Anthony Bourdain Reheated

The critic Alan Richman once gave Anthony Bourdain’s alma mater restaurant, Brasserie Les Halles, which was in New York’s Midtown, a shoddy review. Richman likened the house terrine to “truck-stop cuisine” – before declaring it somehow superior to the crab cake that came next. He blithely dismissed one side dish as “the so-called” truffled potatoes and the best thing he could say about the crêpes suzette was that, well, at least they were cooked “earnestly”. The service was bad, and Bourdain’s status as the de facto face of the New York restaurant scene was risible, Richman made sure to add.