28 June,2011 08:35 AM IST | | Amrita Bose
If you love food just like I do and love writing about it, you would be more than happy to volunteer for writing food reviews as and when you are asked to, after all what can be more exciting than having a job that requires you to eat at the best of places and get to give your opinion too. But a food reviewer's job sometimes tends not to be as smooth and descriptive as adjectives such as sumptuous, flavoursome, succulent and juicy that most food writers love to use and instead leaves a bad taste in the mouth just as overuse of these adjectives make a review boring.
Sometimes, a food reviewer's job tends not be a smooth ride and leaves a bad taste in the mouth
Firstly doing a review three to four times a month is fine, after all you end up eating out more than that number in a month anyways. But when you have to do minimum three sometimes four reviews a week if you count in the odd food festival celebrating mushrooms or that tasting menu done at a wine dinner, then what happens to the intrepid food reviewer in you? The fine art of dining out suddenly starts turning into food filled orgy in a not-so pleasant way. Where once you would look forward to tasting the steaming bowl of Vietnamese Pho or the Chilli infused chocolate mousse, eating out suddenly gets reduced to "Oh no, I have to eat out again today!" Hardly have you digested one meal overnight than you have to get ready for another tasting experience.
While the stand alone restaurant experiences are still manageable, it is usually the over-the-top buffet lunches and dinners that tend to take their toll. A food reviewer sometimes just can't avoid not eating through a buffet spread. Sifting your way through a pile of greasy, heavy duty and sometimes stale curries, rice and starters can make even the most enthusiastic epicure to baulk.
And heaven forbid if you happen to be in the company of an over enthusiastic public relations person when you happen to do a review by invite.
The said person might refuse to leave your table while you dine and will subtly decide everything from what you should order to matching every bite with you to even stare at you with a beatific smile while you tuck into your meal as if he or she were the creator of the exotic pumpkin risotto and not the chefs toiling over the kitchen fires in the pantry.
But rest assured not everyone is like this, some do leave you alone, while they keep an eagle eye on you from the next table. But the irritants between you and your next meal as a food reviewer hardly add up to anything once you take in the pleasures of a beautifully cooked meal.u00a0
