What could be better than learning to skilfully review restaurant experiences?
(I suppose, constant eating out for writing practice!)
This week at Leith’s, the class considered restaurant reviews and how to go about crafting an entertaining and original piece akin to that of Jay Rayner, Marina O’Loughlin or Andy Lynes himself.
The key to getting good at this – practice. And there’s no better time to start practicing than now. Hence our class dove straight into the practical exercise of writing a rough 200-word review of a recent restaurant experience.
By far, the easiest downfall for reviews of this calibre is chronological structure. I heard of this restaurant…keen to visit…we were warmly greeted and quickly seated…from the menu, I ordered…
Indeed, this is a bad habit that comes naturally to most novices but to write better it’s more important to identify a running theme of the experience and use that to weave the piece together. (Some reviews prefer the casual form, but Leith’s focus on high-end writing).
Taking inspiration from New York Times critics, we discussed the legality of restaurant reviews, structure and developing an entertaining tone.
We’re already halfway through the course and I’m pleased to see subtle progress, both in my analysis and the illegible scribbles some would call writing.
Rather than ‘teach’ in the rigid and hierarchical sense, I find Andy’s method particularly helpful and approachable – imparting wisdom through conversation and interactive discussion.
Wrapping up with further analysis of esteemed food writers, we were left with considerable food for thought (pun very much intended!)
Until next week,
Zenia x
The Culinary Carousel 