Because I am never one to let a good idea die, here I am, back again with another installment of the best of our 1st Annual Cafe Society Poll about Food and Chefs and Stuff. What do you mean you've never heard of the 1st Annual CSPAFCS? What, do you live under a rock? Did you just get wifi in your cave this morning?
The 1st Annual CSPAFCS was my brilliant, heartfelt, eleventh hour rip-off of grubstreet.com's 2009 Grub Report -- a very, very Denver version of its poll of national foodies to determine the state of our gastronomical union. Grub Street's version annoyed me, so I made up my own. And ever since, I've been sharing some of the best responses I've gotten and, in a shameless attempt to keep the 1st Annual CSPAFCS on the virtual map, begging you good people to keep the comment thread going with your genius (and occasionally harebrained) notions about the Denver food scene.
Today's best answer? I've got two of them, both to the same question. Namely, which Big Time Denver chef do you kinda just want to punch right in the face?
Commenter Kat chimed in first with this gem:
I'm sorry Teri Rippeto, but your menu is one of the most obnoxious I've ever seen. I really don't care if you are using produce from Organically Organic Carbon-Based Farms on that Locally Harvested fish dish. I actually don't need to know who grew your garlic.
And then, a little bit later, Ian came back with this:
The next butthole who blames his failing restaurant on Denver eaters for "not getting it".
Both were excellent answers, both speaking to different sides of the debate over where cuisine will be going in the future. Kat is pissed at Rippeto because she represents the very green and very proud vanguard -- chefs for whom the pedigree of the mushroom is almost as important as the mushroom itself. And Ian has his undies in a bunch over the vanguard itself: all those chefs who, in trying to push the envelope a little, have run up against the interminable and inarguable ignorance of the common diner. Most people out there want to eat at Olive Garden most of the time. And that, rightly, pisses us gastronauts off like crazy. But one can not blame the people. One must cater to the people, no matter how much one might sometimes want to fill their souffles with ground glass, walk out the kitchen door and just never look back.
Tomorrow, I'll be back with another selection from the 1st Annual CSPAFCS. Until then, click back through to the original blog and join the conversation. We've got some great answers already, and I'd love to see more.
