Structure and Spirit of the Club

Three friends got together and resolved to having at least twelve notable meals in 2016. Once a month, they decided, they would blow an unreasonable amount of money to eat what the Michelin guide had determined worthy of dedicating one of the finite number of meals we are gifted with in our lifetime.

Who are you?

J and B are a couple. M is a single. J and M met each other in a cooking club over ten years ago, and B married into the ecosystem. M has some professional food experience from the business side, while J is the most dedicated and experimental cook of the group. B is, in his adulthood, making up for formative years subject to what he calls “Irish home cooking.”

Why Michelin?

New Yorkers all, the three friends are as devoted to the city as any Yankees fan or subway poet. They recognize the arbitrary nature of lists in general and food criticism in specific. So why not adhere to local arbitrariness, like The Times, or New York Magazine, or the Village Voice? The Michelin Guide in particular has been dismissed as insultingly out-of-touch and irrelevant, with unforgivable omissions and an eye for the tourist consumer as opposed to the local one.

The idea was M’s, who is the kind of francophile who doesn’t like being called one, and who didn’t think very hard about it. But if she were to oversell the logic behind the decision, it would be that a foreign perspective allows for some surprises, Old World values provide rigor to New World freewheeling, and the New York food world–chefs, managers, critics, bloggers, and the like–often reveal the dark side of a clamoring echo chamber, where tastes and opinions are nearly bullied into agreement by our city’s endearing snark and contempt. If there’s one virtue to having Michelin reviewers be completely anonymous, it’s that we rest easy in accounting for any ego-driven objective or industry politics and we can disagree with them without consequence.

Inside baseball aside, though, it’s just a list. And lists are easy to follow. So we picked a list.

Where are the photos?

We’re judicious here. Mostly because we’re not picture people who memorialize our special moments in film. M would like to change this about herself somehow without inconveniencing her eating habits, while J and B have demonstrated no particular initiative in that direction. Philosophically, however, pictures aren’t a priority, and the Michelin Guide (allegedly) does not account for ambiance or service in their reviews; after all, the love of food is mostly–by some overwhelming percentage–developed through flavors. The Instagramming of food has contributed to the evolution of fine dining in a way that is almost completely indifferent to flavors in favor of presentation. While visuals can’t be dismissed and is an exciting part of the dining experience, it is not a precise expression of the cooking. Case in point: a pot of delicious chili is desperately un-photogenic. Words, inadequate as they may be, will have to do here.

Who is 4?

4 is our 4th person to complete our four-top. A rotating seat by invitation only, we look to include another New Yorker (or visitor) in breaking bread, our favorite way of developing community and relationships.

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