A book-length quest to understand the 21st century's international
gastronomic revolution.It's characteristic of London Observer
restaurant critic and occasional novelist of some wit Rayner (The
Oyster House Siege, 2007, etc.) that he can find fault even with
the agreeable task of eating his way toward the world's perfect
meal. On the one hand, his job allows him to sit in restaurants
"eating extraordinary food and having Dom Perignon squeezed into my
mouth from a South Seas sponge." On the other, he rubs shoulders
with wealthy Michelin-star worshippers: "self-satisfied,
self-abusing, arguments for involuntary euthanasia." The
combination of zest for glorious gastronomic abundance and the
nagging sensation that he's propping up a corrupt system of
gilded-age excess gives Rayner's book a real-world frisson that
rarely finds its way into food writing. Giving readers the grand
tour without forgetting how much everything costs, he jets to
modern foodie capitals from the expected (Paris and New York) to
the surprising but appropriate (Dubai and Las Vegas). Though the
author is hardly above hobnobbing with star chefs like Joel
Robuchon and cover-blurb-providing Mario Batali, he's not afraid to
stick it to those he considers not up to the task; Gordon Ramsay,
who blurbed earlier Rayner books, gets a good dressing down in this
one. A sharp-tongued hacker and slasher of food and chefs he
doesn't care for, such as Moscow's kitschy, obscenely expensive and
underwhelming Cafe Pushkin, Rayner is a besotted devotee when he
finds something he loves. At the heavenly Okei-Sushi restaurant in
Tokyo, the tab was $475, "the most I had ever paid for a single
meal, though in my state of rapture, it seemed irrelevant." Readers
will be delighted to participate vicariously in the globetrotting
feast of an inquisitive glutton who remembers that somebody has to
pay for it all. (Kirkus Reviews)
"A hilarious and insightful journey into the world of restaurant
meals."--Mario Batali
"Nobody goes to restaurants for nutritional reasons. They go for
the experience. And what price a really top experience?"
What price indeed? Fearlessly, and with great wit and verve,
award-winning restaurant critic Jay Rayner goes in search of the
perfect meal. From the Tokyo sushi chef who offers a toast of
snake-infused liquor to close a spectacular meal, to Joel Robuchon
in Las Vegas where Robuchon himself eagerly watches his guest's
every mouthful, to seven three-star Michelin restaurants in seven
days in Paris, Rayner conducts a whirlwind tour of high-end
gastronomy that will thrill the heart--and stomach--of any armchair
gourmand. Along the way, he uses his entree into the restaurant
world to probe the larger issues behind the globalization of
dinner.
Riotously funny and shrewdly observed, "The Man Who Ate the
World" is a fascinating look at the business and pleasure of fine
dining.
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