed with friendly service that tolerates two children who turned it into their playground. One note: the restaurant was otherwise completely empty, and that worried me.

---

Write.

I penned words about Tiff’s Table, a friend’s supper club. More a love letter than a review. Impressively, it’s already one of the most-read pieces this year. Here it is if you missed it, or want to read it again!

I revisited an old friend from the archives: Lido 84. A restaurant that conjures such joy at the mere mention of its name. I will return in mid-June for a special lady’s birthday. Read it here:

---

We are off to Italy!

We head out this week to Piemonte to check on the house and then we are off Veneto for a few days for some R&R in an old villa with my folks.

---

Supporting stats for restaurant reviews?

Should restaurant critics disclose the stats and details of their visit(s) to a restaurant? One subscriber says yes, as she wants to know the time of day, the occasion, and the number of visits. This gives good context not only for the review but also for the circumstances surrounding it.

Nicholas Gill

shared back in March in

New Worlder

that NYT Cooking disclosed similar ‘visitation stats’. Read his coverage here.

---

Where to go from here?

I won’t lie. I enjoyed this extended hiatus from Dubai’s dining hysteria and I wonder whether I want part of it again. There were moments of FOMO, but the deafening PR klaxon and incessant barrage of press releases, emails, chaser emails, chaser chaser emails, the WhatsApp messages (how did you get my number btw?), Instagram direct messages, ignoring my requests to be left alone for months, asking for my address so you can send me things no sane individual wants or needs. I nearly went “full Britney” and shaved my head.

With hindsight, my essays about influencer culture stoked my reflections. I started writing to publish the content I wanted to see, and I am revisiting what that means.

This is not a mission statement; it’s a placeholder, as I may switch things up. There are more interesting stories to tell than another write up about some paint-by-numbers pseudo Asian hotspot in Downtown. Tell me more about your raw yellowtail *yawn*. What would you want to see and read. It may help. I always appreciate all the feedback.

---

Great Substack Reads.

• Emma Garland
  ’s witty, incisive read about what is sexually attractive to men vs women through the medium of Olly Murs *shivers*.

• Andy Lynes
  ’ reaction to the UK’s Reform Party and a particular British restaurant critic (well done again, Andy).

• Vittles
  ’ essay on the paradox of restaurant cookbooks, here.

• Leanne Kilroy
  ’ answers life’s mystery: how to keep supermarket basil alive, here.

• Maryam
  for
  Vittles
  explains why WhatsApp voices notes revolutionised recipe documenting for her book, Pakistan, out now—and available here.

  ---

  

  Liam is a restaurant critic, food and travel writer based in the Middle East. He owns EatGoSee and contributes to other publications. You can find Liam on Substack, Threads, Instagram, BlueSky or Facebook.