Rebuttals: Jean-Georges Responds to Bruni Takedown

Just a few days after restaurant critic Frank Bruni ran his takedown of Jean-Georges Vongerichten's five year-old Spice Market, stripping the MePa eatery of two of its stars, JGV gets on the blog to respond. He's polite—"Bruni offered some insightful comments about his visits, and the feedback is always appreciated"—and contrite—"I’ve already begun to work on improving every aspect of Spice Market"—but defends the honor of his restaurant's food and his reputation as a "profit-hungry entrepreneur." Jean-Georges' defense:

"I’m sorry that Bruni and his guests didn’t have a better time, but I make no apologies for opening Spice Market or any of my other restaurants. Like each one, Spice Market was conceived of and built as a stand-alone restaurant. In fact, it was a deeply personal project: I spent years cooking in Asia and ate at the fantastic open-air markets every night after work.

I simply wanted to share those delicious dishes with fellow New Yorkers. When the Starwood Hotel group approached me about opening Spice Markets in their hotels around the world, I was happy to have the opportunity to share those dishes with diners in other cities

The food at Spice Market is excellent—and I intend to keep making it better and better. Besides, I can personally attest to the fact that there’s no better place to eat well and have a great time. After all, it’s where Marja and I got married!"

This isn't the first time (and it probably won't be the last) that JGV has gotten on the blog to defend his projects against a critic. Just last August, he had to load up his Blogger account to tell off Adam Platt for his "misunderstanding" of soba palace Matsugen.
· Spice Market [Jean-Georges Vongerichten]
· Jean-Georges' Rebuttal: Platt Just Doesn't Get it [~E~]

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