Following on from our story about Giles Coren's visit to East London restaurant The Frog this week, and subsequent social media fail, Twitter continued to debate the topic. It was all kicked off by a question from fellow restaurant critic - the Observer's Jay Rayner who asked:
Re the @gilescoren thing. Isn't there something weird and wrong about a chef working on his laptop in his own dining room during service?
— Jay Rayner (@jayrayner1) September 27, 2017
In the main, not unsurprisingly, chefs weighed in giving their support to Handling
I sit in the restaurant often, I don't have an office and even if I did, I wouldn't know what was going on if I was hidden away.
— James Allcock (@jrmallcock) September 28, 2017
I don't think so at all, probably better than him being tucked away in an office unaware of anything going on in the restaurant.
— calum franklin (@chefcalum) September 27, 2017
When I worked on the WastED project. Dan Barber quite often sat in restaurant near pass on laptop
— Adam Tucker (@tweetertucker) September 27, 2017
Far from it. Too few chefs sit FOH and see how customers react to their food & eat it as a customer would and not just a bite on the pass
— The Gallivant (@thegallivant) September 28, 2017
The New York Times critic Pete Wells was generally behind it, with one proviso:
Chefs should eat in their restaurants. Often. Working on a laptop is weird unless the message is that it's OK for everybody.
— Pete Wells (@pete_wells) September 27, 2017
But paying customers weren't so forgiving.
Yeah because when I pay for hospitality what I want is the owner to sit there ignoring me doing more important stuff
— Melissa (@MelissaFoodie) September 28, 2017
That's exactly what I feel- I think @gilescoren should have stuck to his first impression. Total atmosphere killer and unprofessional!
— Claire Robinson (@ClaireRob74) September 28, 2017
Very! It's so offputting to know they are a table away... are they spying on us? Use a office 👌
— theoxfordblogger (@oxfordblogger) September 27, 2017
However, not all diners agreed:
Not at all! Too rare an occasion that a chef gets to experience FoH as a customer. Smart man.
— Kate Stinchcombe (@katestinchcombe) September 27, 2017
We'll leave the last word on this to the chef in question
I was just checking the food was still good and doing some emails as iv been neglecting them. When ever a spare second really.
— Adam Handling (@AdamHandling) September 27, 2017
