In recent weeks, questions have been raised about the ethics of food media in Australia, in particular in The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age Good Food Guides , for which I write, and this masthead publishes. Most of this is due to the publication of Melbourne chef Ben Shewry’s memoir Uses for Obsession , his publicity interviews and public appearances and an Instagram post. Shewry asserts that restaurant criticism is unethical and contributes to intense pressure on the restaurant industry, and that it’s a broken system conducted by inexperienced reviewers.
It is, without doubt, self-serving for me to stand up in defence of restaurant criticism. But in the face of the current conversation and backlash against my profession, it feels cowardly to stay silent. Criticism is my life’s work, the thing I’ve spent decades pondering, the medium through which I examine the places I live and the culture by which those places are defined.
It’s not a perfect art – it may not be an art at all – but it’s also not something I take lightly. First, let me acknowledge that there is plenty to criticise when it comes to media – more widely, as well as in the realm of restaurant coverage. No industry or publication is perfect.
No scoring system is unimpeachable. Shewry has tapped into a well of sentiment from an industry that feels maligned by forces over which it has no control. I have no desire to go to war with Ben.
I have long admired his Ripponlea restaurant, both privatel.